Hebrews 2:1-4 "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard Him; 4. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will."
Now all of these verses are tied around that one concept, "How dare we neglect so great a Salvation." Now let’s go up to verse 1 and begin. And look at the very first word, "Therefore." What’s it there for! Well, because of what went before. Here, he’s referring to what we just covered in chapter 1, and some of that was:
"If the Son is higher than the angels, if the Son was the Creator of everything, if the Son finished the work of redemption and brings in salvation, and purchased man’s redemption from sins, and was now qualified to sit down at the right hand of the Father on high, but not forever, there would come a day when He would arise and return, and set up His Kingdom here on the earth. But before He would set up the Kingdom, He would destroy His enemies." How that the day of the Lord is coming, and the wrath and vexation that is going to be manifested on Christ-rejecting mankind, and that’s all the same concept of what Psalm 110:1 spoke of as having His enemies under His feet. Now with all that as a backdrop, that God the Son, the Angel of the Lord, the “I AM”, the LORD, the Creator, the Redeemer, the Testator, the Mediator, the Intercessor, the Benefit-factor, the Security of the New Covenant sitting at the Father’s right hand on our behalf:
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."
Now we think most of us have heard us say long enough to know, that we believe that once a person is genuinely saved (and has been placed into the Body of Christ, the second covenant of promise and God has declared us justified from all things, that He has redeemed us, He has paid the purchased price, He has forgiven us through the process of the first covenant's required working in us unto our need for holiness), that person can never be lost! Never be taken out of the Fathers hands! They acquire the mind of Christ and become Christ like ones, by virtue of entry into the New Covenant through the crisis of a death, who now have the ability to be His witnesses again in His power of Grace that is at work within them again as He was in Paul and the others.
But we want to remember that we’re dealing in Hebrews with Jewish people who were still on the fence. They’re looking in at this whole concept that Paul is presenting concerning Christ, but on the other hand they still have that drawing back to the Old Testament economy and its ministration of religious legalism, which is still looking forward to a Messiah. And for them to believe that the Messiah had come and died and been raised from the dead, that was a bitter pill for them to swallow, just as it is in our day. Even our Jewish friends today, see this as their big hang up, and we say this kindly, but they still can’t recognize that the One Who was crucified, was that promised Messiah, the Creator of everything. And we know that in the Jewish mind, "Jesus of Nazareth, the Creator? You’ve got to be crazy." We can understand their response. But we see the whole purpose of the Epistle of Hebrews is to bring these Jewish people to a full understanding of Who Jesus of Nazareth really is.
He is the Christ, He is God, He is the Creator, He is even now at the Father’s right hand, and one day He’s coming again, and He is yet going to sit on David’s throne. He is yet going to fulfill all the Old Testament promises, and prophesies as many are still future, but oh, we feel we’re getting so close. My, when we look at what’s going on in the world, with regard to technology, the moral breakdown, the corruption in the church and politics of the nations, and everything else, then it just screams at the human race that the end is near. Then there's the black plague of Islam that is spreading across Europe and into the American scene. Which is the black horse and rider found in Revelation chapter six with a pair of balances in his hand, as with its legalistic religion and it brings in its own form of law, Sharia law. With its demand for the heads of both the Hebrews and all "Christians" as being the infidels.
So this is what this Epistle is trying to establish, first and foremost with the Jewish people, but we're going to just say, this is not only for the Hebrew. We have been learning in Hebrews, there’s so much in here that is appropriate for us, but the main thrust of the Epistle is to convince the Jewish listeners one, to stay the course and two, those who are on the fence, to come on in, and latch onto, and believe the Word of God! To hear His voice. So this is why the language of Hebrews will make it sound that it’s possible to be saved and then lost, and this is what has raised so many questions. It’s the same way here. It’s not someone who has been saved, and come into the Body, and he’s let it slip and lost it, but rather, these are people on the fence, and they’ve tasted, they’ve been convicted by the Holy Spirit, but they just can’t latch on to it, or they've been cautioned by their relatives and friends to return to their Jewish roots by renouncing Christ as their Messiah. Paul being a Pharisee's Pharisee and having set under Gamaliel a lawyers lawyer uses the legal form of argument to prove his case to his brother Jews. Verse 1 again.
Hebrews 2:1-2a "Therefore (because of what we’ve just proven in this first chapter, of Who Christ really is, The Son, The Creator of everything, the sustainer of everything, Righteous, Holy, higher than the angelic host, Therefore) we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we have let them slip. (in other words, lose interest and go back into the previous life,) 2. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast,…"
Now years ago we read that verse, and it threw a curve at us, and we imagine that it does lots of people. When did the angels have a part in dispensing the Word of God? Well it’s hard to nail that down, but come back with us to the Book of Galatians chapter 3, because this isn’t the only place that we have this. This of course is Paul’s letter to the Gentile churches with regard to their being pressured to come under the Jewish form of religion and its legalism, of the Law of Moses. So this little letter of Galatians is written to prove that we in this Age of Grace are not under this Legalism of Law, but rather we’re under Grace, a whole new concept and economy.
