Hebrews 10

One Sacrifice, a New and Living Way

1 The law is only a shadow of the good things coming, not the full reality. Its repeated yearly sacrifices can never make worshipers complete.

2 If those sacrifices truly cleansed people once and for all, would they not have stopped, The worshipers would no longer carry a guilty awareness of sin.

3 Instead, those sacrifices brought sin back to mind every year.

4 The blood of bulls and goats can never take sin away.

5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, He said, “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings, but You prepared a body for Me.”

6 “You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.”

7 “Then I said, ‘Here I am. The scroll says this about Me: I have come to do Your will, O God.’”

8 First He said God did not desire or take pleasure in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings, even though the law required them.

9 Then He said, “I have come to do Your will.” He set aside the first arrangement to establish the second.

10 By God’s will, we have been made holy through Jesus Christ offering His body once for everybody.

11 Every other priest stands serving day after day, repeatedly offering sacrifices that can never take away sins.

12 But Christ offered one sacrifice for sins that lasts forever, then sat down at God’s right hand.

13 Now He waits until His enemies are placed under His feet.

14 With one offering, He made complete forever the people who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also confirms this to us. First He says,

16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days: I will put My laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.”

17 Then He adds, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless actions.”

18 When sins have been forgiven, another sin offering is no longer needed.

19 So, family, Jesus’ blood gives us confidence to enter the Most Holy Place.

20 He opened a new, living way through the curtain, and that curtain is His body.

21 Since we have a great Priest over God’s house,

22 let us draw near with sincere hearts and full confidence in faith, our hearts cleansed from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold tightly to the hope we confess without wavering, because the One who promised is faithful.

24 Let us think hard about how to push one another toward love and good works.

25 Do not stop gathering together, as some have gotten used to doing. Encourage one another, especially as you see the Day getting closer.

26 If we deliberately keep living in sin after receiving the knowledge of truth, no other sacrifice for sins remains.

27 What remains is a terrifying expectation of judgment and a fierce fire that will consume God’s enemies.

28 Anyone who rejected Moses’ law died without mercy when two or three witnesses confirmed the offense.

29 So think how much more serious it is to trample God’s Son, treat the covenant blood that made you holy like something common, and insult the Spirit of grace.

30 We know the One who said, “Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

31 Falling into the hands of the living God is a terrifying thing.

32 Remember your earlier days. After the light broke through to you, you endured a hard fight filled with suffering.

33 Sometimes you were publicly insulted and mistreated; other times you stood shoulder to shoulder with people going through it.

34 You showed compassion to prisoners and even accepted the loss of your possessions with joy, because you knew you owned something better and permanent.

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it carries a great reward.

36 You need endurance. After you do God’s will, you will receive what He promised.

37 “In just a little while, the One who is coming will come and will not delay.”

38 “My righteous one will live by faith, but if anyone pulls back, My soul will not be pleased with that person.”

39 We are not people who pull back and are destroyed. We are people who believe and preserve our souls.