2. A Great Salvation Hebrews 2
HEBREWS CHAPTER 2 VERSES 1-18
2. A Great Salvation
2. A Great Salvation Hebrews 2
We Tend to Drift
Have you ever been out on the ocean in a boat? Unlike on a lake, if you turn the motor off and just sit there floating, you don’t stay in one spot: you drift in the current. You look up to find you are somewhere completely different. Without doing anything at all, you have drifted away.
It is the same in the Christian life. Drifting happens very easily and imperceptibly. For this reason, our author says, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (2:1).
Here is something that we rarely want to admit: there is a part of each of us that tends to be drawn to things other than Jesus. Left to themselves, our hearts tend to drift away from God.
Many things can lead us to drift. It could be suffering, which derails our faith; or opposition, which makes us want to give up; or busyness, which distracts us from our spiritual life. It could be holding on to sin instead of repenting. These things can draw us away from God.
It can even be little things that cause us to drift away. C.S. Lewis illustrates this in his book The Screwtape Letters, in which one demon gives advice to another:
“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (p 56)
Now, to be clear, someone who is truly saved, who is truly a Christian, cannot ultimately lose their salvation—although they may have periods of disobedience or backsliding. However, we are given this warning to spur us on and to make us examine ourselves. There is a danger that we may think we are believers but end up proving by our estrangement from Jesus that we never really knew God.
This warning is for each one of us. At the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “One of you will betray me,” the disciples did not respond by saying, Well, we all know it’s going to be Judas! No, they said, Surely not I, Rabbi? (Matthew 26:21-25). They wondered, Is it me? They took the warning seriously for themselves. We too need to ask ourselves, “Could it be me? Could I drift away?”
God Holds People Accountable
Our author isn’t finished. He provides a second reason to pay attention to the message of the gospel: God holds us accountable for our response to it.
Indeed, God held his people accountable even during the time of the Old Testament. Hebrews 2:2 reminds us that “every transgression or disobedience [under the old covenant] received a just retribution.” When the Israelites disobeyed the message of salvation—when they rejected him and refused to receive his grace—he held them accountable (e.g. Exodus 32:35; Leviticus 10:1-3; Numbers 11:33; 14:20-23; Joshua 7:1-26).
We sometimes think that that Old Testament God is different from the God we read about in the New Testament. We think that the old covenant is all about wrath and judgment, and the new covenant is all about love and grace. But Hebrews 2:3 shows us that this is not true: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” The point is that if we reject the message of Jesus, we too will be held accountable.
Not only this, but we are even more culpable for rejecting Jesus’ message than people were for rejecting the old covenant. The author contrasts the “message declared by angels,” which revealed God in types and shadows, with the “great salvation” of Jesus, in whom God’s glory was fully displayed. If God was upset when the prophets were rejected, how much more do you think he will be upset if the Son is rejected?
At the same time, of course, we can see God’s great mercy in verse 3. The message that we must not neglect is the “great salvation” of Jesus Christ. We can escape the justice of God by embracing Jesus, who offered himself as the solution to our problem of sin. He has made a way of escape for us. We must pay attention to the message of Jesus because it provides the way out from God’s judgment.
The Message Is Clear and True
In verses 3-4, we see a third reason to pay attention: namely that this message of salvation is absolutely clear, trustworthy, and reliable.
First, the author says that this message “was declared at first by the Lord” (v 3). It did not come through an intermediary as the old covenant did. God, enfleshed in Jesus, came himself and spoke. This means that we have no need to worry about distortion in the message.
He goes on to say that “it was attested to us by those who heard.” This is a reference to the apostles, the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ teachings, death, and resurrection. This is not something I made up, says our author. There are eyewitnesses whom you and I know and have heard from.
The message was also confirmed by the Spirit. Look at verse 4: “God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles.” The message of salvation was authenticated by the amazing miracles performed by Jesus, capped off by his resurrection.
The final reason for knowing that the message is true is because of the “gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” God has gifted each and every Christian in some special way that allows us to bless the body of Christ and the world around us. One of the things that reassures us most in our faith is when we see the Spirit at work in God’s people around us. It gives us confidence that the gospel message is true.
