(Psalm 40:1–17)
1
For the Law having a shadow of the good things coming—not the very image of the matters, every year, by the same sacrifices that they offer continually, is never able to make perfect those coming near,
2
since, would they not have ceased to be offered, because of those serving having no more conscience of sins, having been purified once?
3
But in those [sacrifices] is a remembrance of sins every year,
4
for it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5
For this reason, coming into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not will, and a body You prepared for Me;
6
in burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offerings, You did not delight.
7
Then I said, Behold, I come (in a volume of the scroll it has been written concerning Me), to do, O God, Your will”;
8
saying above, “Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and concerning sin-offering You did not will, nor delight in” (which are offered according to the Law),
9
then He said, “Behold, I come to do, O God, Your will”; He takes away the first that He may establish the second;
10
in which will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,
11
and every priest, indeed, has daily stood serving, and offering the same sacrifices many times, that are never able to take away sins.
12
But He, having offered one sacrifice for sin—to the end, sat down at the right hand of God—
13
as to the rest, expecting until He may place His enemies [as] His footstool,
14
for by one offering He has perfected to the end those being sanctified;
15
and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after that He has said before,
16
“This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD, giving My laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,”
17
and, “I will remember their sins and their lawlessness no more”;
18
and where [there is] forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.
A Call to Persevere
(Jude 1:17–23)
19
Having, therefore, brothers, boldness for the entrance into the holy places, by the blood of Jesus,
20
which [is] the way He initiated for us—new and living, through the veil, that is, His flesh—
21
and a Great Priest over the house of God,
22
may we draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having the body bathed with pure water;
23
may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope (for He who promised [is] faithful),
24
and may we consider to provoke one another to love and to good works,
25
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as [is] a custom of some, but exhorting, and so much the more as you see the Day coming near.
26
For [if] we are sinning willingly after receiving the full knowledge of the truth—there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
27
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery zeal, about to devour the opposers;
28
anyone having set aside a law of Moses dies without mercies on the basis of two or three witnesses.
29
Of how much worse punishment will he be counted worthy who trampled on the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, by which he was sanctified, and having insulted the Spirit of grace?
30
For we have known Him who is saying, “Vengeance [is] Mine, I will repay, says the LORD”; and again, “The LORD will judge His people.”
31
[It is] fearful to fall into [the] hands of [the] living God.
32
But call to your remembrance the former days, in which, having been enlightened, you endured much conflict of sufferings;
33
this indeed, being made spectacles with both insults and afflictions, now this, having become partners of those so living,
34
for you also sympathized with my bonds, and the robbery of your goods you received with joy, knowing that you have in yourselves a better substance in the heavens, and an enduring one.
35
You may not cast away, then, your boldness, which has great repayment of reward,
36
for you have need of patience, that having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
37
“For yet [in] a very, very little [while], He who is coming will come, and will not linger,”
38
but, “The righteous will live by faith; and if he may draw back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39
But we are not of those drawing back to destruction, but of those believing to a preserving of soul.
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