²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Reprising what was written earlier, the seriousness of rejecting Christ is far worse than sinning against the Law of Moses.

“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard…” (Heb 2:1-3)

The Law of Moses set out the requirements for living a righteous life that would be acceptable to God. To break the Law is called by our writer, to be “set aside.” But, rejecting Christ is called, “trampled underfoot.” If the violation of the Levitical worship system was bad, then rejecting the perfect, once-for-all-time sacrifice of Christ is much more reprehensible in God’s eyes. It can’t get any worse!

The Law was given to expose our sin and keep it continually before us—to totally and finally convince us that we can do nothing to save ourselves. The blind, self-deception that we can be good enough to not sin, or that we can offer adequate sacrifice when we do sin needs to be rooted out at the core. The Law was designed to show that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). So, Christ is offered on our behalf, not through any effort or merit of our own, so that all we need to do is believe in Him, as we embrace what He did in sacrificing Himself for us.

So now if violation of the Law because of our failure to satisfy God’s requirement for righteousness was severely punished, then how much worse will the consequences be for those who turn away from God’s solution as being inadequate, and even inferior to the Law of Moses? The thought is actually quite absurd. To dismiss the death of the Son of God as inadequate but depend on our own works of righteousness through the law, is tantamount to saying I can do a better job at righteousness than God can. Might as well trample on the Son of God!

Lord, I count not on my own righteousness, because I stand by the Law condemned. But in Christ, You have made me righteous and accepted.