This epistle is written to Christian Jews who had been suffering for their faith. The purpose of the letter is to encourage them and to warn them to not “drift away” from the gospel, to not give up (as their fathers had in the wilderness and who, as a result of unbelief, could not enter into their Canaan rest), lest they “become weary and discouraged in your souls” (12:3). After all, it wasn’t that bad; they had not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (12:4). Their suffering was merely chastening from the Lord because he loved them (12:5-6). Therefore, the exhortation is to “strengthen the hands that hang down…” (12:12).
We’re shocked at some things going on in our society - abortion, same sex marriage, the sex education curriculum in schools, legalized euthanasia etc. What’s more shocking is the number of professing Christians who don't live like Christians. They have no fear of God before their eyes. They give up the things they once confessed to be true. There’s no outward difference between them and non-Christians. It usually starts with a gradual drifting away, slippage. They stop coming to church, stop socializing with people at church, stop reading the Bible and praying, until eventually there isn't anything to distinguish them from non-Christians. For all intents and purposes they’ve turned their backs on Christ.
Perhaps you haven’t walked away from the Lord Jesus Christ yet, but you’re being tempted to, you’re in danger of it, you’re being drawn away from him for some reason. Perhaps you think turning away from Christ would make life easier for you – not so many restrictions, a lower standard of morality, a wider group of friends, bigger choice of activities. There are all kinds of reasons that Satan suggests to us as to why we should give up Jesus Christ. That’s what was happening to the early Hebrew Christians – they were being tempted to give up their faith, to drift away. The subject of this article is: “Disregarding God’s Salvation.” And the overall lesson we learn in this passage is that we can’t escape the consequences of neglecting so great salvation which was spoken by the Lord.
As I mentioned, this epistle is addressed to Jewish believers but, as with any congregation, they were a mixed company of people. Just as was the case with the Israelites who left Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:38; Hebrews 3:7-4:11) not all of them were believers. The author of this epistle repeats this distinction several times:
1. They hardened their hearts against God and rebelled against him; they tried and tested God despite the evidence of his faithfulness and goodness to them all those wilderness years (3:8-9, 16).
2. God was angry with them such that he declared: “They will not enter my rest” (3:11). Canaan provided physical, temporal rest, but the rest that still remains for believers is spiritual and eternal, into which we must “make every effort” to enter by not turning away from God, by being faithful to the end. Not entering God’s rest (3:18) describes those who were not saved, while entering God’s rest describes those who were saved (4:3). Notice that Israel’s final act of rejection was their refusal to enter Canaan’s rest; instead they rejected God and despised him (Numbers 14:11), and God described them as an “evil community that has conspired against me” (Num. 14:32-35). As a result, God vowed to destroy them and raise up a nation greater and mightier than they (14:12) but, in his grace, he did not do that immediately. Instead, God acceded to Moses’ intercession and chose to wipe them out over time as they died over the course of the next 40 years in the wilderness, sparing those men who were under 20 years old at that time (Numbers 14:29).
3. The warning to not follow their example would lose its impact if all the Israelites had been believers. The point of the warning is that though the Israelites had benefitted from the redeeming grace of God and his marvellous acts, yet they rejected God. The danger was that some of these Hebrews Christians were manifesting the same traits. Hence the warning to “Watch out…” (a) “so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (3:12); (b) “so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception” (3:13); (c) so that “we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (3:14); (d) so that you “do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (3:15).
4. “They were unable to enter because of unbelief” (3:19), whereas “we who have believed enter the rest” (4:3)
Thus, I conclude that, though the Israelites were a community of God’s people, as in the church today not all of them were people of faith; some died in the wilderness. Only the people of faith entered the land. The bottom line is this: Exposure to the gospel does not make anyone a Christian - you must have faith.
