Chapter 10

For the Law, having but a shadow of the good things to come, and not the exact image of the objects, is never able by the sacrifices which they offer continually, year after year the same, to perfect those who draw near;

for in that case would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

Yet in these sacrifices sins are brought to remembrance year by year.

For it is impossible that sins should be taken away with blood of bulls and of goats.

Therefore in coming into the world, he says, "Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast fitted to me:

In holocausts and sin-offerings thou hast had no pleasure.

Then said I, 'Behold, I come---(in the head of the book it is written of me)---to do thy will, O God. '"

In saying in the first place, "Sacrifices and oblations and holocausts and sin-offerings thou wouldst not, neither hast thou had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

and then saying, "Behold, I come to do thy will, O God," he annuls the first covenant in order to establish the second.

It is in this "will" that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Its Eternal Efficacy

And every priest indeed stands daily ministering, and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

but Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins, has taken his seat forever at the right hand of God,

waiting thenceforth until his enemies be made the footstool under his feet.

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

Thus also the Holy Spirit testifies unto us. For after having said,

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws upon their hearts, and upon their minds I will write them," he then adds,

"And their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."

Now where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer offering for sin. First Motive: the Judgment

Since then, brethren, we are free to enter the Holies in virtue of the blood of Christ,

a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil (that is, his flesh),

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

let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts cleansed from an evil conscience by sprinkling, and the body washed with clean water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has given the promise is faithful.

And let us consider how to arouse one another to charity and good works;

not forsaking our assembly as is the custom of some, but exhorting one another, and this all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Guilt of Apostasy

For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there remains no longer a sacrifice for sins,

but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and "the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries."

A man making void the Law of Moses dies without any mercy on the word of two or three witnesses;

how much worse punishments do you think he deserves who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant through which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know him who has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Second Motive: Trials Well Borne

But call to mind the days gone by, in which, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings;

partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by making common cause with those who fared thus.

For you both have had compassion on those in prison and have joyfully accepted the plundering of your own goods, knowing that you have a better possession and a lasting one.

Do not, therefore, lose your confidence, which has a great reward.

For you have need of patience that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise:

"For yet a very little while, and he who is to come, will come, and will not delay.

Now my just one lives by faith. But if he draws back, he will not please my soul."

We, however, are not of those who draw back unto destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.