"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:1-3 NIV).

Undercurrents of fear, sentimentality, and the false securities of ritual, religious activity and self-justifying works can cause us to drift from a full confidence in the gospel of Christ.

God in these last days has spoken His full and final word to us in His Son ('sonwise'- all is in relationship to and centered in His Son) (Hebrews 1:1-2). All roads of 'truth' will intersect with and be coherent with the reality ('Truth') that is in Christ Jesus.

Every other revelation from God is only partial and fragmentary. In Christ they find their true and full interpretation. Every previous or subsequent manifestation, no matter how glorious, pales by comparison to God's glory revealed in the person of His Son. God's speaking to us 'in Christ' is a more complete and certain word than that of the law and prophets, or that of the angels. He is the fulfillment of all that was represented in the tabernacle, the priesthood and the promised rest for Israel.

God's perfect self-revelation is not in the fearsome threatening thunderclaps of Sinai that dramatically command our attention but the compassionate, humble, sin-bearer Jesus, full of grace and truth. This perfect revelation of God's righteousness in the gospel of grace is more subtle than that of the law, and might easily be missed by those accustomed to the booming of Sinai's religion. Some people imagine a greater security by attempting to appease God's wrath through law-keeping and rituals than by letting Christ fulfill righteousness on their behalf through His substitutionary death and indwelling life. They would rather be motivated by threats and guilt than have a relationship with a Person who can both pardon and empower. The law saves no one; neither does religion, spiritual experiences (no matter how genuine), adoration of angels, or the self-justifying works of secular belief systems such as humanism. (See Acts 13:39, Romans 2:12; 3:20; Galatians 2:16,21; 3:11).

Don't drift from the gospel of Christ. Don't cast your anchor anywhere else. If you lose Christ you lose everything. In comparing Christ to the prophets, angels, Moses, the promised rest of Canaan, the tabernacle and priesthood, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews not only proves the superiority of Christ but declares that apart from Christ, the others have no glory in their own right. Take away Christ and the prophets have nothing to say or point to! Take away Christ and the angels are out of a job! Take away Christ and the law brings nothing but condemnation and our sentence to hell! Take away Christ and Israel might as well be New Jersey (no offense to residents of either place, please; I only compare the two because they are nearly similar in land mass!) The purpose of God speaking through the law, the prophets, the angels, the tabernacle and the redemptive history of Israel was to give us the parts of speech and grammar so that we might be ready for and understand God's full sentence of Salvation in Christ. The written word finds its true interpretation in the Living Word - God's full, final and inexhaustible revelation of Himself in Christ.

The anchor is cast,