Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Hebrews 02:01-04, NKJV).
The Law was given to Moses, appointed by angels through the hands of a mediator (Ga 3:19), and it mandated harsh punishments against those who transgressed or disobeyed a holy, eternal God. Sometimes, God Himself would render judgment upon the Children of Israel for rebellion and apostasy. At other times He used the Nations to exact His retribution. In each instance, when sentence was pronounced, it was a just reward.
This is a key to understanding the unity of both the Old and New Testaments. God's Law is perfect and breaking it warrants severe consequences. This is true simply by right of His divine power and sovereignty. We don't like that, of course. We want God to be neatly under our control if He exists, excusing our own rebellion, but meting out His justice on all those who offend us, or upon whom we loftily disapprove.
Thankfully, God is impartial and not like us at all in that regard. But His righteous justice is not the only thing that God possesses; it is one of His attributes operating in perfect unison and harmony with His other characteristics: Mercy, Kindness, Long-suffering, Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence. All these are components of His entire divine nature, but there remains one aspect of His Deity that is described uniquely. While He possesses those things just listed, He is Love.
This is important because it enables us to reconcile the harsh (to us) judgments of the Old Testament, with His seemingly increased tolerance of the New.
Two common and widely promulgated mistakes are made here. The first is that God undergoes a major personality change; the harsh and dictatorial Monarch of ancient Israel transforms into the Sacrificially Forgiving Suffering Servant of the Church. Both these caricatures are egregiously incorrect and are a result of either willful ignorance of Scripture, or premeditated character assassination.
God does not change. His dealings with Israel and the Nations prior to Christ were exact representations of His divine and perfect justice. His righteous wrath against His creatures on His world is absolutely consistent with His nature.
Yet, the Old Testament histories are rife with His mercy and forgiveness, as well. He longed for Israel to return from its countless rebellions, and graciously rescued them from their oppressors for centuries. He lavished upon them His lovingkindness endlessly, and prospered them above and beyond anything they could conceivably have deserved.
And most importantly, although He made an end of many people-groups who set themselves as enemies of His Chosen People, He remained true to His word of never making a complete end of Israel itself. Even when they rejected and crucified His beloved Son.
With the Coming of Christ, and the Church Age, it might seem that God's sense of justice changed, but that is most emphatically not true. In fact, it is Jesus who spoke more forcefully of Hell and the coming final wrath of God than any prophet of the Old Testament. The Lord's description of the Great Tribulation is exponentially more catastrophic than any episode of divine justice recounted prior to His Advent. Additionally, there were instances in the early church where God's retribution was as immediate and devastating as in the past (Acts 5).
The crucial linch-pin tying these together is the Son's propitiatory death on the Cross. The Father poured out upon Christ the fullness of His wrath. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Every punishment that we deserve and Jesus did not was heaped upon our Savior in our place. This was the plan of redemption from the beginning because God is Love. It enabled Him to be both perfectly just and the loving justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. All at Christ's unfathomable expense.
And it ushered in this gracious Age of the Church, where God is desiring that all should come to faith in His Son to escape the coming fires of judgment.
Do not mistake this long-suffering patience of the Father for a change of heart with regard to sin. What was true in the Old Covenant has not been abrogated one iota. The soul that sins must die. And that death is not the blinking out of existence or consciousness, but the eternal agonizing separation of a soul from everything that is good.
The nation that does not obey God will be brought down to destruction. Transgression and disobedience, nationally and individually, will receive a just reward. God is not mocked. His justice will be carried out.
Thus the writer of Hebrews implores his audience to understand this unity by pointing backward to what occurred in the past so that the current offer of this great salvation in Christ is not neglected. To do so would be insane.
We complain about not getting what we deserve in this life, but be assured that without Christ we will receive precisely that.
And there will be no escape.
