How Shall We Escape If We Neglect so Great a Salvation?

We are studying passages found in the Letter to the Romans, in chapter 12. We have been talking about God’s call to holiness, to consecration, to a life completely surrendered to the Lord, one that reflects the greatness and sublime character of God’s plan of salvation, one worthy of the holy, just, and perfect God whom we serve.

So we have been spending time in Romans chapter 12, where the apostle Paul begins by saying, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” And I want to continue emphasizing the connection the apostle Paul makes between the greatness of God’s revelation, God’s plan, God’s character, and the calling in our own lives, which must therefore reflect, must be worthy of, must at least bear some equality and resemblance to the greatness of the Gospel we have received.

And we have seen that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reasons in much the same way because, after all, it is the Holy Spirit who is directing him, isn’t it? And so we see here that in Hebrews chapter 2 the writer has also said, “Therefore”—in this case, having considered the sublimity and beauty of Christ Jesus himself in Hebrews chapter 1—he says, “We must pay more careful attention to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

And then in verse 2 of Hebrews chapter 2 he says something very interesting: “For if the word spoken through angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

Do you see what I was saying in the first meditation? The writer of Hebrews is saying something here similar to what Paul says in Romans chapter 12, and the writer of Hebrews makes a comparison that is a little more complex still, in which it is clear—and I believe he is referring here to the revelation received under the old plan of the law, the Abrahamic plan, what we call the Old Testament.

And the writer of Hebrews is saying here to these people, to these Hebrews who have converted to Christianity, to whom he writes this Epistle, the Epistle to the Hebrews: If, in the first part of God’s plan of salvation, which was an imperfect plan, the revelation these people received through the angels and the Holy Spirit was a solemn, serious revelation to be considered and obeyed, and God sent just recompense immediately for every transgression of that plan, every violation, every sin, every act of disobedience with respect to that old plan—in other words, he punished disobedience and neglect of the plan of salvation; when the Hebrews sinned, God always judged and punished them, didn’t he? He disciplined them.

If in that plan God took such care and paid such attention that he immediately brought punishment, recompense, in other words, then he says: How shall we Christians, who have now entered into salvation through a perfect plan, a plan God considers the consummation of everything he has been doing—that plan in Christ Jesus, of which the old plan in the Old Testament was merely a suggestion, a stopgap, something provisional, while what is real is what we have in Christ Jesus—if God treated that former plan with such care, how shall we now escape God’s punishment and divine discipline if we neglect so great a salvation?

You see here another reason why we must be very careful about how we behave in the Christian life: God also punishes those he loves; God disciplines those for whom he has a plan, a purpose. We cannot let down our guard; we cannot behave as those who do not know the Lord behave, because we are in such a serious, such a weighty, such a sublime spiritual order and administration; we serve a God so holy, so just, and we have an enemy so accusatory, so persistent, who lets nothing pass either and never fails to accuse us again and again before the Lord. How shall we escape, then, if we behave improperly, if we neglect and do not take seriously that great salvation we have received through Jesus Christ, right?

So it is an implicit way of saying: Be careful how you walk once you are on the Lord’s path; you must walk with seriousness. So many Christians let down their guard completely; they go to church, serve the Lord in certain ways, know the Word, and even preach, but they neglect the seriousness with which they ought to serve the Lord. And many times we commit all kinds of violations, not realizing that the Word says we will not escape receiving discipline from the Lord.

So one of the reasons we must behave that way is that we would also receive punishment and discipline from the Lord. So how shall we escape, the writer of Hebrews says, if we neglect so great a salvation?

He says: “Which, having first been announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness with them by signs and wonders and various miracles and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will.” Hebrews chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.

In other words, isn’t that so? This great salvation that God has devised through Christ Jesus has been accompanied by all kinds of things: not only did Christ announce it when he came to earth, but afterward it was also confirmed by the apostles to whom the Lord entrusted the preaching of the Gospel. And so these men bore witness together with God, with the Holy Spirit, he says, through signs and wonders and various miracles.

Because that is what we see in the Book of Acts, where, once Christ ascends, all kinds of miracles and outpourings—or, as it says, distributions—of the Holy Spirit take place. The Book of Acts relates how God’s revelation through Jesus Christ then continues with the Church, and so God continues to take his revelation seriously. That revelation, then, he reveals through Christ Jesus in his life, his death, his resurrection; the apostles reveal it too, and now pastors, evangelists, preachers, all those who continue the work Christ began here on earth, reveal it.

That plan is so beautiful and is accompanied by all kinds of blessings, signs, wonders, distributions of the Holy Spirit; the writer of Hebrews says: How can we escape receiving discipline from God if we neglect that beautiful salvation?

And so, as we see, there is a beauty here even in the very beginning of Romans chapter 12, in verse 1. And notice that we have not even begun to delve fully into some of the things the apostle Paul says here, but we already see that it is important to take this seriously, isn’t it? So we can better understand what he says here in chapter 12: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” So, because of the great beauty and complexity of God’s plan and its sublime character, we must do certain things that we will look at now in our next meditation.

May the Lord bless you, and we will speak again very soon. This is Pastor Roberto Miranda, signing off.