Hebrews 10
1 For the Law has only a shadow of the good things to come, not the true form of these things. The same sacrifices, offered continually year after year, can never make those who draw near perfect.
2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered? For once those who worship had been cleansed, they would no longer have any awareness of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 That is why, when he came into the world, he said, “You did not want sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.
6 You took no pleasure in burnt offerings or sin offerings.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—in the scroll of the book it is written about me—to do your will, O God.’”
8 First he says, “You did not want or take pleasure in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, or sin offerings”—things offered according to the Law.
9 Then he says, “Here I am, to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
11 Every priest stands day after day, carrying out his ministry and offering the same sacrifices again and again, sacrifices that can never take away sins.
12 But this one, after offering a single sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at God’s right hand.
13 Since then he has been waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us about this. For after saying:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds,”
17 he also says, “I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.”
18 Now where these have been forgiven, there is no longer an offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold firmly, without wavering, to the confession of our hope, for the one who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another, to stir up love and good works.
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26 For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the full knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains.
27 Only a fearful expectation of judgment remains, and a raging fire that is about to consume the adversaries.
28 Anyone who rejects the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment do you think the one deserves who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, treated as unholy the covenant blood by which he was made holy, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But remember the earlier days, when, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle through suffering.
33 At times you were publicly exposed to insults and afflictions; at other times you stood alongside those who were treated that way.
34 For you sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and lasting possession.
35 So do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36 For you need endurance, so that after doing God’s will, you may receive what he promised.
37 For in just a little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I take no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not among those who draw back and are destroyed; we are among those who have faith and preserve their lives.
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app