To Encourage You

Hebrews 2:3 “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

For a true perspective on the value of things, there is no better place to look than the perfect Word of God. Here we find God’s value system.  Like everything else about Him, His values are perfect in every way.  The Bible tells us that “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are (God’s) ways higher than our ways and (God’s) thoughts than (our) thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).  Therefore, when the Bible tells us that something is “great,” it is greater than any concept of “great” that we might have.  And “great” is exactly what God has called our salvation. 

I read a sermon recently by Martin Lloyd-Jones on the verse above, and it helped give me a fresh perspective on this very thing.  First, consider the greatness of the One Who has saved us.  Our salvation is great because the One Who saved us is so great. The Bible is clear that the only One Who was able to save us is the greatest being in all the universe, God Himself.  Our salvation was planned by God the Father, put into effect by God the Son, all in the great power of God the Holy Spirit. No one else could have done this, for no one else had the wisdom, love, and power to do so.  As we are told in Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

But then think about what we have been saved from – the greatest calamity that can befall anyone – an eternity in the blackness and torment of hell.  To rebel against the God Who has made us is a very great sin.   God’s righteous judgment against this sin is eternal condemnation.  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The greatest act of love in the face of the greatest act of rebellion possible: what a great salvation this is. 

But then think about what we have been saved to.  God hasn’t just made a way for us to be forgiven of our great sin. He has made the way for us to be born again into a great new family. We who have been born again, changed on the inside from a person who hates God to one who now loves Him, have a very great salvation for we know that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). 

Yes, what a great thing, what a glorious thing, is this salvation – and all of it is a very great gift from God.  It was so very costly to Him, but free to those who believe. And thus, the question in the verse above, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”  How shall we have any hope if we turn from the truth of this message?  What’s the future hold for those who turn from this gospel?  As the Bible tells us in the words immediately following those above about this great salvation:  “It was declared at first by the Lord (and) attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will” (Hebrews 2:3-4).  The salvation that only God could give, told to us in a way that no other means could surpass, a salvation from the greatest calamity that there is in the universe, to the greatest blessings that God has ever given – what more could He do? What more wonderful gift could He give?  Surely, how shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation.