The writer puts it even more firmly ‘We are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation.’ The word ‘accompany’ is very interesting. It is hard to think of any better translation, but in the Greek it actually comes from the verb, ‘to have, to hold’. These are strong evidences, traits of character and behaviour which cling to or are inevitably joined to salvation. If you do not have these, you cannot be saved. A person who is saved who is truly converted comes with this package firmly attached, comes with certain characteristics of life, humility and kindness. If you find a spiteful person who is a consistently spiteful, that person cannot possibly be a converted person, because there will always be a certain meekness and servant spirit, humility and teachability; these things come with salvation and they are attached to it and cling to it.
We too may reason in the same way. Without boasting or resting our hope on what we have done, we may see genuine acts of love that have come from us, which we know would have been impossible in our pre-conversion state. They are evidence that God has changed us and we are entitled to draw encouragement from them.
‘Things that accompany salvation.’ You can understand this in two different ways. You can understand the writer to be saying either, we know that you have received the first part of salvation, that is to say conversion. You have come to Christ – you have received new life; you have been transformed, justified and united with him – and because we see various works of faith coming out of your life, we can be sure of it. So the first sense is: we are persuaded better things of you and things that are related to the work of conversion – salvation, in that sense. Or it could be read quite differently and many historically have gone for this other sense. In fact in the 17th century it was the prevailing view. ‘But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that are near to your final salvation.’ Now the New Testament, and this letter to the Hebrews, uses the word salvation in both senses in different places. It sometimes indicates your conversion, and it sometimes indicates the complete transformation as you are ushered into eternity: your final salvation. The main argument for this second view is verse 8, where the writer speaks of lost people in terms of his parable: ‘That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh [or near] unto cursing.’ The lost who are rejected, while they are living in this world, are so near to final death, whereas verse 9: You are saved and therefore you exhibit works which show that you are near to blessing and final salvation. So the nearness appears in both verses, and suggests a great comparison. But whichever way you go, the writer is talking about things which are closely related to salvation, whether final or initial conversion.