COVENANTS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES
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In the verbal form bebaioo, the word occurs again in Hebrews 2:3, `was confirmed'. This fact helps us to see the
force of the word `stedfast' better. Both the old and the new Covenants have been miraculously confirmed, and this
confirmation added to the guilt of those who broke the former covenant's terms. This is brought out in Hebrews 6,
and again, from another standpoint, in Hebrews 10:28-29. `Every transgression and disobedience': the words are
nearly synonymous, they indicate a transgression accompanied by stubbornness and rebellion. Let us remember the
many examples of those under the old Covenant who transgressed or rebelled against the terms of the Covenant
confirmed by God. Let Moses himself bear witness that his act of transgression caused him to forfeit the land of
promise; let all Israel who wandered forty years in the wilderness enforce the same principle, and let Caleb and
Joshua also declare that the recompence of reward' took into account good as well as evil. It is the transgression,
however, that is in view for the time being.
`The recompence of reward' (misthapodosia), and `the rewarder' (misthapodotes) are both peculiar to Hebrews.
They indicate the central idea of the epistle upon which we have again and again insisted, namely, that Hebrews is
parallel with Philippians, which speaks of the prize, and of working out our own salvation. `The recompence of the
reward' comes as follows, 2:2; 10:35; 11:26, where the two sides, the good and the evil, are illustrated. The
parenthetical way in which verse 6 comes in chapter 11 indicates that all those witnesses whose overcoming faith is
instanced in that remarkable chapter believed that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Without suggesting that the following is verbally accurate, it will nevertheless set out the argument of the apostle
sufficiently for the general reader:
Hebrews 2:1-4
Aa
Warning, lest let slip.
b
Things spoken by angels.
c
Confirmed (bebaios).
B
No escape from just recompence.
B
How escape from similar recompence?
Aa
Warning, if neglect so great salvation.
b
Spoken by the Lord.
c
Confirmed (bebaioo) in special manner by God.
The argument is resumed in Hebrews 12:25-26, after a vast ground has been covered:
`See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they ESCAPED not who refused Him that spake on earth, much
more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the
earth' (i.e. at Sinai, when the law was given by the disposition of angels).
That there was a tendency on the part of the Jews to think they would escape is indicated by the question in
Romans 2:3:
`And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt
escape the judgment of God?'
Covenant relationship and privilege notwithstanding, the Jew was in error. There are believers today who so
emphasize free grace that it may do good to draw attention to the balance of privilege and responsibility which
characterizes the teaching of all Scripture. There are some who, ignoring Colossians 3:22-25, maintain that the
judgment seat of Christ has no place in the epistles of the Mystery. This can only lead to imbalance.
The So Great Salvation (Heb. 2:1-4)
`How shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT SALVATION?'. What is this salvation which is so great? None
would be found to demur at the designation if it thereby indicated the salvation of the sinner by the blood of Christ.
How great that is none can tell; salvation, as used in Hebrews, however, does not carry with it the evangelical