²⁴ The Lord said to him, “Go down, then come back up and bring Aaron with you, but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them.”

¹⁶ Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

²⁹ for indeed our God is a consuming fire.^(A)

¹⁸ You have not come to something^[a] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,^{(A) 19} and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.^{(B) 20} (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”^{(C) 21} Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)^{(D) 22} But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,^{(E) 23} and to the assembly^[b] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,^{(F) 24} and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(G)

²⁵ See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!^(H)

A Call to Persevere

¹⁹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,^{(A) 20} by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),^{(B) 21} and since we have a great priest over the house of God,^{(C) 22} let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.^(D)

²² But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through the faith of Jesus Christ^[a] might be given to those who believe.^(A)

The Purpose of the Law

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring^[a] would come to whom the promise had been made, and it was ordained through angels by a mediator.^(A)

¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.”^{(A) 11} Now it is evident that no one is reckoned as righteous before God by the law, for “the one who is righteous will live by faith.”^[a](B)

⁷ Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets,^[a] came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside,^{(A) 8} how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation,^[b] much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory!^(B)