A Better Covenant

“Now think how great this man was: Abraham the patriarch himself gave him a tenth out of the best plunder. The sons of Levi who become priests have a command to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their own brothers, even though these brothers too have come from Abraham. But this man, who is not from their family line, has received tithes from Abraham, and has blessed the man who has the promises. And no one can dispute it: the lesser is blessed by the greater.

“Here, people who die receive tithes. But there, the one who receives them is testified to be alive. We can say that even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes through Abraham, because Levi was still in his ancestor’s body when Melchizedek met Abraham.”

“The one these things are said about belongs to another tribe, and no one from that tribe has done a priest’s work at the altar. It is clear that our Lord came from Judah, and when Moses spoke of priests, he said nothing of that tribe.

“An earlier command is cancelled because of its weakness and uselessness, since the law made nothing perfect. And a better hope has been brought in, through which we draw near to God.

“To that same degree, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”

“Such a high priest was right for us: holy, guiltless, spotless, separated from sinners, and raised higher than the heavens. He doesn’t need to offer up sacrifices daily, as those high priests do, first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, because he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. The law appoints men as high priests, and they are weak. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever, one who has been made perfect.

“Now in what we are saying, this is the main point: we have such a high priest, who took his seat on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. He is a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not a human being.

“Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, so this high priest, too, needs to have something to offer. He would not be a priest at all if he were on earth, because there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law. These priests serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as God warned Moses when he was about to make the tabernacle. God told him, ‘Take care to make everything by the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.’

“But now he has received a more excellent service, in the same measure as he is also the mediator of a better covenant. That covenant was given as law on better promises.”

“By saying, ‘A new covenant,’ he has made the first old. And whatever is going out of use and growing old is close to vanishing away.”

“Behind the second veil was the part of the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. It had a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant, overlaid on all sides with gold. In the ark were a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s staff that had sprouted buds, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it, the cherubim of glory cast their shadow over the mercy seat. We can’t speak about these things in detail now.

“With these things prepared in this way, the priests go into the first tabernacle all the time to carry out their services. But only the high priest goes into the second, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.

“By this the Holy Spirit is showing that the way into the Holy Place had not yet been made known while the first tabernacle was still standing. This is a symbol of the present age, in which gifts and sacrifices are offered that can’t make the worshiper perfect in conscience. They are only rules for the body, about foods and drinks and various washings, imposed until a time of reform.”

“The blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer’s ashes sprinkled on those who have been made unclean, make them holy and clean in body. If they do that, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Through the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God without a flaw.

“That is why he is the mediator of a new covenant: a death has happened to redeem people from the wrongs done under the first covenant, so that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

“A will says who is to receive a person’s things when he dies. Where there is a will, the one who made it must have died. A will is in force once there has been a death; it never has force while the one who made it is still alive.

“So even the first covenant was not dedicated without blood. Moses spoke every command of the law to all the people. Then he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.’

“He sprinkled the tabernacle and all the things used in its service with the blood in the same way. By the law nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and without the pouring out of blood there is no forgiveness.

“So the copies of the things in the heavens had to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves had to be cleansed with better sacrifices than these. Christ didn’t enter holy places made with hands, which are likenesses of the true ones. He entered heaven itself, to appear now in the presence of God for us.

“And he didn’t go in to offer himself often, as the high priest goes into the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Or else he would have had to suffer often, ever since the world was founded. But now, at the end of the ages, he has been revealed once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

“People are appointed to die once, and after this comes judgment. In the same way, Christ also was offered once to bear the sins of many, and will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

“But in those sacrifices sins are called to mind again every year, because the blood of bulls and goats can’t possibly take away sins.

“First he says, ‘You didn’t desire sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, and you had no pleasure in them.’ These are the ones offered by the law. Then he says, ‘Look, I have come to do your will.’ He takes away the first so that he may set up the second. And this is the will by which we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

“Every priest stands day by day at his work, offering the same sacrifices over and over, sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. Since that time he waits until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. By one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

“then he says, ‘I will remember their sins and their wrongdoings no more.’ And where these are forgiven, there is no more offering for sin.”

“And let’s think about how to move one another to love and good works. Let’s not abandon our own meeting together, as some make a habit of doing, but urge one another on, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay,’ says the Lord. Again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

“But we are not people who shrink back to destruction. We are people who have faith, for the saving of the soul.”