1For since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year after year, perfect those who draw near.
2Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
3But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.
4For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
6in whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin you took no pleasure.
7Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the scroll of the book it is written of me—to do your will, O God.’”
8Saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor did you take pleasure in them”—which are offered according to the law—
9then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
10By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11And every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices repeatedly, which can never take away sins.
12But this one, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
13from then on waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.
14For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after having said,
16“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws upon their hearts, I will also inscribe them on their minds,”
17then he adds: “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20by the new and living way that he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh,
21and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water;
23let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful;
24and let us consider one another so as to stir up love and good works,
25not neglecting our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries.
28Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29How much worse a punishment, do you think, will he deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32But recall the earlier days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings—
33in part, being made a public spectacle by both insults and afflictions, and in part, having become partners with those who were treated in this way.
34For you both sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and abiding possession.
35Do not cast away, then, your confidence, which has a great reward.
36For you have need of endurance, so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
37For yet a little while, how very little, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
38but my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul takes no pleasure in him.
39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of faith to the preserving of the soul.
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