Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I like the way the ESV puts our Verse of the Day. It says, "We hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who promised is faithful." Again, we hold fast to our confession of hope.
What Is Our Confession of Hope?
Do you know what that means? Do you know what that is? Do you know what our confession of hope is? In many churches, we have confessions. That doesn't mean that we have confessing of sin, though we do. Our confessions are our statements of what we believe to be true according to God's Word. They are our doctrinal statements, if you will.
What is our confession of hope? What do we as Christians believe about the roots of our hope? We could state the Gospel, a confession of hope. My confession of hope is that Jesus came, that He lived, that He suffered, that He died, that He rose from the dead in the place of sinners like you and me, so that sinners like you and me could be reconciled to God. I have no hope if that's not true. You have no hope if that's not true. But it is true, and so that is our confession of hope.
Hold Tightly to That Confession
The author of Hebrews here tells us to hold tightly to that confession of hope. That means to embrace without letting go. Whatever else I believe, because there's a lot of things that I believe. There's a lot of things that you believe. Out of all the things that you believe, here's the point. What you believe about your hope, what you believe about who Jesus is and what He has done, that is what you must hold most tightly to.
Sinclair Ferguson wrote, "Our hope is not a vague optimism. It is a confession, a declaration of specific historical facts. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. To hold fast the confession of our hope means to continually build our lives on these non-negotiable, objective realities of the gospel, not on our subjective feelings or experiences."
The author is saying, know what your confession of hope is, what you believe about Jesus, and hold fast without wavering to it.
He Who Promised Is Faithful
There's one more part of the verse. Why? What is the argument or the reason the author gives us to hold fast to that confession of hope without wavering? What is his answer? He who promised is faithful. God is faithful. We can hold so tightly to this confession of hope, because if anything is true, this is true. Our God is trustworthy.
How often do you consider your confession of hope? Would you consider it? Would you consider it deeply, today?