CHAPTER 10
The
Law
is
only a shadow
of the
good things
to come,
not
the
realities
themselves.
It can
never,
by the
same
sacrifices
offered
year after year,
make perfect
those who
draw near to worship .
If it could,
would not the offerings have ceased?
For
the
worshipers
would have been cleansed
once for all,
and would
no
longer
have felt the guilt
of their sins.
Therefore,
when Christ came
into
the
world,
He said:
“Sacrifice
and
offering
You did not desire,
but
a body
You prepared
for me.
Then
I said,
‘Here I am,
it is written
about
Me
in
the scroll:
I have come
to do
Your
will,
O God.’”
In the passage above
He says,
“Sacrifices
and
offerings,
burnt offerings
and
sin offerings
You did not desire,
nor
did You delight in them”
(although
they are
required by
the Law).
Then
He adds,
“Here I am,
I have come
to do
Your
will.”
He takes away
the
first
to
establish
the
second.
And by
that
will,
we
have been sanctified
through
the
sacrifice
of the
body
of Jesus
Christ
once for all.
Day after day
every
priest
stands
to minister
and
to offer
again and again
the
same
sacrifices,
which
can
never
take away
sins.
But when
this Priest
had offered
for all time
one
sacrifice
for
sins,
He sat down
at
the right hand
of God.
“This is
the
covenant
I will make
with
them
after
those
days,
declares
the Lord.
I will put
My
Laws
in
their
hearts
and
inscribe
them
on
their
minds."
Therefore,
brothers,
since we have
confidence
to
enter
the
Most Holy Place
by
the
blood
of Jesus,
let us draw near
with
a sincere
heart
in
full assurance
of faith,
having our
hearts
sprinkled to cleanse us
from
a guilty
conscience
and
our
bodies
washed
with pure
water.
Let us not neglect
meeting together,
as
some
have made a habit,
but
let us encourage one another,
and
all
the more
as
you see
the
Day
approaching.
If we
deliberately
go on sinning
after
we have received
the
knowledge
of the
truth,
no further
sacrifice
for
sins
remains,
Anyone who
rejected
the Law
of Moses
died
without
mercy
on the testimony of
two
or
three
witnesses.
How much
more severely
do you think
one
deserves
to be punished
who has trampled on
the
Son
of God,
profaned
the
blood
of the
covenant
that
sanctified him,
and
insulted
the
Spirit
of grace?
For
we know
Him who
said,
“Vengeance is
Mine;
I
will repay,”
and
again,
“The Lord
will judge
His
people.”
Remember
the
early
days
that you were in the light,
when
you endured
a great
conflict
in the face of suffering.
Sometimes
you were publicly exposed
to ridicule
and
persecution;
at other times
you were
partners
with those who were
so
treated.
You sympathized
with those
in prison
and
joyfully
accepted
the
confiscation
of
your
property,
knowing that
you yourselves
had
a better
and
permanent
possession.
You
need
to persevere,
so that
after you have done
God’s
will,
you will receive
what
He has promised.
But
My
righteous
one
will live
by
faith;
and
if
he shrinks back,
I
will take no
pleasure
in
him.”
But
we
are
not
of those who shrink back
and
are destroyed,
but
of those who have faith
and
preserve
their souls.