How Shall We Escape? | Hebrews 2:1–4 | The Danger of Drifting and the Hope of Salvation

Watch This Sermon: “How Shall We Escape?”

What does it mean to drift from the faith—and how can we escape the consequences? In this sermon on Hebrews 2:1–4, Pastor Mark Groen unpacks the urgency of the question, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” Hebrews reminds us that God has spoken in His Son, and that this salvation is our only hope. Through the law, we are convicted of our sin. Through the gospel, we find our rescue in Christ. This message calls us to pay close attention to the truth, to walk in repentance, and to rest in the finished work of Jesus.

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Several years back, there was an enjoyable VeggieTales feature-length film that was in theaters. It was the story of Jonah. Now, there was a lot of hype surrounding the film, and so there were a lot of interviews regarding this movie with the creators of it. And I was reading in some magazine, I think it was a Lutheran magazine, and one of the questions that the interviewer asked was why they chose to do a story, the Book of Jonah, instead of, say, a story from the New Testament. Well, they answered that they couldn't come up with a story from the New Testament that they could make a good chase scene out of.

Now, I guess if you're going to make a movie, that would be pretty important. I'm not sure how you get a chase scene from the Book of Jonah. They obviously added it in, and there was one. But that was an interesting answer because When you think about it, there's chase scenes in most movies. I thought about how do these chase scenes create tension? How do they draw us into the story? Most action movies have them, and they build up this tension and make us wonder, is the person we're rooting for going to escape? But chase scenes aren't just limited to movies.

They're used gratuitously in television series. I'm guessing it wouldn't take you long to think of one of your favorite shows that had a chase scene, or maybe it was like the childhood shows that I enjoyed, Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard. Those shows, they were essentially one long chase scene, right? I didn't want to sit and watch Michael Knight drive his car and talk to it. That wasn't exciting. I wanted them to chase somebody. I wanted some tension. It's a powerful plot tool. It's used in video games too. And the idea that we're trying to get here is will the main characters escape?

It puts us on the edge of our seats because we know that someone is in danger. Our hearts race as we wonder, how will they escape? And in our passage for this morning, we see a question asked by the author of Hebrews. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? And that is an excellent question. That is an important question. If we neglect the salvation that is offered in the Lord Jesus Christ, There is no hope for us. In order to understand this, we must understand what we are escaping from. In order for there to be salvation, there must be something that we have to be saved from.

As we dig into this text today, I want us to focus on three things that I think flow from the passage today. And the first thing that we need to see is that we need to pay close attention to what we have learned. It's so important that we understand what God's Word has to say. We need to know it. And as this passage says, we need to pay closer attention. We must know what we believe and why we believe it. These are foundations that let us know who God is and how we are to live our lives.

It shows us what we're escaping from. It shows that we deserve the wrath of God because of our sin and because we violated his law. And then secondly, We see the salvation that this punishment that we deserve requires. It requires that we be punished because we have sinned against a holy God. So we need salvation. And so we must not neglect this salvation because it's our hope. It's our means of escape from the wrath of God. It's what protects us. And it's not found in anything that you or I might do. It's the gift of God.

And lastly, we see that this is the witness of God as He has spoken in His Son. The work of salvation that God brings to His people was confirmed by miracles that demonstrate that God is the one speaking. He is the one who is speaking this word of salvation to his people. And so as we dig into this passage today, we're going to first see that we need to pay close attention to what we've learned. And it is so vital. that we pay close attention to what we've heard, or we will, in fact, forget it.

We will drift away from it, just as it says here. That line from that famous hymn, Come Thou Fount, rings true. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. prone to wander, we will drift away. And the author of the book of Hebrews is writing to a group of people who are feeling that temptation to fall away, to drift away. They are being tempted to return to their Hebrew religious practices. What we see in the book of Hebrews is how the story of salvation in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the laws and the promises of God found in the Old Testament.

And the basic mood of the entire book is why would you go back to the type and to the shadow of what was promised in the Old Testament when you can have the real thing in Jesus? Why get imitation cheese when the stuff with the real seal is sitting right next to it in the cabinet and it's the free gift of God? Why buy the store brand cola when an ice cold can of coke has been given to you and it's right there in your hand waiting for it to be opened? This is not to say that the author of Hebrews has a low view of the Old Testament though.

In fact, the book of Hebrews takes the Old Testament very, very seriously because it acknowledges the nature of sin and reminds us that a price needs to be paid for this rebellion against God. The book of Hebrews is very gospel-centered, but it shows us that we can't divorce the law from the gospel. Because unless we have an understanding of the law, how will we know that we need to be saved? We must have a foundation of who God is and what his law is if we're to truly understand and find joy in this salvation that he has given us.

Now we've seen this many different times over the course of this year, just from our journey through the first part of the book of Genesis. And I want to go back there. It establishes the foundation for why sin is sin. And it's rooted in the law of God, but the law of God is rooted in the very nature of who God is. What did we see back there in Genesis? We saw that God created all things. And what did that teach us? that God is the one who is in control. And when we try to get away from him, we are in rebellion and sin against him.

