New Testament Plan

¹Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.

²Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

³But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.

⁴For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁵Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.

⁶You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.

⁷Then I said, “See — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O God.”

⁸After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law ),

⁹he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second.

¹⁰By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

¹¹Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins.

¹²But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

¹³He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool.

¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

¹⁶This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,

¹⁷andI will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.

¹⁸Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

¹⁹Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus  —

²⁰he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh ) —

²¹and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,

²²let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

²³Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.

²⁴And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works,

²⁵not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

²⁶For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

²⁷but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.

²⁸Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

²⁹How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

³⁰For we know the one who has said, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge his people.

³¹It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way.

³⁴For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession.

³⁵So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

³⁶For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.

³⁷For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.

³⁸But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.

³⁹But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.

¹Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

²For by it our ancestors won God’s approval.

³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

⁴By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.

⁶Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

⁷By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

⁸By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.

⁹By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.

¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

¹²Therefore, from one man — in fact, from one as good as dead — came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

¹³These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

¹⁴Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

¹⁵If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return.

¹⁶But they now desire a better place — a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son,

¹⁸the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be called through Isaac.

¹⁹He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.

²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

²¹By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

²²By faith Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones.

²³By faith Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they didn’t fear the king’s edict.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter

²⁵and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin.

²⁶For he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward.

²⁷By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees him who is invisible.

²⁸By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.

²⁹By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned.

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days.

³¹By faith Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies in peace and didn’t perish with those who disobeyed.

³²And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

³³who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,

³⁴quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

³⁵Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

³⁶Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment.

³⁷They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.

³⁸The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised,

⁴⁰since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

¹Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,

²keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

⁴In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him,

⁶for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.

⁷Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

⁸But if you are without discipline — which all receive  — then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

⁹Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live?

¹⁰For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness.

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹²Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees,

¹³and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead.

¹⁴Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness  — without it no one will see the Lord.

¹⁵Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.

¹⁶And make sure that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal.

¹⁷For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, even though he sought it with tears, because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance.

¹⁸For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm,

¹⁹to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them,

²⁰for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

²¹The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear.

²²Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering,

²³to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect,

²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See to it that you do not reject the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven.

²⁶His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.

²⁷This expression, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what can be shaken  — that is, created things — so that what is not shaken might remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

²⁹for our God is a consuming fire.