Epistle to the Hebrews - The New Testament

¹ So, since the Law contains no more than a reflection of the good things which were still to come, and no true image of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, by means of the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year.

² Otherwise, surely the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins.

³ But in fact the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices.

⁴ Bulls' blood and goats' blood are incapable of taking away sins,

⁵ and that is why he said, on coming into the world: You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me a body.

⁶ You took no pleasure in burnt offering or sacrifice for sin;

⁷ then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming,' in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, God.

⁸ He says first You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the cereal offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them;

⁹ and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to do your will. He is abolishing the first sort to establish the second.

¹⁰ And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all.

¹¹ Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins.

¹² He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God,

¹³ where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.

¹⁴ By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified.

¹⁵ The Holy Spirit attests this to us, for after saying:

¹⁶ No, this is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. the Lord says: In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts,

¹⁷ and I shall never more call their sins to mind, or their offences.

¹⁸ When these have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.

¹⁹ We have then, brothers, complete confidence through the blood of Jesus in entering the sanctuary,

²⁰ by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his flesh.

²¹ And we have the high priest over all the sanctuary of God.

²² So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our hearts sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

²³ Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is trustworthy.

²⁴ Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.

²⁵ Do not absent yourself from your own assemblies, as some do, but encourage each other; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.

²⁶ If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them.

²⁷ There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.

²⁸ Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;

²⁹ and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment.

³⁰ We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will pay them back. And again: The Lord will vindicate his people.

³¹ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³² Remember the great challenge of the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;

³³ sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to humiliations and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.

³⁴ For you not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you accepted with joy being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.

³⁵ Do not lose your fearlessness now, then, since the reward is so great.

³⁶ You will need perseverance if you are to do God's will and gain what he has promised.

³⁷ Only a little while now, a very little while, for come he certainly will before too long.

³⁸ My upright person will live through faith but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.

³⁹ We are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faith until our souls are saved.