Every warning in the epistle was not necessarily directed at or needed by every individual, but some evidently needed it. What was the concern? The concern of the author is the danger and possibility that some of these Jewish believers might go back to Judaism in order to escape persecution from the Jewish unbelievers. As chapter 1 says, God’s full and final revelation has been communicated to us not by prophets, nor by angels, but by the Son of God himself. For that reason, the gospel of Christ demands greater attention than any other revelation from God, for such revelation was superior to that of the prophets and the angels. Having set out in chapter 1 the exposition concerning the superiority of Christ’s revelation to that of angels and prophets, the author moves to the exhortation that we must pay attention to what God has revealed. The exhortation is first that...
I. We Must Appropriate The Gospel (2:1-3a)
A. The Exhortation: Pay Attention! (2:1a).
To appropriate the gospel means that we must submit to it and apply it to ourselves. “For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away” (2:1). The exhortation is: “Pay attention!” (2:1a). “For this reason” pay attention. For what reason? (1) Because Christ is superior to angels and his word is superior to theirs; (2) because God has spoken in these last days by his Son (1:1) not by angels; (3) because God has declared his full and final revelation through his own Son, whose person and words are the highest truth and authority ever to be revealed to us, (4) because we have received the most superior revelation of all from Jesus Christ himself. For those reasons, we must “pay attention all the more to what we have heard.”
How foolish it would be to receive the most important message ever known to the human race, to receive the most serious warning ever given, to hear the most life-transforming news ever communicated to us, and then to not pay attention to it! If we have God’s final and full revelation in Jesus Christ, how much more should we pay attention to it than to any other revelation, whether by prophets or angels, important as they are. In other words, “Sit up straight and listen very carefully. And don’t just listen - take heed.” To take heed goes beyond merely listening to paying all the more careful attention, to be alert, be on guard, to apply it to yourself.
To pay attention “all the more” means to give extra special attention, more than you otherwise might. Had God ever addressed angels as his Son whom he had begotten? No! (1:5). Rather, the angels are commanded to worship the Son (1:6). The angels were servants of God, ministering spirits (1:14), but the Son of God is the eternal King, the great Creator of the universe (1:7-12). Thus, this warning is based on the superiority of Christ, the Son of God, the final and full revealer of God and God’s word.
“For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard” (2:1a). This is imperative - no option; it's a vital necessity. The logic is undeniable and unwavering, no doubt about it, no other acceptable or rational response. “We must pay attention all the more.” This exhortation to pay attention is followed by an admonition…
B. The Admonition: “Don’t Drift Away!” (2:1b-3a).
Why should we pay all the more attention to what we have heard? “So that we will not drift away” (2:1b). The author is warning the listeners to stop them from drifting away from the truth, drifting away from the urgency and the necessity of the gospel.
We’re surrounded by warnings, aren’t we? Stop signs, construction warnings, overhead wires etc. There are some things in life which are of such life-and-death importance that we intuitively pay attention. Carelessness, indifference or neglect could cost us our life. I remember when my brother-in-law built a tennis court in his back yard and put some tall lights around the perimeter to be able to use it at night. As he was installing the lights, one of the posts began to fall. Our son (who was about 5 years old at that time) was playing on the tennis court right where the post was falling! My brother-in-law yelled: “Run!” Thankfully, without hesitation my son ran as fast as his little legs would carry him. Paying attention to the warning saved his life.
To not pay attention would leave these Hebrews exposed, susceptible to the peril of “drifting away,” just going with the tide and ending up who knows where. It’s so easy to drift away, isn’t it? Someone has said: “We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith.” We so rarely drift toward holiness, toward a deeper connection with God. The peril of drifting away may end up in the disaster of not escaping.
The word used to “pay attention” (“give heed”) was sometimes used to describe holding a ship on course. Hence, the contrast with drifting away. Those are your two options – stay on course with Christ and his salvation or “drift away.” The gospel is our anchor from which we run the risk of drifting away. The gospel never moves or changes, but unfortunately we do. That's the danger, that we will drift away through carelessness, indifference, coldness. We run the risk of drifting away by being caught in a spiritual undertow, a strong underwater current that flows away from the shore, pulling water back to sea after waves break on the beach.
