New Testament Plan

¹Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united with those who listened with faith.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY ANGER, THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”;

⁵and again in this passage, “THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.”

⁶Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who previously had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

⁷He again sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

⁹Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

¹⁰For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

¹¹Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.

¹²For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must answer.

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

¹For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

²he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is clothed in weakness;

³and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins for himself, as well as for the people.

⁴And no one takes the honor for himself, but receives it when he is called by God, just as Aaron also was.

⁵So too Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a high priest, but it was He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE FATHERED YOU”;

⁶just as He also says in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

⁷In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior.

⁸Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

⁹And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him,

¹⁰being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹Concerning him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become poor listeners.

¹²For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

¹³For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

¹Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

²of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

³And this we will do, if God permits.

⁴For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

⁵and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

⁶and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

⁷For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;

⁸but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

⁹But, beloved, we are convinced of better things regarding you, and things that accompany salvation, even though we are speaking in this way.

¹⁰For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, by having served and by still serving the saints.

¹¹And we desire that each one of you demonstrate the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,

¹²so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises.

¹³For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

¹⁴saying, “INDEED I WILL GREATLY BLESS YOU AND I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY YOU.”

¹⁵And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶For people swear an oath by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute.

¹⁷In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath,

¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us.

¹⁹This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil,

²⁰where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.