Day 2229 – Hebrews 2 Don’t Neglect So Great Salvation – Daily Wisdom

Welcome to Day 2229 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-2 Don't Neglect So Great Salvation - Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 04/23/2023

“Don’t Neglect So Great A Salvation” 

Hebrews 2:1-4

Last, we began an extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The theme of the superiority of Christ in His person and work resounds from every chapter of the book of Hebrews.

Today, our focus is a warning about drifting from our spiritual foundation. Let’s read Hebrews 2:1-4.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.  For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

It’s hard to imagine many contexts in which drifting is a good thing. Possibly, a lazy floating river ride in a kayak or canoe may be enjoyable until you have to disembark. On the other hand, if a car begins to drift from its lane, it’s only a matter of time before an accident. When a boat drifts off course, at best, it will miss its destination; at worst, it could crash and sink! If an airplane drifts from its flight path, disastrous consequences could occur. Of course, a little drifting, caught early, can be corrected with little more than inconvenient consequences. But if a driver, sailor, or pilot doesn’t pay attention and neglects their responsibilities, the drift could result in injury or death.

Similarly, neglect in spiritual matters can result in spiritual drifting. When we begin to ignore the guardrails of God’s Word, we can swerve from the truth and become trapped in a spiritual or moral ditch. Suppose we fail to navigate our vessel according to the safe principles of God’s revealed truth. In that case, the currents of cultural conformity will inevitably drive us into the jagged rocks of doubt, ultimately shipwrecking our faith. If we turn our focus away from our heavenly destination, the winds of false doctrine and worldly conviction can blow us into enemy airspace, leaving us open to spiritual attack.

You know I am certainly not a doom and gloom type of person, and there are many great awakenings within the worldwide church today, but the state of some churches and Christians appears to be drifting. Spiritual laziness has set in by neglecting the great salvation given to us as a gift through Jesus Christ. Just think about the downward trends in our churches:

Doctrinal deviation
Moral compromise
Leadership failures
Cultural conformity
Political expediency
Worldly priorities
Evangelistic complacency


Sadly, the list could go on. These are the dangers of spiritual drifting. That’s why it’s so vital for believers to pay heed to the crucial tenets of the Christian life. There’s just too much at stake! Drifting from the message and morality of the gospel was as much a problem in the first century as it is in the twenty-first century. The challenges may have been different, but the trajectory is the same: off the straight path of doctrinal and moral purity and into

Welcome to Day 2229 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-2 Don't Neglect So Great Salvation - Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 04/23/2023

“Don’t Neglect So Great A Salvation” 

Hebrews 2:1-4

Last, we began an extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The theme of the superiority of Christ in His person and work resounds from every chapter of the book of Hebrews.

Today, our focus is a warning about drifting from our spiritual foundation. Let’s read Hebrews 2:1-4.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.  For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

It’s hard to imagine many contexts in which drifting is a good thing. Possibly, a lazy floating river ride in a kayak or canoe may be enjoyable until you have to disembark. On the other hand, if a car begins to drift from its lane, it’s only a matter of time before an accident. When a boat drifts off course, at best, it will miss its destination; at worst, it could crash and sink! If an airplane drifts from its flight path, disastrous consequences could occur. Of course, a little drifting, caught early, can be corrected with little more than inconvenient consequences. But if a driver, sailor, or pilot doesn’t pay attention and neglects their responsibilities, the drift could result in injury or death.

Similarly, neglect in spiritual matters can result in spiritual drifting. When we begin to ignore the guardrails of God’s Word, we can swerve from the truth and become trapped in a spiritual or moral ditch. Suppose we fail to navigate our vessel according to the safe principles of God’s revealed truth. In that case, the currents of cultural conformity will inevitably drive us into the jagged rocks of doubt, ultimately shipwrecking our faith. If we turn our focus away from our heavenly destination, the winds of false doctrine and worldly conviction can blow us into enemy airspace, leaving us open to spiritual attack.

