New Revised Standard NRS
Common English Bible CEB
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.
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The Law is a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the real things themselves. It never can perfect the ones who are trying to draw near to God through the same sacrifices that are offered continually every year.
2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?
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Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered? If the people carrying out their religious duties had been completely cleansed once, no one would have been aware of sin anymore.
3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.
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Instead, these sacrifices are a reminder of sin every year,
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
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because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me;
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Therefore, when he comes into the world he says, You didn't want a sacrifice or an offering, but you prepared a body for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
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you weren't pleased with entirely burned offerings or a sin offering.
7 Then I said, "See, God, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."
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So then I said, "Look, I've come to do your will, God. This has been written about me in the scroll."
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
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He says above, You didn't want and you weren't pleased with a sacrifice or an offering or with entirely burned offerings or a purification offering, which are offered because the Law requires them.
9 then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
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Then he said, Look, I've come to do your will. He puts an end to the first to establish the second.
10 And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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We have been made holy by God's will through the offering of Jesus Christ's body once for all.
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.
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Every priest stands every day serving and offering the same sacrifices over and over, sacrifices that can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God,"
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But when this priest offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right side of God.
13 and since then has been waiting "until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet."
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Since then, he's waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for his feet,
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
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because he perfected the people who are being made holy with one offering for all time.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
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The Holy Spirit affirms this when saying,
16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,"
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This is the covenant that I will make with them. After these days, says the Lord, I will place my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.
17 he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."
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And I won't remember their sins and their lawless behavior anymore.
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
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When there is forgiveness for these things, there is no longer an offering for sin.
19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,
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Brothers and sisters, we have confidence that we can enter the holy of holies by means of Jesus' blood,
20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),
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through a new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, which is his body,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
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and we have a great high priest over God's house.
22 let us approach 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.
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Therefore, let's draw near with a genuine heart with the certainty that our faith gives us, since our hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies are washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
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Let's hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, because the one who made the promises is reliable.
24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,
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And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds.
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
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Don't stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near.
26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
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If we make the decision to sin after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there isn't a sacrifice for sins left any longer.
27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
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There's only a scary expectation of judgment and of a burning fire that's going to devour God's opponents.
28 Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses."
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When someone rejected the Law from Moses, they were put to death without mercy on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?
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How much worse punishment do you think is deserved by the person who walks all over God's Son, who acts as if the blood of the covenant that made us holy is just ordinary blood, and who insults 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."
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We know the one who said, Judgment is mine; I will pay people back. And he also said, The Lord will judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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It's scary to fall into the hands of the living God!
32 But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
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But remember the earlier days, after you saw the light. You stood your ground while you were suffering from an enormous amount of pressure.
33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
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Sometimes you were exposed to insults and abuse in public. Other times you became partners with those who were treated that way.
34 For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.
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You even showed sympathy toward people in prison and accepted the confiscation of your possessions with joy, since you knew that you had better and lasting possessions.
35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.
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So don't throw away your confidence—it brings a great reward.
36 For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
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You need to endure so that you can receive the promises after you do God's will.
37 For yet "in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay;
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In a little while longer, the one who is coming will come and won't delay;
38 but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back."
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but my righteous one will live by faith, and my whole being won't be pleased with anyone who shrinks back.
39 But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.
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But we aren't the sort of people who timidly draw back and end up being destroyed. We're the sort of people who have faith so that our whole beings are preserved.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible