To Encourage You

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

While many people are attempting to earn their way to heaven by their good works and religious rituals, how many understand that it is negligence concerning the offer of a free gift that will damn their souls.  Jesus likened it to an invitation to a wedding feast that had been prepared by a king, yet those who were invited “paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business” (Matthew 22:5). Even worse, there were some who “seized his servants (i.e., the servants who had given them the invitation), treated them shamefully, and killed them” (Matthew 22:6). 

In the verse above we have another example from the book of Hebrews of the “greater things” that Jesus has given this world. In the preceding verse it gives a description of the Law of God that had been given in the Old Testament.  We are told that this Law was actually given by angels on Mount Sinai, and “every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution” (Hebrews 2:2).  The Law was unforgiving. No one got a pass.  Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.  The greatness of the Law is that it defines for us what sin is and it tells us of our great need for forgiveness.  It shows us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  As Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I called not to call the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17).  The Law shows us this sickness.  Like a stethoscope, it’s God’s diagnostic tool. 

However, the Law has no remedy for this sickness.  Yet so many are making every effort to satisfy the requirements of the Law on their own by their good works and religious practices. Though the Bible tells us that “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6), they keep trying, however futile their attempts. 

By contrast, something much greater has come.  It’s the invitation of forgiveness that has come, not by angels, but by a much greater messenger, God’s only begotten Son.  It’s an offer that has been made possible not by our own works, which are futile,  but by the only work that could truly satisfy God’s justice, i.e., the sacrificial death of “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  But Jesus didn’t just declare this message of His grace. He made sure we all knew about it by attesting to it through His apostles who didn’t just hear what He said but also observed the affirming “signs and wonders and various miracles” that were unlike any the world has ever seen (Hebrews 2:4).  Thus, the Bible’s warning to not neglect this great message of God’s awesome saving grace. 

So, if you’ve heard the message of the gospel, if God in His sovereign grace has made sure you’ve been invited to the wedding feast, have you heeded that call, or are you paying no attention to it, thinking you’ve got something better to do?  Have you responded to God’s greatest invitation, or are you irritated by those who would have the gall to tell you about the one and only Way to eternal life? 

Negligence: don’t let it damn your soul.  The invitation has been made, the marriage feast has been made ready, but if you neglect the greatest invitation that the world has ever known, how can you ever hope to escape the consequences?