You know I am certainly not a doom and gloom type of person, and there are many great awakenings within the worldwide church today, but the state of some churches and Christians appears to be drifting. Spiritual laziness has set in by neglecting the great salvation given to us as a gift through Jesus Christ. Just think about the downward trends in our churches:

Doctrinal deviation
Moral compromise
Leadership failures
Cultural conformity
Political expediency
Worldly priorities
Evangelistic complacency


Sadly, the list could go on. These are the dangers of spiritual drifting. That’s why it’s so vital for believers to pay heed to the crucial tenets of the Christian life. There’s just too much at stake! Drifting from the message and morality of the gospel was as much a problem in the first century as it is in the twenty-first century. The challenges may have been different, but the trajectory is the same: off the straight path of doctrinal and moral purity and into the dangerous wilderness of spiritual decline.

The people to whom the book of Hebrews was written were converted Jews suffering the severe blows of persecution from both unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. Life was grim for many of them. Their circumstances, therefore, led some of them to question Christianity and lend an ear to the siren song of the synagogue. Going back under the umbrella of the old system of Judaism would have sheltered them from the storm of Roman persecution. Therefore, a significant focus of the author of Hebrews was to convince his readers that Jesus Christ deserves their continued allegiance, because He is superior in His person and work. To call them to recommitment, the writer periodically extends stern warnings, describing the severe consequences of abandoning their Lord and forsaking His church. Hebrews 2:1–4 is the first of several “warning passages” of Hebrews. Its message has as much significance for us today as it did in the days of the first readers, because every generation faces the tendency to drift amid trials and temptations.

Let’s step back for a moment to glance over our shoulder at the trailhead of our trek into the book of Hebrews we explored last week. In Hebrews 1, we learned that God has spoken His final “Word” through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus embodies God’s ultimate message to humanity, epitomized in His person and work, His words and deeds, His past ministry on earth as Prophet, His present ministry in heaven as Priest, and His future ministry over heaven and earth as King. As such, Christ is superior to the most outstanding representatives of God in the physical and spiritual realms—prophets and angels (1:1–14).

But this doesn’t mean prophets and angels were failures, or their work was unimportant. On the contrary, angels are “ministering spirits,” sent to assist the saints who embrace Jesus Christ as Savior (1:14). And the prophets who spoke long ago continue to speak to us today through the Holy Scriptures, (Bible) still pointing us to the glorious person and saving work of Jesus Christ. The warning not to drift (2:1–4) grows from the rich doctrinal soil of Hebrews 1. God’s angelic and human messengers minister to us who have inherited salvation (see Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11).

Now, having inherited this salvation—freely, as a gift—believers must ensure they don’t begin to despise something they did nothing to earn. It seems to be human nature to place more value on an object we labored long to earn or on a goal we worked hard to achieve. Ecclesiastes laments the vanity of a man working hard all his life, only to leave the fruit of his labor to a son who may very well be an ungrateful fool (Eccl. 2:18–19). The parable of the prodigal son dramatically illustrates the folly of a son who inherits wealth he did nothing to earn (Luke 15:11–32). Because it is so easy to develop a careless attitude toward an inheritance, the writer of Hebrews pauses to include a strong warning for his readers.

Hebrews 2 begins building on the message of the superiority of Christ’s person in Hebrews 1. Our salvation is a gift from God. Earned not by us, but by the divine Son of God who accomplished the purification of sins by His death in our stead (1:3). We are inheritors of this salvation—not wage earners (1:14). “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard,” Hebrews 2:1. The writer points out that our problem isn’t a lack of knowledge of the truth, /but a tendency to let our attention be drawn away from it. In a world of constant distractions, especially in external pressure and internal struggles, it is easy to become careless and begin to “drift away” (2:1).

Now, most of us today are not experiencing the same magnitude of blatant persecution the original audience of Hebrews was dealing with. But we still have potent distractions that can woo us away from our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, simply becoming ho-hum about the gospel message can weaken our resolve. When the profound truth of the person and work of Christ becomes another been-there-done-that fad, we’re more likely to start looking outside the faith for something to stimulate our attention and ignite our emotions. Then, when genuine, external challenges to our faith hit, we will have drifted too far from the center of safety to withstand the pressure.

