Neglecting Salvation
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 7 July 2024
Hell is full of people who are not actively opposed to Jesus Christ, but who simply drifted into damnation by neglecting to respond to the gospel. Such people are really here in view in these four verses. These are people who know the truth, who are well aware of the good news of salvation provided in Jesus Christ, but who never are willing to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
This epistle is addressed to Jews. First were Jewish non-Christians who didn’t believe the gospel. Secondly some were Jewish Christians who had received Jesus Christ, but were still hanging onto the rituals of Judaism. This was not necessary, because once Jesus came, the rituals were no longer needed. Thirdly were Jewish non-Christians who were convinced intellectually but never committed to Christ.
Many of them were attending the community of believers with some sort of a profession that they were really believers, when, in fact, they were not. And so in this epistle, the writer really wants to show all of them that Jesus Christ has brought a new covenant called the New Testament. He has died on a cross, shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins, and after three days He rose again.
And in this New Testament, mankind can have forgiveness, and the New Testament is better by far than the Old Testament. The new mediator, Jesus Christ, is better than anybody connected with the old covenant. He is attempting to show Jews that the Old Testament was incomplete. Jesus Christ fulfills it all. The Jews needed to accept the New Testament of His final sacrifice for their sins.
So in order to prove this, the writer of Hebrews goes through all of the characters of the Old Testament, Moses, Aaron, the priesthood, angels who were mediators of the old covenant. And in every case, He proves Christ to be better than all of those. We saw in Hebrews 1:1- 3 that Christ is better than everybody. And then in verses 4 to 14, we saw that Christ is superior to angels.
Because in the Jewish mind, angels mediated the old covenant. And so, the Holy Spirit wants to show us that the new covenant is better because Christ is better than angels. A better mediator means a better covenant. But we come to what really amounts to an invitation thrown into the middle of this treatise on angels. The Holy Spirit is applying directly what He has been saying about Christ.
You see, the Word of God always demands a response. That’s the point. The word of God always demands that somebody react to it. And may I add too, that any effective teacher must do a lot more than just dispose of facts dumping them on his hearers. Any really effective teacher knows that he must warn, that he must exhort, and that he must invite all the hearers to believe.
A man may know a lot of truth, and he may know a lot of doctrine, but if he doesn’t have a passionate concern for how people react to it, he’s not worth a nickel as a teacher. There must be a concern for response. The apostle Paul was a great a theologian and he had a masterful a mind, and a grasp of philosophy and logic but he was still a very impassioned individual.
In Romans 9:1-3, Paul all of a sudden bursts into an invitation and he says, “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.”
In John 5:39-40, Jesus said, “You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.” Jesus had a passionate concern that his hearers respond. Teach always that Jesus true teachings demand a response. In Hebrews 13:22, the whole book of Hebrews is called a message of exhortation.
Now this warning cannot be to Christians, first of all, because Christians could never be in danger of neglecting salvation since they’ve already got it. Secondly, it can’t be directed at people who have never heard the gospel, because they can’t neglect what they don’t know exists. So the only group left is these non-Christians who are intellectually convinced, but not committed.
This is not only a Jewish passage, but it also fits many who are on the edge of decision for Christ. And because of self will, or fear, or sin, because of fear of the persecution of family and your friends, says no to Christ, and just continues to neglect this. And there are some of you like that here tonight. You know the truth. You believe the truth, but you’re not willing to make a commitment.
The Holy Spirit is giving you one more warning. There are three great reasons to receive this salvation namely the character of Christ, the certainty of judgment, and the confirmation of God. First Hebrews 2:1 says, “For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” One word in there keys the whole thing. It’s the first words, “For this reason”.
Who has been presenting in all the verses of Hebrews 1? Jesus Christ. Because of who Christ is, “For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” He’s called the Son. He’s called the heir of all things, the one who made the world. The exact image of His person. He’s the one who upholds all things by the Word of his power.
Jesus is the one who purged our sins. He’s the one who’s seated on the right hand of the Majesty. He’s the one better than angels. He’s the one in Hebrews 1:5 who is the Son. He’s the one in verse 6 who is the prōtotokos, the chief of all. He’s the one in verse 6 of whom the angels worship. He’s the one in verse 7 whose angels are his servants. He’s the one in verse 8 called God who is forever and ever.
