How shall we escape, if we neglect so great 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 that reflects the greatness and sublime character of the plan. salvation of God, that is at the height of the holy and just and perfect God that we serve.

So we have been there circling around the 12th chapter of Romans where the apostle Paul begins by saying: "So, brothers, I beg you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your rational worship." And I want to continue to emphasize that connection that the Apostle Paul makes between the greatness of God's revelation, God's plan, God's character and the calling in our own life that must then reflect, must be up to par, must be in equality and similarity at least with the greatness of the Gospel that we have received.

And we have been seeing that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has a very similar reasoning because after all it is the Holy Spirit who is directing him, right? and so we see here that in chapter 2 of Hebrews the writer has also said that: "Therefore" in this case seeing the sublimity and beauty of Christ Jesus himself in chapter 1 of Hebrews he says: "it is necessary that with more diligently we heed the things we have heard, lest we slip. "

And then he says in verse 2 of chapter 2 of Hebrews something very interesting, he says: "Because if the Word spoken through the angels was firm and every transgression and disobedience received just retribution, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?"

Do you see what I was saying in the first meditation? That the writer of Hebrews is here saying something similar to what Paul says in Romans chapter 12 and the writer of Hebrews makes a slightly more complex comparison where it is clear and I believe that he is referring here to the revelation received under the plan ancient 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, to the Hebrews, he says: if in the first part of the saving plan of God's plan that was a imperfect plan the revelation that these people received through the angels and the Holy Spirit was a solemn revelation, serious to be considered and obeyed and God, all the transgressions of that plan; All violation, all sin, all disobedience with respect to that ancient plan God immediately commanded just retribution in other words he punished him for disobedience, neglect of the plan of salvation, when the Hebrews sinned God always judged and punished them, right? disciplined them.

If in that plan God used so much care and attention that he immediately brought punishment, retribution in other words, then he says: how do we Christians, those of us who now enter salvation through a perfect plan, a plan that God already knows? consider as the consummation of all that He has been doing, that plan in Christ Jesus of which the old plan in the Old Testament was simply like a suggestion, an endurance, something provisional when the real is what we have in Christ Jesus. If God treated that plan with such care, how can we now escape God's punishment and divine discipline if we neglect such a great salvation?

You see here another reason why we have to be very careful about how we behave in the Christian life and that is that God also punishes those He loves, God disciplines those with whom He has a plan, a purpose. We cannot be careless, we cannot behave as those who do not know the Lord behave because we are in an economy, in such a serious, serious, so sublime spiritual administration, we serve a God so holy, so just and we have an enemy so accusing, so persistent that he does not forgive anything either and does not neglect to accuse us again and again before the Lord, how will we escape then if we behave in an improper way, if we neglect and do not take seriously that great salvation that we have received through Jesus Christ, right?

So it is an implicit way of saying: be careful how you walk once you are in the ways of the Lord you have to walk seriously. There is so much Christian that it is completely neglected; They go to Church, they serve the Lord in certain ways, they know the Word and they even preach but they neglect the seriousness with which they should serve the Lord and we often commit all kinds of violations not knowing that the Word says that we are not going to escape. to receive discipline from the Lord.

So one of the things we should behave in that way is that we would also receive punishment and discipline from the Lord. So how do we escape? says the writer of Hebrews if we neglect such a great salvation.

It says: "Which, having been first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard God testifying together with them with 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 right? This great salvation that God has devised through Christ Jesus has been accompanied by all kinds of things, not only that when Christ came to Earth he announced it but later it was also confirmed by the apostles to whom the Lord entrusted the preaching. of the Gospel and then these men testified together with God, with the Holy Spirit he says with signs and wonders and various miracles.

Because that is what we see in the Book of Acts where once Christ ascends then all kinds of miracles and outpourings as it says the sharing of the Holy Spirit happen. The Book of Acts tells how the revelation of God through Jesus Christ then continues with the Church then God continues to take His revelation seriously; That revelation then reveals it with Christ Jesus through His life, His death, His resurrection, the apostles also reveal it and now it is revealed by the shepherds, the evangelists, the preachers, all those who continue the work that Christ began here in the Land.

This plan is so beautiful and is accompanied by all kinds of blessings, signs, wonders, the sharing of the Holy Spirit; the Hebrew writer says: how can we escape from being disciplined by God if we neglect that beautiful salvation?

And as we see then there is a beauty here even in the very beginning of that chapter 12 of Romans in verse 1 and notice that we have not even fully entered into some of the things that the apostle Paul says here but we already see that it is important to take seriously this right? then we can better understand what he says here in chapter 12: "So brothers, I beg you by the mercies of God" so because of that great beauty and complexity of God's plan and its sublime character we must do certain things that we are going to see now in our next meditation.

May the Lord bless you and we will speak to each other very soon. I say goodbye to you, Pastor Roberto Miranda.