One final word on Hebrews 2:1: Notice that it’s not some new body of information we need to hear. At this point in his argument, the author isn’t urging his audience to more excellent knowledge to cultivate maturity—that will come later. Instead, here, at the beginning, he warns them not to drift from “what we have heard” (2:1).

2:2–3a

Drawing again on the point outlined in Hebrews 1, the author employs a common Jewish form of argument known as qal wahomer, which means “light to heavy.” That is, if a principle applies in a “light” (or less important) matter, it must apply even more so in a “heavy” (or more important) matter. This logical argument had a firm place in the rabbis’ methods of biblical interpretation and would have been a powerful argument in the ears of the Jewish readers of Hebrews. The argument is simply this: The message of the Law mediated by angels was unchangeable. Its strict mandates were therefore binding, and serious consequences were in store for those who broke the commandments—demonstrated again and again through the revelation of God via the prophets (1:1). Now, One has come who is greater than the angels and prophets: Jesus Christ. How much stricter would we expect the judgment to be for someone who neglects the superior message of salvation proclaimed by Him and accomplished by His superior person and work?

The audience of Hebrews would have known quite well that, in the Scriptures, obedience to the Law of Moses brought temporal blessings (Deut. 28:1–14), while prolonged disobedience would bring increasingly severe temporal judgments (Deut. 28:15–68). It’s vital to remember that the Law of Moses never offered eternal life or heavenly reward for obedience nor warned of eternal damnation in hell for disobedience. Instead, it was a temporal covenant for the historical nation of Israel, setting forth the conditions for experiencing blessing in the land as God’s unique nation and people. Whereas temporal blessings were on the line for disobedience to the Law, eternal blessings are on the line for rejection of Jesus Christ.

The eternal, spiritual consequences for rejecting or neglecting the Christian faith are severe, whether a person is a believer. For unbelievers who reject Christ entirely, the cost is eternal life (John 3:36; 1 Jn. 5:10–12). For believers who embrace Christ but drift away from their allegiance to Him through neglect or rebellion, the cost is the heavenly rewards (1 Cor. 3:13–15; 2 Cor. 5:10). What our status, position, and responsibilities in the New Global Eden may be impacted on our allegiance to Christ now. The author of Hebrews primarily has the second category in mind—people who professed faith in Christ but risk neglecting their salvation.

2:3b–4

The salvation we have received is “so great” because the mediator of this salvation is the God-man, Jesus Christ, who is superior to all things in His person and work. But the message of salvation, the gospel, is also superior because of the incomparable way it came to the original generation of believers in the first century. It came by the combined working of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Heb. 2:3–4).

In 2:3b, we are given insight into the unique, unrepeatable historical vantage point that the first generation of hearers had relative to Christ and His handpicked apostles. The readers of Hebrews probably had not been eyewitnesses of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Still, they had heard the teachings of some of the original apostles (2:3b). The message of salvation “was first announced by the Lord” Jesus Christ. It was confirmed to us by those who heard him, that is, Jesus firsthand—the original eleven disciples as well as hundreds of others in the larger circle of Jesus’ followers (2:4). God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Thus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit triply sealed the message. It bore irrefutable marks of superior authenticity.

Much of the argument of Hebrews 2:3b–4 rests on the personal experiences of the original readers. The message of the gospel had been confirmed to them by “those who heard” – Jesus himself, and by those whose preaching had been “confirmed” by “signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit” (2:4). Does this mean we should be looking for God’s special messengers today to prove the truthfulness of their preaching through similar supernatural stamps of approval?

We don’t want ever to deny that God can do miraculous things. He performed miracles in the Old Testament before the coming of Christ and has done amazing things throughout the church's history. God is God. He does what He wants. However, we also need to submit our understanding of signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (2:4). Which was for teaching God’s Word (2 Tim. 3:16–17). We must interpret personal experiences, testimonies, rumors, and reports of apparent miracles through the standards of Scripture. Although God can do as He pleases and can (and does) defy our expectations, He doesn’t do things contrary to His unchangeable Word.