Galatians 3:19a "Wherefore then serves the law? (how did it come about, what was it’s background? what was its desired end?) It was added because of transgressions,..." Now we want to remember that the Mosaic Law didn’t come on to the human experience until about 2500 years after Adam was created. And about 500 years after God cut the Covenant with Abraham. So the Law was added because of transgressions. Now stop and think a moment. What happened to the human race from Adam to the flood, when they had no Mosaic Law? What ruled humanity was their individual conscience and the restrainer the Holy Spirit. (See our study on God's economies or dispensations) Oh, it became the pits! Violence filled the earth, and murder was everywhere. People were very wicked, they had no concept of God anymore. Except for the few in the line of Seth. We always tell people, if we don’t think God has to be satisfied with a small percentage for a remnant, just stop and think, there were probably 4 or 5 billion on the earth at the time of flood, but how many were believers? ONE, possible two! Well, why so small a number? Genesis tells us that Noah was a righteous man and his righteousness saved his house hold (8 people). There was no Law, there was no formal system of worship, because it was all dependent on the head of the house passing it on to his sons, and so the many immediately lost it. So by the time we get to the flood, only eight souls were saved. This is why Paul says "the Law was added," because it didn’t work without some system of Law. From Noah to Abram there were only a few who worshiped the Most High God and these were from Noah's family line and only on one side of it. All the rest of humanity was gross and evil. Now reading on:
Galatians 3:19 "Wherefore then serves the law? It was added because of transgressions (mankind’s sins) till the seed (was Christ) should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."
Man or more accurately Noah and his sons (were governed by their conscience and the Holy Spirit) were given the law of human government which is a ruling factor still in today's economy. Many don't understand the wording of this law because we think our basic understanding is clouded because of the giving of the Law was to, "Moses was up there on Mount Sinai, and God wrote the Law with His finger on the tables of stone, and Moses brought it down the mountain." But we see in these two Scripture references - and we think there’s even another one - somehow or other, angels (the angel of the Lord is one from Acts 7:38) were involved in the giving of the Law, this was not the Law given to Moses (as found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus), and Moses of course, brings the Law down the mountain, this is the code for human conduct, the ten commandments. we're not going to take it any further than that, but the Scripture does say, "it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." Moses being the mediator in this case. Now if we still had the scriptures or books that were removed by the early church fathers. We'd be able to learn and understand God's dealings with early man better and His use of a mediator. Those early men who were priests of the Most High God, these men were of course gentiles and some are listed in Luke chapter three and Hebrews as we'll see later on. Now let’s come back to Hebrews then.
"Hebrews 2:1-2 "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have hard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2. For if the word (the Law or teaching) spoken by angels was steadfast, (in other words the Law was perfect,) and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;"(the Law as found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus its administration demanded a death sentence, and was only to lead us to our need of holiness)
Now do we know what that means? The Law was so explicit, and so severe. There was no getting a good attorney and somehow buying our way out when we broke God’s Law, we and they were required to pay the consequences. Remember the Law is strict, and there was no bending the rules. Now verse 3. Remember we’re in a whole better program than what the Law was, and this is the argument that Paul is presenting.
Hebrews 2:3a "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;…" Now remember, how great is this Salvation that we have today. It’s beyond human understanding, because it’s free for nothing. See, under the Law we paid every time we broke it, one way or another. But, under this Age of Grace, we don’t have to gather a lot of money for Salvation, it's not based on works on our part. In John’s gospel first in chapter 1 and verses 14 and 17 we find Grace and Truth as being in Christ then in chapter 10, we find the door (the cross) to the sheep fold is right at ground level. And where is it with a lost person? Right in front of him, and all he has to do is walk through the gate by trusting the Word. So great a Salvation, we don’t have to work, work, work! But we do have to transverse through the first covenant's system of law to reach God's intended goal the revealing of our need of His Holiness.
But what is that the attitude of most of the people of the world? Even the churches? Oh, we’ve got to work, work, work, and somehow satisfy the demands of a Holy God, but listen, the only way we can satisfy God is by taking it by trusting in Paul’s Gospel of I Corinthians 15:1-4, based on the resurrection and ascension. To remain under the old first order of things is indeed foolishness of man. We need to awake to the crisis of trusting the Holy Spirit and His working all this out within us and then our acknowledging of our need for His Holiness through the crisis of death.
So this is what Paul is referring to here. How dare we neglect so great a Salvation! Now we think it’s all going to be based on this whole idea of responsibility, the judgment for rewards. The Bema Seat is going to be based upon our faithfulness with what we have, and what we have done with our responsibility. This judgment Seat takes place for those taken away at the onset of the tribulation, it's more of the style seen at the Olympics games where the athletes receive their awards.
At the final judgment the lost will be judged on how much responsibility did they have, just how much knowledge did they have. Now for a lot of lost people out there in areas of the world where we think they’ve never heard the Gospel, then naturally they’re not going to suffer as severe a doom as an American who hears the Gospel of God's Grace, day in and day out and reject it. Many mix the old with the new to make it one or ignore the new all together, they even teach a different gospel or many gospels such as prosperity in social positioning, wealth in physical earthy things of an abundant life or a love gospel. The same three areas where Jesus was tempted by Satan.
Hebrews 2:3 "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first (going all the way back to Christ’s earthly ministry. This is all building up to our Gospel of Grace) began to be spoken by the Lord," (in His earthly ministry though it was veiled to the worldly) Now remember that we try to make it so plain, that the Lord could not teach our Grace Gospel, which is that "Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead and ascended back to the Father's right hand." That hadn’t happened yet. The Twelve disciples didn’t understand any of that either, it remained veiled to them. In fact, let’s just take time and look at what the Scriptures say about that. So rather than just relying on tradition as a lot of people do, we have to back everything up with Scripture. See they couldn’t be preaching our Grace Gospel of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension for our Redemption which bring us to our need for Salvation for the whole human race, because:
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