The Book of Hebrews is a letter. It was written to persuade people not to drift away from the Lord Jesus Christ. To do this, the writer shows, in chapter after chapter, how great Jesus is. The greatness of Christianity is the greatness of Christ! In Hebrews 1, we've already been taught the lesson that Jesus Christ is greater than the angels.

Here's a bit of background to the passage. One of the main characteristics of the Old Testament is that it contains the old covenant. In the old covenant, God gave his commandments to men and women and said, "Do this and live". Sadly, everyone failed. Therefore he set in place the new covenant, which you find in the New Testament. In the new covenant, God sent his Son to die to save sinners and said, "Believe in Jesus and live".

v1–4 picks this up. This is what the writer is saying. "Look how serious this all is! The old covenant message was dead important. Those who broke God's laws were punished. They earned death for themselves. But that was just the message which came through angels! Now we've got the new covenant message. That's the message which has come through Jesus Christ. So if you reject that message, how much worse will your punishment be? How will you escape if you ignore such a great salvation as that which the new covenant tells you about?"

That leads us on to think, firstly, about something immense, and, secondly, about something important.

i Something immense

Look again at v2–3. When v3 talks about salvation, it's really pointing to the message of the new covenant which says that Jesus saves people from their sin. What is it about salvation, then, that makes it so great, so immense? Here are two reasons.

The first reason why the salvation revealed in the new covenant is so immense is that Jesus is so great. The Bible says that he is the most powerful person who ever lived, the wisest person who ever lived, the most loving person who ever lived. You can see that in Luke 7:11–17, Mark 6:1–6 and John 15:13.

That is why the salvation he offers is so immense. He lived so powerfully, so wisely, so lovingly. And he laid down his life to save people who had broken God's laws. He died on the cross to save sinners like you. All who believe in him, confessing their sin to God, will be saved. He is just the Saviour you need.

The second reason why the salvation offered by the new covenant is so immense is because of what we are saved from and what we are saved for.

We are saved from hell. The Bible tells us that there is such a place as hell. It is a place of torment. It is a place of never-ending suffering. It is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Above all, it is a place where God punishes sinners for all eternity. The Lord warns us about hell, not to frighten us, but to tell us to escape from it. And Christians know that we've been saved from hell.

We are saved for heaven. Here is one word which the Bible uses to describe heaven. You can find it in Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:4, and Revelation 2:7. It's the word paradise! But multiply the feelings you have when you think of a desert island by a billion and you're still not even close. Heaven is perfection itself. It's paradise. And that's what Christians have been saved for.

Two reasons why the salvation offered by the new covenant is so great, then. We have a great Saviour, Jesus. We are saved from the worst fate, that of going to hell. We are saved so that we go to the greatest place, heaven. It's something immense!

ii Something important

That being the case, then, here's something important. It's vitally important how you respond to that great salvation. So how are you going to respond?

Here are two ways not to respond.

Firstly, v1 warns us not to drift away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly people do that all the time. They come to church. Some even get interested. But they dither about actually coming to Him and in the end, they never do. How tragic if you end up in hell because you drifted away from the only one who can save you! Can you imagine regretting that for all eternity?

Secondly, v3 warns us not to ignore the message. Many do that. Maybe you are doing it right now by not listening. You're not listening to the one message which can save you. You're ignoring the message of salvation. But how will you escape if you ignore such a great salvation?

This is what you need to do. You need to repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ.

Repenting means seeing that you are a sinner, confessing your sin to God, and turning away from it. If you really repent, you confess your sin to the Lord and you make a clean break with it. You turn away from it.

Believing in Jesus means trusting in him. It means trusting that Jesus died on the cross to save sinners, that he is the only person who can save you, that he will save you if you believe in Him. And it means trusting him! It means relying on him to save you.

That's the right response to this message. So have you repented of your sin? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? The most tragic people on earth are those who reject this salvation. It's that important.