Chapter 10

1Moses’ law contains only a shadow of the good things that were coming, not their full reality. Therefore, the same sacrifices offered year after year can never make those who approach God completely fit for his presence.

2Otherwise, wouldn’t those sacrifices have stopped? If the worshipers had been purified once and for all, they would no longer be conscious of sins.

3Instead, those sacrifices bring sins to mind every year,

4because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take sins away.

5So when the Messiah comes into the world, he says to God, “You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me.

6He continues, “You took no pleasure in animals burned whole as sacrifices or in sacrifices for sin.

7Then I said, ‘Here I am. The scroll says about me that I have come to do your will, God.’”

8First he said, “You did not want or take pleasure in sacrifices, offerings, animals burned whole, or sacrifices for sin”—even though these are offered as the law requires.

9Then he said, “Here I am. I have come to do your will.” He removes the first arrangement in order to establish the second.

10By God’s will, we have been set apart for him through the offering of Jesus the Messiah’s body, made once for all time.

11Every priest stands day after day performing his service and repeatedly offering the same sacrifices, which can never remove sins.

12But Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins that is effective forever. Then he sat at God’s right hand,

13and now he waits until his enemies are placed beneath his feet.

14By one offering, he has made those who are being set apart for God completely fit for his presence forever.

15God’s Holy Spirit also confirms this to us. First the Spirit says,

16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will place my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.”

17The Spirit continues, “I will never again hold their sins and acts of rebellion against them.”

18Where these have been forgiven, no further sacrifice for sin is needed.

19Therefore, brothers and sisters, we can confidently enter the Most Holy Place—God’s sacred presence—because Jesus shed his blood.

20He opened for us a new and living way through the sanctuary curtain. That curtain represents his body.

21We also have a great priest in charge of God’s household.

22So let us approach God with sincere hearts and complete confidence in him. Our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with clean water.

23Let us hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope we publicly declare, because the one who made the promise is faithful.

24Let us think carefully about how to stir one another to love and good actions.

25We must not stop gathering together, as some have made a habit of doing. Instead, let us encourage one another—all the more as you see the day of God’s judgment drawing near.

26If we keep sinning deliberately after receiving full knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains.

27All that remains is the terrifying expectation of judgment and a fiercely burning fire that will consume those who oppose God.

28Anyone who rejected Moses’ law was put to death without mercy when two or three witnesses established the charge.

29How much worse a punishment do you think someone deserves who has trampled on God’s Son, treated as ordinary the blood that established the covenant and set that person apart for God, and insulted the Spirit who gives grace?

30For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay.” He also said, “The Lord will judge his people.”

31It is terrifying to fall into the hands of the living God.

32But remember those earlier days. After the light of the truth came to you, you endured a great struggle filled with suffering.

33At times you were publicly exposed to insults and mistreatment. At other times you stood beside people who were being treated that way.

34You shared the suffering of prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the seizure of your possessions because you knew that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.

35So do not throw away your confidence. It will bring a great reward.

36You need endurance so that, after doing God’s will, you may receive what he has promised.

37For in just a very little while, “The one who is coming will come and will not delay.

38My faithful person will live by trusting me. But if that person turns back, I will take no pleasure in them.”

39But we are not people who turn back and are destroyed. We are people who trust God and so preserve our lives.