Animal Sacrifices Insufficient
1 For the law, having ashadow of the good things to come,andnot the very image of the things,can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
3 But in thosesacrificesthereisa reminder of sins every year.
4 Foritisnot possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
# “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings andsacrificesfor sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, andofferingsfor sin You did not desire, nor had pleasureinthem” (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctifiedthrough the offering of the body of Jesus Christ onceforall.
Christ’s Death Perfects the Sanctified
11 And every priest standsministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat downat the right hand of God,
13 from that time waitingtill His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “Thisisthe covenant that I will make with them after those days, says theLord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
17 thenHeadds,“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is remission of these,thereisno longer an offering for sin.
Hold Fast Your Confession
19 Therefore, brethren, havingboldness to enterthe Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new andliving way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 andhavinga High Priest over the house of God,
22 let usdraw near with a true heartin full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession ofourhope without wavering, forHe who promisedisfaithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, asisthe manner of some, but exhortingoneanother,andso much the more as you seethe Day approaching.
The Just Live by Faith
26 Forif we sin willfullyafter we have received the knowledge of the truth, thereno longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, andfiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy onthetestimonyoftwo or threewitnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing,and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said,“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again,“TheLordwill judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Butrecall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:
33 partly while you were madea spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly whileyou became companions of those who were so treated;
34 for you had compassion on mein my chains, andjoyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing thatyou have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence,which has great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God,you may receive the promise:
37 “Foryet a little while,
# AndHe who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Nowthe just shall live by faith;
But ifanyonedraws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of thosewho draw back to perdition, but of those whobelieve to the saving of the soul.