Lesson 4


The Epistle to the Hebrews

World English Bible translation

 Today's Scripture

2:1 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away. 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense; 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation -- which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard; 2:4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will?


Today's Lesson 

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews jumped right into the heart of the problem that he sought to address. He is writing to a predominantly Jewish community who had begun to waiver in their commitment to Christianity. They had heard the gospel of Christ and began to respond to it. When the first trials and persecutions had come, they had withstood them but now there was some that had begun to doubt. They had begun to wonder, Why not return to the faith of our fathers?

 

He had begun by comparing the Son of God to the prophets and the angels. The prophets had spoken God's word to His people in the past, but now God speaks through the Son. The Son offers a more complete revelation of God because the Son is greater than the prophets. The Son was even greater than the angels. The angels are holy messengers of God that minister to His people, but the Son is the very radiance of God's glory.

 

So the author asks these Jewish Christians, if the message of the Son is greater than that of the prophets, how much more should we pay attention to the gospel of the Son? After the Law was given at Sinai, God held the people responsible for every transgression and disobedience. God sent the prophets to remind the people of their covenant and to call them to repentance. And now He has sent His own Son. What will happen if we fail to listen to Him?

 

What the Son offers us now is a great salvation. The apostles and those who saw and touched Him confirmed what He told them. They bore witness to His gospel and had begun to spread the word to the entire world. But they were not the only witnesses to the gospel of Christ. Even God the Father was bearing witness to the gospel through signs and by the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. Through this witness the father was confirming the work of the Son.

 

What are you witnessing to in your life? Are you neglecting the great salvation that God has granted us in Christ?

 

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