The summer of 1975 was the summer that my dad lost his scuba diving partner. Now, I don’t mean lost like he died. I mean lost like he refused to go with him anymore. As it turns out, my dad wasn’t the only one. A lot of people who used to have a love for the ocean suddenly developed an allergy to salt water.

You see, in 1975, the movie Jaws came out.

Although the movie is based on a novel by the same name, it tells a story that seems real enough. The brilliance of Jawsis that it strikes at the very center of fear. There’s a reason people are scared of the dark. We’re scared of what we don’t understand—of what we can’t know. In the movie, it takes a while before we ever really get a good look at the shark, which causes our brain to grow the fear of him into something greater than an image ever could.

Since so many people became so overwhelmingly fearful of Jaws that year, many avoided the water altogether. This fictional giant served as a real warning to everyone going to the beach that year: There might be monsters out there.

Like Jaws, the New Testament provides Christians with warnings as well. Scripture warns of a giant monster called sin, and it’s roaming the waters just waiting for someone to venture off the boat.

What Do We Do With The Warnings?

The warning passages of Scripture can be tricky to deal with—particularly for Reformed-leaning Protestants. Aren’t we supposed to have assurance as Christians? Doesn’t the gospel set me free from the anxious fear of these passages produce? The answer from the gospel is an emphatic “yes!” on both counts. But that doesn’t mean we should gloss over the texts.

Andrew Wilson writes that these portions of Scripture should be treated “as genuine admonitions, whose purpose is to exhort the readers to persevere, and which serve to ensure this happens by highlighting the danger of falling away” (Wilson 2011, 267). In other words, true Christians should treat the warning passages like real warnings! God uses them, in part, as the means by which he causes Christians to persevere. Therefore, the assurance of our salvation in Christ, and the warning against falling away if we don’t attend to this salvation are both a present reality for those who have believed.

An Epic Example

One example of such a warning is found in Hebrews 3:79. It’s been said that the best commentary on the Old Testament is the Book of Hebrews, and this passage is a prooftext for that claim. As the author of Hebrews administers a warning to the Christians receiving his letter, he cites Psalm 95, which is a poetic rendering of historical accounts found in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20.

In these Old Testament stories, God had liberated his people, Israel, from Egypt, but they were grumbling against his chosen means of provision for them and God’s chosen leader, Moses. And so, they “tested” the Lord, claiming that God brought them out of Egypt only to kill them in the desert. Their fundamental question was, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Ex. 17:7).

The author of Hebrews leverages this story as a cautionary tale. He’s saying you can be in the midst of God’s people, experience the associated benefits, and still wonder if he’s even there for your good. The author is saying, “Don’t test the Lord like they did; instead, hear the Spirit speaking to you and obey!” This should be a thought-provoking passage for any of us!

Stay on the Boat!

After recalling warnings from Israel’s history, the author of Hebrews helps readers understand how to respond to warning passages by giving us both a personal and interpersonal command to help us stay on the boat and out of the water.

On a personal level, he tells Christians to “take care” and to check our hearts (Heb. 3:12a). The heart is deceitful and untrustworthy (Jer. 17:9). Therefore, like your car, it must be checked regularly to ensure nothing is going wrong. All it takes is a loose lug nut or tires worn too low to cause disaster. Christians must “take care” with the help of the Spirit and conduct a healthy amount of introspection (1 Cor. 11:28) to ensure we’re not “[falling] away from the living God” (Heb 3:12b).

The author of Hebrews also commands us to help one another on this venture. We are not left to make it to the end on our own, but as the community of the church, we are to show our love for one another through our admonitions to remain in Christ and obey his Word (Heb. 3:13). For many of us, obedience has become a culturally dirty word. We associate it with legalism, yet this ought not to be so. Legalism is an attempt to earn what the gospel freely gives. Gospel obedience is what flows from the understanding of all that we have received by faith in Christ.

In other words, obedience to Christ is what flows from love for Christ. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Obedience is what staying on the boat looks like. Therefore, like a surgeon, we should be quick to cut our brothers and sisters with the healing blade of exhortation to obedience if it means keeping them from being “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13b). True love in community is often displayed through preventing our brothers and sisters in Christ from wandering out into the water where they might be devoured.

In both the personal and interpersonal commands given by the author, hard work is not at odds with the gospel of God’s grace and the assurance of his persevering love. Even though he was the “least of the apostles,” Paul himself says that he “worked harder than all the rest.” However, he is quick to add that it was not him at work, but God’s grace in him (1 Cor. 15:9–10). Therefore, the hard work of running the race, staying on the boat, and compelling others to do the same is God’s grace of perseverance. Like the furniture on the deck of a ship is bolted down, God has given his people both his Spirit and the Spirit-empowered-church to help “hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:14). But how do we ensure we’re obeying from the heart, and therefore find the assurance for which we long?

The Assurance Found in Repentance

The Gospel of Matthew records that after his baptism, the Lord Jesus, God’s true Israel, went out into the wilderness. He didn’t put God to the test, but instead passed the test he was put through (Matt. 4:1–11). The first words out of his mouth to begin his formal ministry were, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 4:17). In the Christian gospel, just as strength is found in acknowledged weakness, assurance is found in obedient repentance. The Christian life never matures past repentance, and mature repentance is followed by faithful obedience (Matt. 3:8). As Christians, it’s when we are most aware of our need for Christ—and we turn to him in faith and obedience—that we can rest most assured that he will lead us home.

The Ground of Hope

Sharks frighten me. If you drop me out in the middle of the ocean, I guarantee you my first thoughts will be: Oh man. What’s beneath me? It’s probably a shark. It’s a shark, isn’t it? And to be scared of sharks isn’t unreasonable. They’re built like self-propelled torpedoes. They’ve got rows of razor-sharp teeth. Even when they’re “just being curious,” they can take your leg off. And they can smell your hangnail from miles away. Those are what we call reasons.

However, even in the presence of all those reasons (and more), do you know where I’m not nearly as scared of sharks, even when I’m out in the ocean?

On a boat. And the bigger the boat, the smaller the fear.

Sin is like Jaws. It’s a monster lurking in the depths. It’s frightening. Like Jaws, sin is just waiting for someone weak and injured to venture off the boat and into the water. And while sin is something to be reasonably scared of, for the Christian, to repent of your sin and “share in Christ” (Heb. 3:14) means to be in the water but on a boat. The ocean may rock the boat and remind you of what could happen if you fall in, but as long as you’re in the boat, obediently trusting in her captain, you can have some peace of mind while you’re out on the water. And the beauty of the Christian gospel is that because of the empty tomb left by our crucified and risen Savior, you know eventually, that boat will make it to the land, where you’ll never have to worry about the monsters of the sea ever again.