Study Desk

Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him.

For the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests.

For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

but there was an oath regarding Jesus. For God said to him, "The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow: ‘You are a priest forever.'"

There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office.

Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins.

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."

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.

If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.

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.

That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship.