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Hebrews 10
Heb
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Chapter 10
IV.
PERSEVERING FAITH
The old sacrifices ineffective
1
So, since the Law has no more than a reflection of these realities, and no finished picture of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, with the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year.
2
Otherwise, the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins.
3
Instead of that, the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices.
4
Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins,
5
and this is what he said, on coming into the world: You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.
6
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
7
then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.'[*a]
8
Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them;
9
and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second.
10
And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
The efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice
11
All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away.
12
He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God,
13
where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him.[*b]
14
By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying.
15
The Holy Spirit assures us of this; for he says, first:
16
This is the covenant I will make with them when those days arrive;[*c] and the Lord then goes on to say: I will put my laws into their hearts and write them on their minds.
17
I will never call their sins to mind, or their offences.
18
When all sins have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.
The Christian opportunity
19
In other words, brothers, through the blood of Jesus we have the right to enter the sanctuary,
20
by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his body.
21
And we have the supreme high priest over all the house of God.
22
So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our minds 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 faithful.
24
Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.
25
Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage each other to go; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.
The danger of apostasy
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 will be left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and of the raging fire that is to burn rebels.[*d]
28
Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;[*e]
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 repay.[*f] And again: The Lord will judge his people.
31
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Motives for perseverance
32
Remember all the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;
33
sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults 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 happily accepted being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.
35
Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so great.
36
You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.
37
Only a little while now, a very little while, and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay.[*g]
38
The righteous man will live by faith, but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.[*h]
39
You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved.
Chapters of Hebrews
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
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