Christ’s Once-for-All Sacrifice

1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never by the same sacrifices continually offered year by year make perfect those who draw near.
2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, once purified, would have had no consciousness of sins?
3 But in them is a reminder of sins year by year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, coming into the world, He says: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me;
6 whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not delight.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I come, in the scroll of the book it is written of Me, to do Your will, O God.’”
8 Previously He said, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He says, “Behold, I come to do Your will.” He takes away the first, that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
12 but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, and upon their minds I will write them,”
17 He then adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

Exhortation to Persevere in Faith

19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and having a great Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as some are in the habit of doing, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.

Warning and Encouragement

26 For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a raging fire which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has disregarded the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Call to Endurance

32 But remember the former days, in which, after being enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings,
33 partly while being made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while becoming sharers with those who were so treated.
34 For you showed sympathy to those in prison, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have in yourselves a better and enduring possession.
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
37 “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.