New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
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It's crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard so that we don't drift off.
2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,
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If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything,
3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
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do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all, it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him.
4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
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All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit.
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
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God didn't put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we're dealing with here.
6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
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It says in Scripture, What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor
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You made them not quite as high as angels, bright with Eden's dawn light;
8 and put everything under their feet.”In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
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Then you put them in charge of your entire handcrafted world.
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
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What we do see is Jesus, made "not quite as high as angels," and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory "bright with Eden's dawn light." In that death, by God's grace, he fully experienced death in every person's place.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
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It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory.
11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
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Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family,
12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
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Saying, I'll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I'll join them in worship and praise to you.
13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
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Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says, Even I live by placing my trust in God. And yet again, I'm here with the children God gave me.
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—
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Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it's logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
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and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
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It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham.
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
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That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins,
18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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he would have already experienced it all himself - all the pain, all the testing - and would be able to help where help was needed.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.