Here's the final post on what it should look like for us to live with a blessed assurance of salvation. Only someone else already did the hard work for me. Below is an excerpt from a Kevin DeYoung sermon. I don't like everything this joker writes (though I did just order one of his books entitled Just Do Something), nor am I fond of the length of most of his posts. However he often helps balance me out, and I think this sermon finishes what I had already wanted to say. Again a lot longer, but in his defense, it is a sermon manuscript!
Here's his take on Hebrews 2:1-4 and the book of Hebrews in general.
"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."
This is one of five warning passages in Hebrews. These five passages are not teaching that genuine Christians can lose their salvation. What they are teaching is that some people with an external connection to Christianity will not in the end by saved. And further, these passages suggest that those who are saved at the end, will be saved by means of these warning. These passages are danger signs that keep the elect persevering to the end.
“We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard”–that’s the warning. Sit up straight. Put your feet on the floor. Shut your yap. And listen up. “Pay attention church people! You are in danger of drifting away.” Hebrews 6:19 says the promise of God is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” So we’ve got warnings to the drifters and promises to those who are anchored.
You can read the rest here.
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