God is the law giver. Because he creates those laws, we must follow them. And we also saw right there in that first chapter of Genesis, more important stuff, that humans are made in God's image. And so this answers two very important moral questions in our current historical moment. We learn here that murder is wrong because all humans bear the image of God. Murder is sin, not simply because God said so, but because it destroys an image bearer. We also see why racism is a sin. God created all humans in the image of God and we don't look down on someone because their ethnicity is different than ours.

Every person bears the image of God and so as Christians we value that life and we respect each person as God has called us to do. And then another example that we have seen this year as we have been in Genesis, that we root our view of marriage and relationships in how God put the created order together. And we value those relationships. And we're called to live holy and chaste lives. The law of God is rooted in the very character and nature of who God is. And we could keep going, but this goes into all areas of our lives.

We need to hold all of God's word in high esteem because it provides the foundations that we need to not only to know how to live and treat others in our world, but it also shows us how to think and how to approach the dilemmas that are placed in front of us each day. And this applies not only to the big issues, but to our personal issues that you and I come in contact with every day. Do my thoughts betray what I say I believe about something? It's very easy to condemn the big moral issues of the day, but it's an entirely different thing for us to be honest about the state of our own hearts, right?

Do we take the word of God seriously when Jesus tells us that our lustful thoughts violate the command against committing adultery? Do we think our sin is serious when we have anger towards fellow image bearers? You know, Jesus teaches us that that is a violation of the commandment against committing murder. Do we really believe this? Or do we brush it aside? Because we don't believe we've physically murdered anyone or physically cheated on our spouse. We need to pay close attention to what we've heard. We need to let the law of God convict us of our sin.

We need the law of God to convict us of where we are filled with unbelief so that we might repent of those things, so that we might turn from our sin. If we don't pay close attention to what we've heard, we will be prone to wander. We will set ourselves up as God. We will make the rules. We will believe that we're the ones who decide what right and wrong is. But that's not the state of affairs. That doesn't reflect who God is. I mean, obviously we are not God. So we must remember to pay closer attention to what we have heard is true.

The law of God that convicts us of our sin and the gospel that atones for our sins is something that we must daily turn to. We grow in it and we learn to trust it more. We need to make sure that we do not drift away. And as we move on to our second point, we see that we need salvation. The author of Hebrews is reminding the people here in verses two and three that what they've heard is reliable. This is the real deal, folks. The message was given by angels, we read. Now, what the author of Hebrews hears is going back to Deuteronomy 33, where it said that angels played a role in delivering the law of God.

And his point here is that this law of God is from God and it was delivered by angels. It is of divine origin. It's not human ideas. It's a divine idea here. The law has authority because it's from God. And it's proven in the fact that every transgression we read here, every transgression and disobedience received a just retribution. So what's the author of Hebrews trying to say here? saying that we look back through the history of the Old Testament and what do we find? We kind of find the same story over and over, right? The people of God say they're going to keep the covenant of God.

They say, we will be covenant keepers. But what do we see? They reject the law. They turn from the covenant with God. And so they're punished for their sin. God establishes the covenant. He brings the people back. They come back from exile. And what happens? They failed to keep the covenant again. This happens over and over. It can best be described as a roller coaster. It just goes like this throughout the Old Testament. The people follow God, they turn from God, they're sent into exile. It happens over and over. So what the author of Hebrews is driving home to us is that if the people turned away from the covenant, they were punished.

And if we reject this salvation that comes from being in covenant with Christ, what will happen to us? The author of Hebrews asks, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? We've seen the law and it's absolute. Each and every one of us is guilty of breaking it. There is not a one of us who can say that we have not perfectly kept God's law. Like the Israelites who broke the covenant over and over, we have sinned against a holy God. We deserve his wrath and to be separated from his presence for eternity.

So this is what we're seeing being build up the tension here in Hebrews. It's that if God punishes sin and he's shown that he does, then what are you going to do to be saved? How will you escape? This is our chase scene. And it isn't meant to be exciting. It isn't meant to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's meant to make us feel the gravity of God's law. It's serious. It's serious. And the gospel is our only way out. And this is why we proclaim it profusely every week. Because it's how we're saved.

In the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin is paid for by God himself. And the original readers of this book, they were looking to return to the old covenant. They were wanting to move away from a sure salvation in Jesus Christ and go back to a sacrificial system. They were returning to the law. They were returning to the law and they had the gospel. Think about that. they had the gospel and they were wanting to go back to the law. And we wonder why anyone would do that. But let's be honest, we try to go back to the law too.

We want to save ourselves by our own works. We want to believe it's because of what we do that we'll be saved. But we can't save ourselves. And so if we wish to escape the judgment of God, We must not rest on our own righteousness, but instead receive the mercy of God as a free gift of His grace. We must not neglect this great salvation that we have in Jesus. And we're told how we can know this truth as we finish up our passage and see our third point today. This is the witness of God from Holy Scripture.

This escape isn't a man-made idea of how salvation comes to the people of God. Hebrews starts out by talking about how God has spoken in the past through the prophets, but now in these last days, God has spoken in His Son. And so what we're being told is that there was an authority in the Old Testament because God was speaking. And then this authority that we're hearing now about salvation in Jesus Christ is now continuing in the New Testament. So the progression that we see is that Jesus declared the message, the Lord declared the message, and then it was attested to by those who heard.

