10:1 For since the law is but a shadow of the good things to come and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect those who draw near by the same sacrifices which they offer continuously · year after year.
10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would have no consciousness of sins?
10:3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.
10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
10:5 Therefore when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.
10:6 You did not take pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings.
10:7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the scroll of a book it is written about me—to do your will, O God.’” ·
10:8 After he said what I just quoted, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take pleasure in them” (namely those offered according to the law),
10:9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do · your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10:10 By that will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
10:11 Furthermore, every priest stands day after day performing his religious duties, · offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
10:12 But when this priest had offered a single sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God,
10:13 waiting from that time until his enemies are placed · as a footstool for his feet,
10:14 because by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being made holy.
10:15 And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, · for after saying,
10:16 “This is the covenant that I will establish with them after · those days, declares the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts and I will inscribe them on · their minds,”
10:17 then he says, · “Their sins and · their lawless acts I will never again remember.”
10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to · enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
10:20 a way that is new and living, which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
10:21 and since we have a great priest in charge of the house of God,
10:22 let us continue to draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, since our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.
10:23 Let us continue to hold fast the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful.
10:24 And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works,
10:25 not abandoning · our own meetings, as is the habit of some, but rather encouraging one another, and all the more since you see the Day drawing near.
10:26 For if we deliberately persist in sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins,
10:27 but only a terrifying expectation of judgment and of raging fire ready to consume the adversaries.
10:28 Anyone who violates the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
10:29 How much greater punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
10:30 For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge · his people.”
10:31 It is terrifying to fall into the hands of the living God.
10:32 Instead, remember those former days in which, after you had received the light, you weathered such a difficult struggle with suffering.
10:33 Sometimes you were made a public spectacle, both by insults and persecutions, and at other times you became one with those who were treated in that way,
10:34 for in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, and with joy accepted the confiscation of your belongings, since you knew that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.
10:35 Therefore do not throw away · your boldness, which has great reward.
10:36 You have need of endurance, then, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
10:37 For “just a little longer, the one who is coming will arrive; · he will not delay.
10:38 · But my righteous one will live by faithfulness. But should he shrink back, my soul will take no pleasure · in him.”
10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are lost, but are of those who are faithful and so preserve their soul.
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