And you see, that is so graphic, and that is just how it is. It’s not that men go head long diving and plunging into hell, you know. It’s that they drift into it. Most people don’t deliberately do that, and in a moment, turn their backs on God, curse God. Most people slowly, almost imperceptibly slip past the harbor of salvation and are broken on the rocks of destruction.
Back in Proverbs 4:20-22 it says, “My son, pay attention to my words; Listen closely to my sayings. 21 Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.” When you hear the Word of God, make it yours. It’s not enough to just let it drift past your ears. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do.
The harbor of salvation is static. It’s in Jesus Christ. It never moves. It never changes. It’s always available until the time that a man slips past the harbor of grace and it’s over. How many millions were close to be safely moored and anchored, only to drift away from their moorings forever through a failure to receive what they heard and, in many cases, what they actually believed.
Secondly, that person is a fool to reject salvation because of the certainty of judgment. Verse 2-3, “For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation had its beginning when it was spoken of by the Lord, and it was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.”
What was the covenant mediated by angels? The Old Testament. If nobody got away with breaking the covenant brought by angels, you don’t think you’re going to get away with breaking the covenant brought by our Lord himself? Here the Holy Spirit is arguing from the lesser to the greater, and He has in mind two testaments. One was the revelation of the law, and any breach of that law.
Breaking the Law was followed by a severe and just punishment. The other revelation came through Christ, the Son of God. It was a greater Testament, and consequently, it had a greater punishment. Some people think that because God loves them, and He is a God of grace that He’s not a God of justice. If you do not receive Jesus Christ, you are condemned by your own choice.
And verse 2 says, “Every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment.” That means the law punished every sin. There are two kinds of sin. Transgression, parabasis means to step across the line. That’s a sin of commission. Disobedience is a different word. This is the sin of neglect or omission. This is standing there doing nothing when you should do something.
There’s only two kinds of sin, what you do and what you don’t do. And both types and categories of sin were breaches of the Old Testament law, and they received a just and severe punishment. As the principle of the issue, he was defying the law of God and the punishment was inviolable. The ones who were being slain here were those who were not of God, but of Satan.
In verse 2, I must point out the word ‘just’. God is just. God’s never done anything unjust in His existence. In every punishment and everything that He ever did was a deterrent to the sin that He wanted to stop. And He only punished those that were already determined to abide without Him, and to defy Him, and He removed them for the sake of those who were pure and holy and wanted to live for Him.
And a question always comes up about the justice of God. His judgment on Israel was severe, and it was severe because they knew better. Let me give you a principle. Punishment is always related to light. The more light you have, the more severe your punishment. And the more you know, the greater the punishment. And the hottest hell belongs to those who rejected the most light.
Thirdly, it’s foolish because of the confirmation of God in verse 3-4, “This salvation had its beginning when it was spoken of by the Lord, and it was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 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.” The Lord was the first preacher of the gospel, right?
In Luke 4:16-21 it says, “Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because God has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”
Jesus himself was the first preacher of the gospel. “And it was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.” Now remember, that these Jews who are believing Jews and who have heard the gospel didn’t hear it from Christ himself. They were the second generation. They had heard it from apostolic missionaries. The Lord preached it first, but it was confirmed to us by them that heard Him.
But in verse 4 it says, “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.” When Jesus preached the gospel, He also did things that made it believable. He said, “If you can’t believe what I say, believe it for the works sake.” Jesus did miracles, and then preached to confirm His word.
Jesus said, “I’m speaking God’s truth,” and then He went over and healed somebody that was blind. Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:22 was, “This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him. Do you know that the same things that Peter talks about are the same confirming signs for the second generation preachers?
Now the words, signs, wonders, and miracles are really synonyms. They’re referring to all these marvelous supernatural things that these apostles did. But then one other thing, not only did they confirm the Word with signs, and wonders, and miracles, and we’ll make mention of that again, but also by gifts of the Holy Spirit. Do you see it there in verse 4? Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Now watch this conclusion, “according to His will.” What were the gifts of the Holy Spirit? 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 lists all the gifts. Now 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The signs of an apostle were performed with unfailing endurance among you, including signs and wonders and miracles.” These belonged to the apostolic age. They’re not for today. They were for confirming the Word.
And that these gifts all have ceased with the apostolic era. They have no need to exist today, because there is no need to confirm the Word. You don’t need a miracle, you need to match him up with the Word, right? When that which is perfect has come, then that which is partial is passed away. These miraculous gifts were part of the credentials of the apostles. And they necessarily passed away with it. Let us pray.