Better Things

Hebrews 6:9 contains a note of confidence that must have been a welcome relief to the first readers of this great epistle. “We are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation.” Knowing of another’s confidence can be a powerful motivator – especially when the source of the confidence is someone you respect.

The word translated, “confident,” is used often by the writer of Hebrews and means something like “to attain certainty in reference to something or someone, to be convinced.” When I know someone is “convinced” about me, it motivates me to strive harder.

The idea of “better things” is also worth a comment. “Better” implies that “good” already exists. The word used here is consistently used in the New Testament to describe God, as in “only God is good” or to describe God’s behavior, or even to describe behavior that followers of God can and should do, as in “seek to do good for one another.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

One more note about the verse – and this one has to do with positioning. Hebrews 6:9 follows a paragraph (5:14-6:8) that can be appropriately described as the strongest warning to be found in Scripture about the challenge of “having fallen away.” (6:6) In the terms used by the text, such a moment has the potential of “impossible to renew.” Students of Hebrews have debated since these words were written exactly what they might mean. But regardless of how I read those words – is it really impossible or should these words be read more hypothetically – it seems you have to say they are a serious reminder of how important it is to continue on the journey that began when we “have once been enlightened.” (6:4)

Amazingly, right after such a stern warning, the preacher in the writer of Hebrews jumps to “We are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation.” In other words, the warning seems necessary in the sense that it has to be uttered, but unnecessary in the sense that no one has to be its victim!

Most of us are surrounded by people who occasionally need a warning. Some of us even muster up the courage to hold our family, our friends, our colleagues to some level of accountability. I wonder how much difference it would make if, even when the warning we have to utter is pretty stern, we followed it up with the preacher’s voice of Hebrews and expressed “confidence of better things?”