JESUS and His Finished Righteousness

"An anchor of the soul." -Hebrews 6:19 [KJV] 

In the opening of a new month, look, my soul, at thine anchor! Surely it is good and profitable for thee to see thy safety, that thou mayest ride out all the storms which arise, and never make "shipwreck of faith and a good conscience." And what is thine anchor? Nay, who, or what can it be, but Jesus, and His finished righteousness? He hath accomplished redemption by His blood, and hath entered within the veil to prove its all-sufficiency. On Him, then, thou hast cast anchor; indeed, He is Himself the anchor of all thine hopes, and the rock of ages, on which thou restest thine eternal security, "both sure and stedfast."  

True, it is unseen; and, like the sailor's anchor, thrown out into the deep. But, though unseen, it is not unenjoyed: for concerning Him, Who is the anchor of the soul, it is the blessed privilege of faith to say, "Whom having not seen, we love: and in Whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls." But the anchor of this world's mariner, and that of the spiritual navigator, differ most widely. His anchor is thrown forth at an uncertainty: it may break; it may find no anchorage; the cable may give way; the ship may drive; and one anchor after another be lost, and the vessel, after all, founder. Not so with Him, whose hope and anchor of the soul is the Lord Jesus: "He is a rock; His work is perfect." His salvation is founded in the everlasting counsel, purpose, will, and good pleasure, of God our Father; it is secured in the perfect obedience, righteousness, blood-shedding, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ: and the soul who rests on this anchor of hope alone for redemption, bath been brought savingly acquainted with the Father's love and the Son's grace, through the blessed teaching, power, and application of God the Holy Ghost.  

My soul! is this thine anchor? Hast thou this glorious security, entered within the veil for thee; unseen, indeed, but not unknown; undeserved, but not unenjoyed? Oh! what unspeakable mercies are unceasingly arising out of this divine, this rapturous hope, to support my weather-beaten soul! Surely, precious Jesus! I may well look up to Thee, in the opening and close of every day, and every month, as the anchor of my soul, both sure and stedfast: for Thou hast been to me, and Thou wilt still be, until I get into the haven of everlasting rest, what Thou hast been to all Thy redeemed; "a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall" Isaiah 25:4. 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)   

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