When we dive into the teaching of the New Testament and the early church regarding signs, wonders, and miracles, we discover that these confirmatory gifts of the Holy Spirit were centered on certain people known uniquely as apostles. But, we also learn that this foundational ministry was just that—foundational. Once the foundation for the Christian faith had been laid in the first century, subsequent generations of evangelists, pastors, and teachers were to build on the foundation, not continue to lay the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10–11), "Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.” During the time of the apostles, churches were planted from Spain to India and Africa to Syria. By the end of the first century, the New Testament had been completed, forming the unchanging doctrinal foundation for the church from that time forward.

Even though miracles may seem commonplace in the Bible, we realize they are rare if we look closer. God seemed to cluster miracles around bursts of new revelation or during epochal transitions in how He interacted with His people. We can discern three relatively short, extremely remarkable eras during which miracles were particularly concentrated and astonishing.

The Exodus from Egypt, Wilderness Wanderings, and Conquest of Israel


After four hundred years of silence, God astonished the Egyptians and the Hebrews with a series of miraculous events as He freed His covenant people from slavery in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, and then settled them in the Promised Land.

The Prophetic Ministries of Elijah and Elisha


In the days of the kings, after many decades of repeated warnings, God sent these two prophets to turn Israel from idolatry. He then used miracles to validate their message as divine. When Israel rejected the prophets, judgment followed.

The Foundational Ministries of Jesus Christ and the Apostles


After four hundred years of silence, God sent His Son with the ability to accomplish miraculous feats that surpassed the miracles of the Old Testament. He then produced miracles through the apostles to validate the message of Jesus Christ as God’s Son.

Indeed, miraculous works of God are rare, having occurred infrequently throughout history. Most of the time, the purposes of the miracles are to draw attention to His work in the world, to authenticate the activity or message of His special prophets or apostles, or to provide a clear warning of coming judgment.

According to the New Testament (1 Cor. 12:28), “God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers,” then the other gifts, suggesting that these first three were foundational church offices. Also, Paul noted that the marks of an authentic apostle included having “seen Jesus our Lord” (1 Cor. 9:1). So, one clear qualification of an apostle was that they had been eyewitnesses of Christ during His earthly ministry. “This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him” (2:3b).

In keeping with the early church’s teaching that the confirming sign gifts were centered on the original apostles’ preaching, the author of Hebrews notes that its divine origin was confirmed after Christ had preached the gospel. “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Heb. 2:4).

So, the Bible demonstrates that the first-century apostles were a fixed number who had seen and heard the Lord and had special abilities to perform extraordinary signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Spirit intended to confirm the truthfulness of the gospel message supernaturally. Their teachings concerning the crucified and risen Lord and their writings were foundational for the church. When their lives on earth ended, so did their office.

But does this mean, then, that we’re off the hook? We don’t have the same vantage point as those who originally heard the apostles. We may not have signs, wonders, and various miracles in the same manner as the Apostles. But this fact does not give us an excuse to neglect our salvation, allow ourselves to drift, and disregard the gospel.

Today, in addition to the Holy Spirit living in us, we have the completed revelation of God’s Word in dozens of translations at our fingertips for free or inexpensive. The teachings and acts of Jesus and the original apostles are preserved for us in Scripture, and we can study and have teachers and those very knowledgeable in God’s Word to mentor us. We have the testimony of two thousand years of faithful saints who lived and died for the gospel. We have the arguments and evidence of apologists and scholars. We have the miracle of transforming lives. And we have the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth (John 16:13).

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

APPLICATION: HEBREWS 2:1–4

Don’t Be a Drifter

Just like the first generation of Hebrew believers, Christians today are inheritors of “so great a salvation” (Heb. 2:3). And no less than they, we must respond to this gift of salvation with relentless conviction, resisting the tendency to drift (2:1). If we are not concerned about the problem of...