“…how shall we escape if we eneglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3)
In Hebrews 2:1, the author is making a very simple point. If the Old Covenant, given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai (Acts 7:53) and “declared by angels” (2:2) proved to be reliable, how much more attention should we pay to the “great salvation” that God has provided through Jesus? It was given not by angels but directly by the Lord (2:3) who spoke directly through his Son, Jesus (1:2). In Jesus, we don’t just get a representation of God, but we see the “exact imprint of his nature” in human form (1:3). Why would we need to pay more attention to this “great salvation” in Jesus than in the law? There are many reasons that he’ll flesh out in the following passages, but in this particular passage he gives the first reason.
The author says, pay attention to see that you don’t drift from what God says through Jesus. Then, the author writes that in the Old Covenant, “every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution” (2:2). What he means is that under the Old Covenant system of the law, every violation of the Covenant came with certain consequences. If you violated that Sabbath, you would be punished. If you committed adultery, there was another punishment. If you accidentally let an animal loose and it killed someone, there would be another consequence. And for Israel, the people of God, they were exiled from the Promised Land because they violated the covenant of God and worshiped other gods. If that Covenant of the law—which was a blessing to God’s people, given to them only after God freed them from slavery—had consequences for its violation, what makes you think that the New Covenant would not come with consequences for rejecting it?
The New Covenant is one of grace. In the New Covenant, God does what the law could not do. Through Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and eventual return, God has offered salvation to any and all who believe in Jesus. This is not earned. It is not deserved. Under the New Covenant God saves his enemies in spite of their rebellion. So pay attention to it. Believe in it. Be thankful for it. And never for one second presume that there are no consequences for rejecting it.