The Preacher's Bible

For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. ²Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? ³But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. ⁴For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

⁵Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.

⁶You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.

⁷Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’” ⁸Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), ⁹then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, ¹⁰by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, ¹²but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, ¹³from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. ¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. ¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;” then he says,

¹⁷“I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” ¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. ¹⁹Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, ²¹and having a great priest over God’s house, ²²let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water, ²³let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

²⁴Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, ²⁵not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. ²⁶For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. ²⁸A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay,” says the Lord. Again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ³²But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: ³³partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions, and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. ³⁴For you both had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. ³⁵Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. ³⁶For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

³⁷“In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait.

³⁸But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” ³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.