Mark you here, it is believing, believing; It is, I say, believing that is here required by Christ. Believing what? The gospel; even good tidings to sinners by Jesus Christ; good tidings of good, glad tidings of good things. Mark how the apostle hath it; the glad tidings is, 'That through this man [Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses' (Acts 13:38,39).
These signs shall follow them that believe. Mark, signs before, and signs after, and all to excite to, and confirm the weight of believing. 'And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen' (Mark 16:20).
Third, 'Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will' (Heb 2:1-4).
Here we are excited to the faith of the Lord Jesus, under these words 'so great salvation.' As if he had said, give earnest heed, the most earnest heed, to the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, because it is 'so great salvation.' What this salvation is, he tells us, it is that which was preached by the Lord himself; 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). God so loved, that he gave his Son to be so great salvation. Now as is expressed in the text, to be the better for this salvation, is, to give heed to hear it; for 'Faith cometh by hearing' (Rom 10:17).
He saith not give heed to doing, but to the word you have heard; faith, I say, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10). But that this hearing is the hearing of faith, is farther evident:
1. Because he speaketh of a great salvation, accomplished by the love of God in Christ, accomplished by his blood. 'By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us' (Heb 9:12).
2. This salvation is set in opposition to that which was propounded before, by the ministration of angels, which consisted in a law of works; that which Moses received to give to the children of Israel. 'For the law Besides, the threatening being pressed with an 'How shall we escape?' Respects still a better, a freer, a more gracious way of life, than either the moral or ceremonial law; for both these were long before: But here comes in another way, not that propounded by Moses, or the angels, but since by the Lord himself. 'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.' Now mark, It is this salvation, this so great and eternal salvation, that was obtained by the blood of the Lord himself. It was this, even to confirm faith in this, that the God of heaven himself came down to confirm, by signs and wonders; 'God bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will' (Heb 2:4). Thus we see, that to establish a holiness that came from the first principles of morals in us, or that ariseth from the dictates of our human nature, or to drive us back to that figurative holiness that we had once, but lost in Adam, is little thought on by Jesus Christ, and as little intended by any of the gospel miracles.