Outline
I.
Prologue: The
Superiority of God's New Revelation (1:1-4)
A.
A New Sanctuary and a
New Covenant (ch. 8)
Hebrews 8 NLT
1 Here is the main point: We have a
High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the
majestic God in heaven.
2 There he ministers in the heavenly
Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by
human hands.
3 And since every high priest is
required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering,
too.
4 If he were here on earth, he would
not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts
required by the law.
5 They serve in a system of worship
that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was
getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that
you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the
mountain.”
6 But now Jesus, our High Priest, has
been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the
one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better
promises.
7 If the first covenant had been
faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace
it.
8 But when God found fault with the
people, he said: “The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 This covenant will not be like the
one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out
of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned
my back on them, says the LORD .
10 But this is the new covenant I will
make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD : I will put my laws
in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and
they will be my people.
11 And they will not need to teach their
neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should
know the LORD .’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me
already.
12 And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
13 When God speaks of
a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of
date and will soon disappear.
Hebrews 9 NLT
1 That first covenant between God and
Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth.
2 There were two rooms in that
Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of
bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place.
3 Then there was a curtain, and behind
the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place.
4 In that room were a gold incense
altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with
gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s
staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
5Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine
glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement.
But we cannot explain these things in detail now.
6 When these things were all in place,
the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious
duties.
7 But only the high priest ever entered
the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his
own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit
revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long
as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.
9 This is an illustration pointing to
the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not
able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them.
10 For that old system deals only with
food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were
in effect only until a better system could be established.
11 So Christ has now become the High
Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater,
more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not
part of this created world.
12 With his own blood—not the blood of
goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured
our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of
goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from
ceremonial impurity.
14 Just think how much more the blood of
Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the
living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to
God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
15 That is why he is the one who
mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can
receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set
them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first
covenant.
16 Now when someone leaves a will, it is
necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead.
17 The will goes into effect only after
the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will
cannot be put into effect.
18 That is why even the first covenant
was put into effect with the blood of an animal.
19 For after Moses had read each of
God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats,
along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people,
using hyssop branches and scarlet wool.
20 Then he said, “This blood confirms
the covenant God has made with you.”
21 And in the same way, he sprinkled
blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship.
22 In fact, according to the law of
Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness.
23 That is why the Tabernacle and
everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by
the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far
better sacrifices than the blood of animals.
24 For Christ did not enter into a holy
place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven.
He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.
25And he did not enter heaven to offer
himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most
Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.
26 If that had been necessary, Christ
would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now,
once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his
own death as a sacrifice.
27 And just as each person is destined
to die once and after that comes judgment,
28 so also Christ was
offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.
He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all
who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 10 NLT
1 The old system under the law of Moses
was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good
things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and
again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing
for those who came to worship.
2 If they could have provided perfect
cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have
been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have
disappeared.
3 But instead, those sacrifices
actually reminded them of their sins year after year.
4 For it is not possible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 That is why, when Christ came into
the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin
offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.
6 You were not pleased with burnt
offerings or other offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do
your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”
8 First, Christ said, “You did not want
animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for
sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of
Moses).
9 Then he said, “Look, I have come to
do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into
effect.
10 For God’s will was for us to be made
holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
11 Under the old covenant, the priest
stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same
sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.
12 But our High Priest offered himself
to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in
the place of honor at God’s right hand.
13 There he waits until his enemies are
humbled and made a footstool under his feet.
14 For by that one offering he forever
made perfect those who are being made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies
that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the LORD : I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he says, “I will never again
remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven,
there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
