There Is No Escape without Jesus

 

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4).

 

The central theme of this chapter, or at least this portion of the chapter, is the theme of escape. When you think of escape, you think of some kind of deliverance from a dire and life-threatening situation, like escaping from a kidnapper, or soldiers being surrounded in battle and finding a way to retreat safely. That is an escape. But the most common idea with which we associate the idea of escape is imprisonment; not just from jail, but from those prisons that are the most notoriously inescapable, such as the former condition of Alcatraz, Devil’s Island, or the most dreadful of all French prisons, the Château d’If. The last of those mentioned was simply impossible to escape.

 

As dire and dreadful as the circumstances were in the Château d’If, there is an even greater and more dreadful captivity than any human being can imagine. The author of Hebrews speaks of an escape from that captivity. He asks the question, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” The answer to the question is simple. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” The answer is, we cannot. Maybe one could escape from Alcatraz, or Devil’s Island, or even the Château d’If, but the one prison from which no one ever escapes is hell. There is no escape route. You cannot dig under it. You cannot climb over it. No guard can be bribed. The sentence cannot be commuted.

 

So, the author of Hebrews is saying: “Do you realize what you’ve heard? We have heard from the Word of God Himself about a great salvation.” The impact should be sobering indeed. Yet so many have shrugged away this great danger. Having preached for over half a century I am still amazed at how little regard some have for the reality a eternity without Jesus. And, there is no need to be without Him. He has done everything necessary to pay the debt we can never pay and died the death we all deserve. Trust Him today!