“We” indicates that the author identified with his audience because this exhortation applies to everyone. We are all liable to “drift away” if we aren’t careful. That’s why “we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard” (i.e. the gospel), “so that we will not drift away” like a ship slipping from its anchor or its moorings. To “drift away” indicates that it is unintentional, unconscious, involuntary – just slipping away, unnoticed, imperceptibly. The first step in drifting away is often simply neglect, specifically neglecting “so great salvation (2:3a). To neglect easily and quickly becomes to forget, and soon the treasure of the gospel is a dim and distant memory. This drifting away from the truth of the gospel is a movement that you might not even be aware of yourself, a gradual step-by-step movement away from the truth that once anchored you.
The Hebrews were in danger of drifting away from Christ and the gospel because they were immature Christians. They were not growing in their faith and knowledge. Their spiritual growth was stunted because they were not ingesting spiritual nutrition, not putting on spiritual weight. They were still babies in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). They weren’t progressing beyond just the basic elements of Christianity. The result was that when they were persecuted for their faith, they didn't have the spiritual strength to resist. They were exposed to the danger of giving up, drifting away from Christianity back to Judaism, renouncing their trust in Christ alone.
This is what can happen if we do not continually and consciously “pay attention all the more to what we have heard.” This is what can happen if the roots of our belief in Christ do not go down deep, if they remain shallow and undeveloped. Then we can be easily uprooted from our profession of faith, pushed way from the truth we once confessed. Until ultimately, ever so gradually and ever so subtly, we stop going to church, we stop being active for God, we stop reading the Bible, we stop praying, until we don't think, act, or live like a Christian anymore. At that point we have, in fact, drifted away from the safety of the shore, from the security of the anchor, until eventually we are out of sight. Hence the exhortation: Don’t drift away! Pay very close attention to the gospel you have heard! Stay anchored to the truth!
The supporting argument for this warning is as follows: “For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation” (2:2-3a). The author now draws a comparison between the word revealed by angels to the word revealed by the Son of God. He compares the consequences of disregarding the Law (i.e. the word spoken by angels) to the consequences of disregarding the gospel.
While the Exodus account records that the Law was delivered by God to Moses, other texts indicate that it was delivered through angels as intermediaries (e.g. Deuteronomy 33:2; also Galatians 3:19; Acts 7:38). “The message spoken through angels was legally binding,” unchangeable, steadfast, because they spoke God’s words.
“Transgression” is doing what you should not - the deliberate, conscious rejection of God’s word, deviating from the divine standard. “Disobedience” is not doing what you should - the refusal to heed and obey. Both transgressions and disobedience were punished. If the judgement on those who disobeyed the law was inescapable, how much more the judgement on those who “neglect such great salvation.”
“Every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment.” Every infraction of the law received its appropriate and just punishment, from death for the most serious offences to restitution for minor offences, from deliberate sins to sins of ignorance. All such offences “received a just punishment / retribution.” They were punished; they received what they deserved. Every act that was contrary to the law that the angels communicated was judged. What the angels said was authoritative; if you obeyed it, well and good, but if you disobeyed it, you received just punishment.
If the judgement on those who disobeyed the law was inescapable, then how much more the judgement on those who “neglect such a great salvation” (2:3a)? How will we escape the judgement of God if we refuse the salvation he offers, if we turn away from the redemption that is in Jesus Christ?
Thus the exhortation of 2:1 anticipates the warning of 2:3. The exhortation of 2:1 is, “Pay attention all the more…so that we will not drift away” from what we have heard and professed to believe. The warning of 2:3 is, “How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” And the rhetorical answer is: We can’t escape the consequences of neglecting such a great salvation which was spoken by the Lord. There is no other escape from the judgement of God than through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive; there is no other way. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And, “Truly I tell you, anyone whohears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). There are no other options: Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
What the punishment will be for those who neglect the gospel of such a great salvation is not spelled out, but the warning is clear: God’s judgement will be just and certain and fatal, like unproductive plants they will be burned up (Hebrews 6:4-8). They will experience “a terrifying expectation of judgement and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries” (10:27), unrepentant sinners who will die without mercy (Hebrews 10:26-28). You will not escape if you “turn away from him who warns us from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25f.). God’s judgement will fall on those who neglect his salvation.
