Hebrews 9

Christ Entered Once for Everybody

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

2 A tabernacle was set up. Its first room, called the Holy Place, held the lampstand, the table, and the sacred bread.

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

4 It held the golden incense altar and the covenant chest covered completely with gold. Inside were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the covenant tablets.

5 Above the chest stood the glorious cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat. We cannot unpack every detail right now.

6 With everything arranged that way, priests regularly entered the first room to carry out their ministry.

7 Only the high priest entered the second room, and only once a year. He never entered without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s unintentional sins.

8 Through this, the Holy Spirit showed that the way into God’s Most Holy presence had not yet been fully opened while the first tabernacle still stood.

9 That arrangement was a picture for that time. Its gifts and sacrifices could not make a worshiper’s conscience complete.

10 They dealt only with food, drink, and ceremonial washings, external regulations in place until God brought a better order.

11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things now available. He entered through the greater, perfect tabernacle not made by human hands and not part of this creation.

12 He did not enter with the blood of goats and calves. He entered the Most Holy Place once for everybody with His own blood and secured eternal redemption.

13 The blood of goats and bulls, along with ashes from a heifer, could ceremonially cleanse people on the outside.

14 How much more will Christ’s blood cleanse our consciences from dead works so we can serve the living God, Through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself to God completely without sin.

15 That is why He mediates a new covenant. His death paid for violations committed under the first covenant, so everyone God calls can receive the promised eternal inheritance.

16 When a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

17 A will takes effect only after death; it has no power while the person who made it is alive.

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

19 After Moses announced every command of the law to the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the book and all the people.

20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant God commanded you to keep.”

21 In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the tools used in worship with blood.

22 Under the law, almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23 Those earthly copies of heavenly things had to be cleansed that way, but the heavenly realities required a better sacrifice.

24 Christ did not enter a human-made sanctuary that only pictured the real one. He entered heaven itself and now stands in God’s presence for us.

25 He did not go there to offer Himself repeatedly, like the high priest who entered the Most Holy Place every year with somebody else’s blood.

26 If that were necessary, Christ would have needed to suffer again and again since the world began. Instead, He appeared once at the climax of the ages to remove sin through His own sacrifice.

27 People are appointed to die once, and after that comes judgment.

28 In the same way, Christ was offered once to carry the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin again, but to bring full salvation to those waiting for Him.