The Law is a Reflection

1For the Law, being onlya a reflectionb of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. 2Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? 3Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, 4for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The Messiah Offered One Sacrifice

5For this reason, the Scripturesc say, when the Messiahd was about to come into the world:

“You did not want sacrifices and offerings,

but you prepared a body for me.

6In burnt offerings and sin offerings

you never took delight.

7Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do your will, O God’

In the volume of the scroll this is written about me.”e

8In this passage he says, “You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings,”f which are offered according to the Law. 9Then he says, “See, I have come to do your will.”g He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10By God’s will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.h

11Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12But when this priesti had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God.”j 13Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15The Holy Spirit also assures us of this, for he said:

16“This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days, declares the Lord:k

I will put my laws in their hearts

and will write them on their minds,

17and I will never again remember their sins

and their lawless deeds.”l

18Now where there is forgiveness of these sins,m there is no longer any offering for sin.

How We Should Live

19Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, 22let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful. 24And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the day of the Lordn coming nearer.

26For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.o 28Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”p 29How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which itq was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? 30For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back,”r and again, “The Lords will judge his people.”t 31It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

32But you must continue to remember those earlier days, how after you were enlightened you endured a hard and painful struggle. 33At times you were made a public spectacle by means of insults and persecutions, while at other times you associated with people who were treated this way. 34For you sympathizedu with the prisoners and cheerfully submitted to the violent seizure of your property, because you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.

35So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you. 36For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised. 37For

“in a very little while

the one who is coming will return—

he will not delay;

38but my righteous one will live by faith,

and if he turns back,

my soul will take no pleasure in him.”v

39Now, we do not belong to those who turn back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.