We need to wake up and make sure we are proactively listening to this message, because it is clear, trustworthy, and reliable. We will be held accountable by our just God if we neglect it by drifting away. But we are all too likely to drift away if we don’t pay attention. That is the first warning in the book of Hebrews.
God’s Plan for Humanity
In verse 5 the author begins to tell us more about this message. He is going to explain how God became a man to save human beings. Jesus is the ultimate human—the perfect human—who is able to represent us before God.
To do this, the author first shifts the focus to us as humans: who we are and what we were made to be and do.
When it comes to the question of what it means to be human, people usually shoot either too high or too low. Some think of humans as little gods: everything is measured by what we think and what we want and what we do. Others say that there is nothing significant or unique or special about humans at all; we are nothing but little dust mites in a big universe.
Many people hold on to both these extremes at the same time without even realizing it. On the one hand they talk about how humanity is insignificant in the universe, and on the other hand they treat humans as if they are the measure of all things.
But this passage rejects both these views. It tells us that humans have glory and dignity and honor because we are made in the image of God. At the same time, we are not God. We are not the measure of all things. We have messed up the world and need to be redeemed.
In verse 5, the author indicates that “it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come.” In other words, humans stand out in creation: we are greater than angels. One day we are going to rule the world.
But why is that the case? In verses 6-8 he quotes from Psalm 8. This psalm begins by reflecting on how small humanity seems in the world, registering surprise that God would notice us: “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?”
Yet God has made us for a special purpose. In verse 7 we see two things that God has made us for. First, we’re to reflect God’s glory. “You have crowned him”—that is humanity, mankind, you and me—“with glory and honor.” This is an echo of Genesis 1:26, where we are told that we are made in God’s image. We reflect something about him that no other created being does. Each one of us is a little reflection of him. That is why he wants us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28): because the more human beings there are, the more God’s image and glory are spread.
Hebrews 2:8 reminds us that we are also designed to rule God’s world. It describes God “putting everything in subjection under [man’s] feet.” God made human beings to be the guardians, protectors, and rulers of his world. He intended it that way for his glory and our blessing.
This is why angels are not given dominion over the world. Here is a stunning verse—1 Corinthians 6:3: “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” We tend to think of angels as more glorious than us—and at the moment, as Hebrews 2:7a tells us, humans are indeed “for a little while lower” than them—but someday we will have a role in ruling and judging them.
We need to recognize this distinctive glory and dignity of humans. Every person you run into is a little immortal, made in the image of God. Every person—poor or wealthy, notorious sinner or respected member of the community—should be shown dignity and honor. Humans have a distinctive purpose: to reflect God’s glory and rule his world.
What Happened?
But things didn’t go that way. In verse 8 we see that God designed everything to be under the dominion of his vice-regents, the human beings he created. However, “at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him [mankind].”
The truth is that we are not ruling the world well, and we are not reflecting God’s glory well. We have messed up the idea of ruling so badly that when we think of the word “ruler,” we often think of someone who lords it over others—someone who oppresses. That was not God’s intention for rulers. But we’ve blown it. And so, the world is a profoundly broken place.
There is a rich irony in God’s plan for humanity. We were designed to rule over angels, and yet it was an angelic being (Satan) who persuaded Adam and Eve to follow him and rebel against God. Instead of judging and ruling over angels, the first humans subjected themselves to angels. Instead of rebuking Satan, they listened to him. The ultimate result was that God’s design for the world was profoundly broken.
People will tell you that the problem with the world is lack of education, or bad cultural influences, or economic inequality; if those things were sorted out, the world would be a better place. But in all those scenarios, the problem is still there as long as we are still there. It is not just that Adam sinned; his corruption has passed down to all humans after him. In short, you and I are the problem with the world. And if we’re the problem, we can’t be the solution. Education, government programs, and cultural change are not enough, because they are human solutions. No, we can’t save ourselves.
So how can human beings be restored to the glory and honor that God intended? We need a perfect human to represent us. We need someone who can take our place and succeed where we failed. Sure enough, in verse 9, the author will begin to apply this psalm text not to humanity in general but to one human in particular—Jesus.