So what's being said by the author of Hebrews here is that the apostles have heard this and now they're the ones who are taking the message out into the world. And then it says that it's attested to by signs and wonders and various miracles. I think that we often miss the point of miracles when we see them in the Bible. And I understand why we do. We should be totally amazed by them because, well, they're miracles, right? But we get distracted about what the point is of the miracles. We think that miracles were just the way things went down back then.

God did miracles all the time back in the Old Testament. That was just the way things were. But if you really look at it, if we see where the miracles are occurring, we see that God is revealing himself through the prophets and they're proclaiming the word of God and these miracles are to show us that these aren't false prophets. Compared to the false prophets that can't do any miracles, the real prophets do miracles and so their word is from God. The word of the prophets who are performing these miracles are proclaiming the true word of the Lord.

And so this goes forward into the New Testament. So think about some of the words of Jesus in the Gospels. You'll recognize it when I say this. Jesus says, but so that you know that the Son of Man has authority, right? And then he performs a miracle. You've heard that before. And the first example of Jesus saying that comes to my mind is the man lowered through the roof. Jesus causes him to rise and walk. What was the point? To prove that he had the authority to forgive sins. The miracles of Jesus were not parlor tricks or illusions.

They were to demonstrate that he was the Lord of heaven and earth, and that what he was revealing was from God. The miracles had a specific purpose, to confirm to us that this means of escape, this means of escape that we have in Jesus Christ, The way that we escape from our sin is the real deal. That it's our only hope. And so it's time for us to think about what this means for us. And the two things that I want to challenge you with today as we go out into the world this week. The first thing that we need to do comes right out of the text here.

We need to pay closer attention. We do. It's imperative that we know what we believe and why we believe it. It's important that we know the attributes of God and let that inform how we live our lives. We need to teach what we have heard to our children. We need to not only know that something is wrong, we need to root that truth in who God is because this provides a foundation for us to be able to say what right and wrong is. So how do we do this? We've got to know God's word. We have to know God's word.

We can't speculate what God feels about something. He's revealed himself to us in his word. And if we want to know how God feels about sin, we have to see how it's dealt with in his word. And this means more than platitudes. It means more than good feelings. It means taking the time to dwell and meditate on the hard parts of scripture. Letting it convict us of our sin and drive us to repentance. We need to hear God's word. We need to read God's word. We need to memorize. We need to hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against God.

Because we're called to turn from sin. And that's hard. That's hard. You know it's hard. You can't do it without God's Word. You will not turn from sin by magically deciding you're going to do it. You need the Word of God and you need the Holy Spirit working in you. And like I said, it's hard. But it's what God calls us to do. And secondly, we need, we need to reflect on our great escape. We need to know what it is. Because as you reflect on the nature of God, as you pay attention to what you've learned, you're gonna be convicted of your sin.

You are. That's one of the purposes of the law. That's why the law exists, to drive us to repent of our sin. And our natural inclination is to think that we need to do something, that we need to earn our salvation. But we have to remember the great escape. We have to remember the grace of God. That is what sets us free from His wrath. When you're convicted of your sin, turn to Christ in repentance and faith. Because if you're in Christ, you have forgiveness. You don't need to dwell on your sin and think about it over and over and feel guilty over and over.

Instead, the good news of salvation. is that you have been not only forgiven, but you've been declared righteous. In the eyes of God, it is as if you have never sinned. You are seen as white and holy and pure, not because of you, but because of Christ. That's where you'll find peace. You can't shoulder the burden of the law on your own. It will break you. It will break you. You need Christ to take that burden. So let him do it. He is your means of escape. And because of what He's done, you can walk in freedom, you can walk in faith in this world, in gratitude for what God has done for you.

You can serve your neighbor in love. Why? Because you've been first served by God. And He's been giving you grace upon grace upon grace. And so you can go out and love and serve your neighbor in freedom. knowing that God has forgiven you. You see, the Christian life is one of law but is one of gospel also. And it's so important that we live our lives mindful of both. The law convicting us of our sin, driving us to repentance, and showing us how to live. but the gospel coming to comfort us, to fill our hearts with love, that we might love and serve God by serving others.

And so remember this as you go out into the world this week. Remember what you've learned, but do not carry the burden of the law yourself, for Christ has carried that burden for you. Live in freedom and live in peace. Amen.

Don't Drift—Dig Deeper into Christ

The message of Hebrews is urgent: Pay close attention. If this sermon has stirred your heart to hold fast to Jesus, don’t stop here.

➡️ Explore the full series: Visit our Hebrews | Once for All page to continue walking through this Christ-exalting book.

➡️ Wrestling with how God speaks today? Read God Has Spoken in His Son, a meditation on Hebrews 1 and the finality of Christ's revelation.

➡️ Learn how our church roots everything in God’s Word: Visit our Presbyterian Identity page to see how Scripture shapes our life and worship.

➡️ Catch up on other sermons: Browse our sermon archive for more faithful, expository preaching.

Hold fast to Christ. He is the anchor for your soul.