Pay Attention!

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:1–3a ESV)

When the lessons in the Sunday School curriculum used in my church were set in the Old Testament, some of the teachers were uncomfortable teaching a few of the stories. I sat through one session in which the story, as told by the teacher, made little sense because she left out the part where people were killed because of their disobedience. She was teaching very young children and she was afraid the uncut version of history would be too disturbing for them. When the curriculum finally moved on from the Old Testament to the New, from God-who-smites to “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” the teachers were relieved.

But according to the verses from Hebrews quoted above, the path from Old Testament to New doesn't lead away from the God of Judgment toward the Son of Love. As D. A. Carson says, “both God’s love and God’s wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the Old Testament to the New.” We see the upward ratchet in this scripture.

There were sanctions for those who broke the Old Covenant law—“the message declared by angels” (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19), as our text calls it. Those who didn’t heed God’s law were punished for it. So yes, God is a God of judgment in the Old Testament.

But he’s also a God of judgment in the New. “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” the author of Hebrews asks. The answer he expects is, “We won’t! And we don't even want to think about the dreadful judgment this would deserve.”

He’s making an argument from the lesser to the greater: If the law, which came through angels, had sure and severe sanctions for transgressors, how much more sure and severe would be the sanctions for those who neglect the great salvation of the new covenant, which came through the son of God himself? The angels were, after all, only creatures. But the one who mediated the great salvation was the creator of everything, including angels (Hebrews 1:2). He was, at the time the author wrote these words, already ruling at God's right hand. (Hebrews 1:3).

The salvation worked by Jesus Christ—the purification for sins that he accomplished through his death (Hebrews 1:3)—is nothing to be trifled with. “To treat it lightly” writes F.F. Bruce, “. . . must expose one to sanctions even more awful than those which safeguarded the law.” [1] It’s because God’s love is ratcheted up in the New Testament—not, of course, that God becomes more loving, but that his love is revealed more fully in “such a great salvation”—that God’s wrath is also ratcheted up. The just retribution God metes out is harsher for someone who ignores or rejects the salvation declared in the New Testament gospel. Those who transgressed the law received earthly punishments, but those who reject the salvation brought by the Son can expect sure eternal punishment.

What’s more, note how easy it is to expose one’s self to God’s wrath as revealed in the New Testament. It doesn’t require outright renunciation of the gospel message, at least not at first. No, it starts by simply not paying close enough attention to it, which leads to drifting away from it, “until it [ceases] to have any influence upon [one’s life]” [2] The downward slide starts subtly; it requires only inaction on our part. But it ends up in full-blown apostacy.

The people for whom Hebrews was originally written probably faced cultural pressure to stop publicly professing their faith, and this put them in danger of drifting away from it. Our situation right now is not exactly the same as theirs, but there are certainly parallels, which means this passage should serve as a warning to us, too. We, like them, need to pay closer attention to the gospel, lest we drift away from it. This is one good reason to keep on preaching the gospel to ourselves and proclaiming it to others. It’s a good reason to continue clinging to the cross. It's a good reason to always be thanking God for “such a great salvation.”

[1] The Epistle to the Hebrews, F.F. Bruce, page 68.
[2] The Epistle to the Hebrews, F.F. Bruce, page 68.