1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
“For this reason”, the reason of which the author spent the whole first chapter making—God is a God of communication, He has communicated to us in His Son, and the Son now sits at the right hand of Majesty superior to the heavenly beings. With this reason “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” If everything that the preacher has said thus far is true, we as his hears need to really take heed to what he is saying. If we don’t listen to the word spoken, meditating on it and keeping it in our minds and hearts, we will be prone to drift away from it. Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”. What Paul stressed in this verse is the same that the preacher stresses in Hebrews—it is the gospel that keeps believers saved. It is the gospel that brought us to faith and it is the gospel that keeps us in faith. Therefore we must make the gospel the centerpiece of our lives, lest we drift away.
The preacher finally then makes his first exhortation to the hears after giving his beautiful picture of who Christ is and where He now sits. Now he declares to them the negative consequences for not “paying much closer attention” and therefore “drifting away”. If the “word spoken through angels”, paralleling it to the message spoken by the prophets who received it from the angels, “proved unalterable”, it was worthy of listening to as spoken by God for His people to hear so that they might know Him and His will. Thus the Torah, the prophets, and the writings were to be highly esteemed and honored as the words of God, because to fail in keeping any of them was considered a “transgression and disobedience”. The words which back from angels through the prophets were to be understood as the Word of God and if one failed to keep them he “received a just penalty”.
If we now, who have not received the Word of God by angels, but by the Son who sits at the right hand of God, “neglect so great a salvation”, “how will we escape”? The preacher has compared the two forms of God’s communication, that from angels by prophets and the Son. If those of old who neglected the message were judged and given a just penalty, such as those who left Egypt, but died in the wilderness, never entering the Lord’s rest because they did not believe (Hebrews 3:16-19), how much more guilty will we be if we reject the words of the Son. The preacher’s hope is to instill a godly since of fear in us so that we will cling even closer to the gospel so that we will not drift away.
For the gospel was “first spoken through the Lord” during His earthly ministry, then it was “confirmed to us by those who heard”, which are the Apostles, and then it was also confirmed by God who was “testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit”. Here the preacher reveals that he was not one of the twelve Apostles, since he was not an eye witness, but he and his hears are second generation Christians. This does not negate the fact that God has “spoken to us in His Son” though. For by the words of the Apostles’ we have the Son who has spoken. But if our hearts fail us and we question the words of the Apostles’, we have the testimony of God through the out pouring of His “signs, wonders, and miracles” to their message. With them came gifts of the Holy Spirit: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). And these gifts were distributed to God’s people “according to His own will.”
How then are we to grow in our personal lives and ministry through what the preacher has said? First, we must understand and preach the certainty of punishment for those to fail to believe. In our culture there is exist a suppression of responsibility for those who commit sin. In modern psychology the blame is transferred to society, parents, friends, and more examples than I have time to speak of. But the preacher is clear that their will be a judgment where all will be held accountable to whether they receive the word spoken by God. Though time does not permit, Romans 1:18-23 makes it clear that all men, those who have heard the Word of God preached and those who have not, will be judged without partiality on whether or not they believe. All will be held accountable to what God has spoken.
This therefore should press us toward the preaching of the gospel, to our selves first and lastly to the nations. It is the power of the gospel that keeps believers believing. When we neglect the gospel we enter into a world of danger of falling away. We must be a people whose lives revolve around the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not simply the idea of Jesus’ death for sinners though, but the greater vision of the triune God, the coming of the kingdom with the exultation of the Son, and the resurrection for those who believe. These thoughts should consume our hearts and minds and then in response to who God is and what He has accomplished it should naturally overflow into our conversations and preaching.
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