1.The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw nearto worship.
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2.If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
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3.but those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
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4.because it is impossible dor the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
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5.Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said; "Sacrifice and offering you prepared for me;
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6.with burnt offerings you were not pleased.
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7.Then I said, 'Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God.'"
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8.First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law reqired them to be made).
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9.Then he said, "Here I am, i have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.
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10.And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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11.Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
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12.But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God.
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13.Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool,
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14.because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
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15.The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
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16."This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."
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17.Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
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18.And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
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19.Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
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20.by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
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21.and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
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22.let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
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23.Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we promised is faithful.
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24.And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
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25.Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
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26.If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knwledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
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27.but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
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28.Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
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29.How much more severly do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled thd Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the insulted the Spirit of grace?
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30.For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."
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31.It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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32.Remember those earlier days after you had received thd light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.
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33.Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
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34.You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property. because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
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35.So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
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36.You need to presevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
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37.For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay.
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38. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."
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39.But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
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