Hebrews 8–10

8TH CHAPTER

Jesus’s Priestly Work Is Superior to Other Priests’ Work

¹The main point we want to make is this: We do have this kind of chief priest. This chief priest holds the honored position—the one next to the majestic God [the Father] on the heavenly throne. ²He serves as priest of the holy place and of the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human. 

³Every chief priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this chief priest had to offer something. ⁴If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest. On earth ⸤other⸥ priests offer gifts by following the instructions that Moses gave. ⁵They serve at a place that is a pattern, a shadow, of what is in heaven. When Moses was about to make the tent, God warned him, “Be sure to make everything based on the plan I showed you on the mountain.” 

⁶Jesus has been given a priestly work that is superior to the Levitical priests’ work. He also brings a better promise^afrom God that is based on better guarantees. ⁷If nothing had been wrong with the first promise, no one would look for another one. ⁸But God found something wrong with his people and said to them, 

“The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new promise to Israel and Judah. ⁹It will not be like the promise that I made to their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt. They rejected that promise, so I ignored them, says the Lord. ¹⁰But this is the promise that I will make to Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ¹¹No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, ‘Know the Lord.’ All of them from the least important to the most important will all know me ¹²because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them.” 

¹³God made this new promise and showed that the first promise was outdated. What is outdated and aging will soon disappear. 

9TH CHAPTER

Christ Offered a Superior Sacrifice

¹The first promise had rules for the priests’ service. It also had a holy place on earth. ²A tent was set up. The first part of this tent was called the holy place. The lamp stand, the table, and the bread of the presence were in this part of the tent. ³Behind the second curtain was the part of the tent called the most holy place. ⁴It contained the gold incense burner and the ark of the Lord’s promise. The ark was completely covered with gold. In the ark were the gold jar filled with manna, Aaron’s staff that had blossomed, and the tablets on which the promise^awas written. ⁵Above the ark were the angels^bof glory ⸤with their wings⸥ overshadowing the throne of mercy. (Discussing these things in detail isn’t possible now.) 

⁶That is how these two parts of the tent were set up. The priests always went into the first part of the tent to perform their duties. ⁷But only the chief priest went into the second part of the tent. Once a year he entered and brought blood that he offered for himself and for the things that the people did wrong unintentionally. ⁸The Holy Spirit used this to show that the way into the most holy place was not open while the tent was still in use. 

⁹The first part of the tent is an example for the present time. The gifts and sacrifices that were brought there could not give the worshiper a clear conscience. ¹⁰These gifts and sacrifices were meant to be food, drink, and items used in various purification ceremonies. These ceremonies were required for the body until God would establish a new way of doing things. 

¹¹But Christ came as a chief priest of the good things that are now here. Christ went through a better, more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not part of this created world. ¹²He used his own blood, not the blood of goats and bulls, for the sacrifice. He went into the most holy place and offered this sacrifice once and for all to free us forever. 

¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of cows sprinkled on unclean^cpeople made their bodies holy and clean. ¹⁴The blood of Christ, who had no defect, does even more. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God and cleansed our consciences from the useless things we had done. Now we can serve the living God. 

¹⁵Because Christ offered himself to God, he is able to bring a new promise from God. Through his death he paid the price to set people free from the sins they committed under the first promise. He did this so that those who are called can be guaranteed an inheritance that will last forever. 

¹⁶In order for a will to take effect, it must be shown that the one who made it has died. ¹⁷A will is used only after a person is dead because it goes into effect only when a person dies. 

¹⁸That is why even the first promise was made with blood. ¹⁹As Scripture tells us, Moses told all the people every commandment. Then he took the blood of calves and goats together with some water, red yarn, and hyssop and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰He said, “Here is the blood that seals the promise God has made to you.” ²¹In the same way, Moses sprinkled blood on the tent and on everything used in worship. ²²As Moses’ Teachings tell us, blood was used to cleanse almost everything, because if no blood is shed, no sins can be forgiven. 

²³The copies of the things in heaven had to be cleansed by these sacrifices. But the heavenly things themselves had to be cleansed by better sacrifices. ²⁴Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands. He didn’t go into a model of the real thing. Instead, he went into heaven to appear in God’s presence on our behalf. ²⁵Every year the chief priest went into the holy place to make a sacrifice with blood that isn’t his own. However, Christ didn’t go into heaven to sacrifice himself again and again. ²⁶Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the world was created. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once to remove sin by his sacrifice. ²⁷People die once, and after that they are judged. ²⁸Likewise, Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of humanity, and after that he will appear a second time. This time he will not deal with sin, but he will save those who eagerly wait for him. 

10TH CHAPTER

We Can Enter the Most Holy Place because of Christ’s Superior Work

¹Moses’ Teachings with their yearly cycle of sacrifices are only a shadow of the good things in the future. They aren’t an exact likeness of those things. They can never make those who worship perfect. ²If these sacrifices could have made the worshipers perfect, the sacrifices would have stopped long ago. Those who worship would have been cleansed once and for all. Their consciences would have been free from sin. ³Instead, this yearly cycle of sacrifices reminded people of their sins. ⁴(The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.) 

⁵For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said, 

“ ‘You did not want sacrifices and offerings, 

but you prepared a body for me. 

⁶You did not approve of burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.’ 

⁷Then I said, ‘I have come! 

(It is written about me in the scroll of the book.) 

I have come to do what you want, my God.’ ” 

⁸In this passage Christ first said, “You did not want sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. You did not approve of them.” (These are the sacrifices that Moses’ Teachings require people to offer.) ⁹Then Christ says, “I have come to do what you want.” He did away with sacrifices in order to establish the obedience that God wants. ¹⁰We have been set apart as holy because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do by sacrificing his body once and for all. 

¹¹Every day each priest performed his religious duty. He offered the same type of sacrifice again and again. Yet, these sacrifices could never take away sins. ¹²However, this chief priest made one sacrifice for sins, and this sacrifice lasts forever. Now he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. ¹³Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴With one sacrifice he accomplished the work of setting them apart for God forever. 

¹⁵The Holy Spirit tells us the same thing: ¹⁶“This is the promise^athat I will make to them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my teachings in their hearts and write them in their minds.’ ” 

¹⁷Then he adds, “I will no longer hold their sins and their disobedience against them.” 

¹⁸When sins are forgiven, there is no longer any need to sacrifice for sins. 

¹⁹Brothers and sisters, because of the blood of Jesus we can now confidently go into the holy place. ²⁰Jesus has opened a new and living way for us to go through the curtain. (The curtain is his own body.) ²¹We have a superior priest in charge of God’s house. ²²We have been sprinkled ⸤with his blood⸥ to free us from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with clean water. So we must continue to come ⸤to him⸥ with a sincere heart and strong faith. ²³We must continue to hold firmly to our declaration of faith. The one who made the promise is faithful. 

Encourage Each Other

²⁴We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things. ²⁵We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming. 

²⁶If we go on sinning after we have learned the truth, no sacrifice can take away our sins. ²⁷All that is left is a terrifying wait for judgment and a raging fire that will consume God’s enemies. ²⁸If two or three witnesses accused someone of rejecting Moses’ Teachings, that person was shown no mercy as he was executed. ²⁹What do you think a person who shows no respect for the Son of God deserves? That person looks at the blood of the promise (the blood that made him holy)…