New Testament Plan

¹God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.

²For this good news — that God has prepared this rest — has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.

³For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.

⁴We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”

⁵But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”

⁶So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.

⁷So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

⁸Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come.

⁹So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.

¹⁰For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.

¹¹So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

¹²For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

¹⁴So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

¹⁵This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

¹⁶So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

¹Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.

²And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses.

³That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs.

⁴And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was.

⁵That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. ”

⁶And in another passage God said to him, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

⁷While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.

⁸Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

⁹In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

¹⁰And God designated him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.

¹²You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.

¹³For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.

¹⁴Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

¹So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.

²You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

³And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

⁴For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened — those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,

⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come —

⁶and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

⁷When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing.

⁸But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.

⁹Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.

¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.

¹¹Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.

¹²Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

¹³For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying:

¹⁴“I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”

¹⁵Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.

¹⁶Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding.

¹⁷God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind.

¹⁸So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

¹⁹This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.

²⁰Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.