This is the fatal consequence of simply neglecting God’s voice. To “neglect” is to not pay attention, to not heed what you were told. The problem initially isn't outright, forthright rejection of the gospel. It isn't about open rebellion against God. It isn't obvious opposition like persecuting Christians or blaspheming God's name. It’s simply about neglect, indifference, which if pursued to its logical conclusion ends in God’s judgement.
As we read more about the Hebrew Christians in this epistle, we discover that some of them were neglecting the gospel. They weren't meeting together. They were turning back to temple worship. Like Lot's wife they were hankering for the old way. They were not growing in their faith. They were indifferent to sin. The purpose of this warning is to prevent this from happening, to prevent these Hebrews from turning away from Christ and his word, to prevent them from seeking to escape the stigma of Christianity by drifting back into Judaism, which, if they did, would bring on them far worse consequences than a little suffering here for a short time.
This wasn’t limited to the Hebrews. We see this happening among so many Christians today - neglecting the salvation they once claimed to believe; indifferent to the claims of Christ; neglecting church attendance; not interested in Christian fellowship; unconcerned about personal holiness, prayer, and Scripture reading. They think they can have the security and blessings of Christianity without the commitment. They think they can be a Christian but live the way they want, neglecting the truth of the gospel, neglecting the person of Christ, neglecting the purposes of God for their lives. They water down the gospel to make it palatable for everyone, so that they make no distinction between what other religions believe and what we believe. They say that all religious beliefs lead to heaven. They pay no attention to this warning: “How will we escape” the righteous judgement of God “if we neglect such a great salvation?” And the answer is: You can’t escape and you won’t escape it!
So, first, we must appropriate the gospel, and…
II. We Must Appreciate The Gospel (2:3b-4)
When I say “we must appreciate the gospel” I mean that we must treasure it and trust it, depend on it, value it. We must treasure and trust the gospel because of its threefold testimony...
A. We Must Appreciate The Gospel Because Of How It Was Communicated To Us (2:3b).
It was first spoken by the Lord. “This salvation had its beginning when it was spoken of by the Lord” (2:3b). The gospel is the very message that Jesus preached himself. That’s reason enough to appreciate the gospel, isn't it? The One who effected our salvation also communicated it to us. He not only made salvation possible through his death and resurrection but he also told us about it. He came in flesh and blood to make God and his salvation known.
If the message (the word, the law) spoken by angels was so serious and had such profound consequences, then how much more serious is the word “spoken by the Lord,” and how much more profound will be its consequences! No wonder the writer asks: “How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
The word “spoken by the Lord” is “such a great salvation.” Salvation means “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). It means forgiveness of sins, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It means deliverance from the judgement of God, from the second death, that cataclysmic event when death and hades will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). That’s why Jesus came – to rescue us from the lake of fire, from eternal judgement. That’s what Jesus came to declare by his word and life and to provide by his death and resurrection – “such a great salvation.” The great salvation that Jesus offers is of the greatest significance of all to matters of life and death; it is of the highest moment. This is the greatest life-and-death decision you will ever make. You will either decide for Christ or against him. You will either live by the gospel or neglect the gospel. You will either live or die eternally.
That’s what makes it so great. It’s great because of when it was planned - in eternity past. It’s great because of who first proclaimed it - Jesus Christ. It’s great because of the cost - the death of God's own Son.
We must appreciate the gospel – treasure it and trust it - because of how it was first communicated to us. And…
B. We Must Appreciate The Gospel Because Of How It Was Confirmed To Us (2:3c).
Not only was it spoken to us by the Lord (2:3b) but also…
B1. It was confirmed to us by the apostles. “…it was confirmed to us by those who heard him” (2:3c). This salvation was not only spoken by the Lord (sufficient as that would be) but was confirmed by those who heard him. The word of salvation spoken by the Lord was spread abroad by the apostles who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. In other words, there is a direct link between those who declared the word of salvation to these Hebrews and the Lord himself - the baton was passed directly to them.
