Don’t Drift

Hebrews 2:1 says, Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. And just what does “therefore” recall from ch. 1?  In short:  Christ supreme!  The Son of God is heir of all things, creator of the world, radiance of God’s glory, exact imprint of God’s nature, sustainer of the universe, infinitely superior to the angels, and the one who achieved cleansing for our sin—our only hope of forgiveness!—and sat down on the throne of God.

And since Jesus is so magnificent, it would be insane for us to neglect the great salvation he declared, and which was attested to by his first followers and confirmed by the wonder-working Holy Spirit (2:4-5).  The good news of Jesus shows the one avenue of escape from the justice of divine wrath—but how can we escape that dreadful out­come if we neglect such a great salvation (2:3)?  So back to 2:1:  Don’t drift away from Jesus and his gospel!  Stand firm, and stay put.

But beware, spiritual drift is subtle; it’s that one-degree turn of the ship that eventually takes you totally off course.  Jerry Bridges warns of one kind of drift Christians are prone to:  “If you do not daily appropriate the gospel, you will drift toward a performance relation­ship with God” (“Four Essentials for Finishing Well,” p. 25).  In other words, without daily time in God’s presence through Scripture and prayer, we’ll lose track of our grace-based standing and fall back on self-promoting, pride-inducing efforts to impress the Lord.

Pastor Steve Robinson recalls a season of dangerous drift:  “Find­ing my­self in the proverbial Sahara was something that crept up on me.  I didn’t wake up one day and decide, I’m going to stop reading God’s Word on a consistent basis. It happened slowly…  As I slowly departed from the Word of God, I was closing the conduit through which living waters were to flow to me” (“Why I Stopped Reading the Bible”).

A little neglect.  A little distraction.  A little self-indulgence.  And next thing you know, spiritual drift has carried you out to sea!  Let’s take the warning in Hebrews 2:1 seriously as a church, and let’s be on the lookout for how we can help each other hold firmly to the gospel and get our spiritual refreshment through quality time (alone and with others) anchored in the presence of the One who is our life!