Chapter 9

1The first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of worship.

2The outer room of the sacred tent was prepared with the lampstand, the table, and the bread placed before God. This room was called the Holy Place.

3Behind the second curtain was the room called the Most Holy Place.

4It had a golden incense altar and the covenant chest, which was covered entirely with gold. Inside the chest were a gold jar containing manna—the food God had provided in the wilderness—Aaron’s staff that had sprouted, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

5Above the chest were glorious cherubim, winged figures that overshadowed the cover where forgiveness was sought. But this is not the time to discuss each of these things in detail.

6With everything arranged in this way, the priests regularly entered the outer room to carry out their acts of worship.

7But only the high priest entered the inner room, and he did so just once a year. He never entered without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed without realizing it.

8Through this arrangement, the Holy Spirit was showing that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been opened while the outer room of the sacred tent was still in use.

9This tent is an illustration for the present time. The offerings and sacrifices presented there cannot make the worshiper’s conscience completely clean.

10They deal only with food, drink, and different ritual washings. These are outward regulations for the body, imposed until the time when God would set things right.

11But the Messiah came as the high priest of the good things that have now arrived. He passed through the greater and more complete sacred tent, one not made by human hands and not belonging to this created world.

12He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. In this way he secured freedom for us forever.

13The blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on people who were ritually impure, make them outwardly clean for worship.

14How much more, then, will the Messiah’s blood cleanse our consciences from deeds that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Through the eternal Spirit, the Messiah offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice.

15This is why he is the mediator who establishes a new covenant. His death paid the price to free people from the violations committed under the first covenant, so that those God has called may receive the eternal inheritance he promised.

16A covenant that grants an inheritance also functions like a will: the death of the person who made it must be established.

17A will takes effect only after death. It has no force while the person who made it is still alive.

18That is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

19After Moses had announced every command in the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, along with water, red wool, and a branch of hyssop. He sprinkled both the book of the law and all the people.

20Moses said, “This is the blood that puts into effect the covenant God commanded you to keep.”

21In the same way, he sprinkled the sacred tent and all the objects used in worship with blood.

22In fact, according to the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23Therefore, these earthly copies of the heavenly realities had to be purified by such sacrifices. But the heavenly realities themselves required better sacrifices than these.

24The Messiah did not enter a sacred place made by human hands, which was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself, where he now appears in God’s presence on our behalf.

25Nor did he enter to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year carrying blood that is not his own.

26If that had been necessary, the Messiah would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. Instead, he has now appeared once, at the culmination of history, to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself.

27Human beings are destined to die once, and after that comes judgment.

28In the same way, the Messiah was offered once to carry away the sins of many people. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin again, but to bring final rescue to those who eagerly wait for him.