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. (But) in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2), which revelation was confirmed by those who heard him. The Hebrews had not heard the gospel directly from Jesus but they had heard it from others who had received it directly from Jesus. It was “confirmed” by those who were present to hear Jesus speak. Eyewitnesses validated the message by hearing God’s final revelation from and in Jesus himself.
So we should appreciate the gospel because of how it was communicated to us and because of how it was confirmed to us. It was confirmed to us by the apostles and…
B2. It was confirmed to us by God. “At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to his will” (2:4). God validated Jesus’ word and the word of those who heard him “by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to his will.” How much more could God do to convince you of the truth? It would have been enough simply to declare the word of Jesus. But God went way beyond that through eyewitness reports and miraculous acts, “signs and wonders” (supernatural manifestations). Miracles, wonders, and signs were part and parcel of Jesus’ ministry (Acts 2:22) as well as the apostles’ (Acts 2:43). And after that, there were the distributions of gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 3:5).
God redeemed his people out of Egypt by “signs and wonders” (e.g. the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea), which validated their exodus as the work of God. Similarly the apostles worked signs and wonders, which validated their message as from God (2 Corinthians 12:12). Signs and wonders corroborated and characterized God’s redemptive acts. Thus, what the Hebrews had seen and heard was one more manifestation of God’s redemptive acts.
“Various miracles” speaks of all kinds of acts of divine power, and “gifts from the Spirit” refers to spiritual gifts bestowed by Christ on his people for the benefit of the church (Ephesians 4:11-16) and for a testimony to the world. The signs and wonders and various miracles manifested by the apostles and the gifts of the Spirit in the church all served to validate and confirm the truth and trustworthiness of the great salvation declared and effected by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, himself.
That's the threefold testimony to the truth and trustworthiness of the gospel: (1) Jesus proclaimed it; (2) the eyewitness apostles confirmed it; and (3) God affirmed it with signs and wonders. How much more testimony do you want before you respond appropriately? You know the truth of the gospel, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), that “while were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6), that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), that “he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15), that “if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9), that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). You know that the Christian life begins with “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21) and that the evidence of faith is through presenting yourselves as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Romans 12:2).
So, where is the evidence in your life? Are you neglecting such a great salvation? I speak to those who claim to be Christians and to those who do not. If you are neglecting it (not heeding it, drifting away from it, not living by it), how will you escape the righteous judgement of God? You won't, because there is nowhere else to turn, no one else to deliver you. You won’t, because God has faithfully declared that Christians who neglect the claims of Christ will fall under his discipline. God disciplines us as his sons and daughters (Hebrews 12:6). Remember: “If anyone draws back, I have no pleasure in him (Hebrews 10:38).
The testimony of Scripture is that “the righteous / just will live by faith (Hebrews 10:38). And God has faithfully declared that non-Christians will fall under God’s judgement. Scripture says: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Jesus said: “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29). Those who finally reject Jesus Christ will hear these most awful words from him: “Depart from me. I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23).
So, if the word spoken by angels was valid and binding, then certainly the word of the Lord himself is true and binding beyond a shadow of a doubt. When you receive the greatest truth from the greatest authority, you have the greatest responsibility as to how you respond and you will receive the greatest condemnation for refusing it. That's the bottom line the author is trying to communicate here.
What is the implication, then? The message of salvation, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, is fully trustworthy and we need to pay attention to it.
Final Remarks
Remember the thesis of this passage: We can’t escape the consequences of neglecting so great salvation which was spoken by the Lord. Jesus proclaimed it. The apostles confirmed it. And God has superabundantly affirmed it through signs and wonders and mighty deeds. How much more proof could you ask for? God has validated the message in the same way that he has performed all his redemptive acts in history, of which salvation is the greatest.
This is the reality of the gospel, to which you are called to respond, and you will be held responsible for your response. There is no other escape from the wrath of God!
The gospel has been declared by God’s Son himself and it has been confirmed in a variety of supernatural ways. So, if the word spoken by angels proved binding and had such serious consequences for those who disobeyed it, how much more disastrous will it be for those how neglect such a great salvation which was declared by the Lord himself.
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