Knowing Pastor Andrew was preaching from Hebrews 2 this Sunday, I thought of the warning the writer of Hebrews places in verses 1-4: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it…(for) how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” The unspoken answer is that there is no way we will escape if we chose to neglect such a great salvation.
What first strikes me is the object of our attention or neglect: our great salvation. With the warmer weather finally here we anticipate enjoying things we can only do for part of the year: like barbequing without a parka. Perhaps you are like me and enjoy golf from time to time. God doesn’t say: “Don’t neglect your golf game.” He doesn’t even say, “Don’t neglect appreciating today’s sunset” or “Don’t neglect your spouse.” All these things are good things. But what deserves our greatest attention is our great salvation. In a way God is saying don’t neglect my love – knowing it and comprehending it in all its depths. Don’t neglect my forgiveness, and the truth of my acceptance of you in Christ. Don’t neglect the “radiance of the glory of God” the writer refers to in chapter 1 verse 3. Don’t neglect the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Don’t neglect the power to resist the devil and submit to Me. Don’t neglect the fellowship of your “community of salvation”. And, of course, I could go on. We have a great salvation.
This passage also tells us we have no excuse for neglecting because God’s great salvation has been widely attested to. It was declared by the Lord (verse 3), attested to by the Apostles (“those who heard” verse 3), and God himself “bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles (verse 4). Philosopher Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on the judgment day and God asked him, “Why didn’t you believe in Me?” Russell replied, “I would say, ‘Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!” God renounces such pretention as thoroughly as he has announced His great salvation.
With this sobering warning in mind may we “pay much closer attention to what we have heard”. May we give sustained, worshipful, appreciation to our salvation in Christ. May we love it, cherish it, think upon it, wonder at it. May “His praise continually be in our mouth” (Psalm 34:1). May this great salvation be the lens and truth through which we see all else. May we commend this great salvation to others.
God’s great salvation has been greatly displayed. The responsibility of any neglect is ours alone. I pray that our hearts would be so illumined by the light of our glorious salvation that our attention would be found faithful.
Much love,
Pastor Gary