Hebrews 9:15-28

New Testament for Everyone

The purpose of the blood

¹⁵ For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. The purpose was that those who are called should receive the promised inheritance of the age to come, since a death has occurred which provides redemption from transgressions committed under the first covenant.

¹⁶ Where there is a covenant, you see, it is vital to establish the death of the one who made it. ¹⁷ A will laid down in covenant only takes effect after death; it has no validity during the lifetime of the one who made it. ¹⁸ That’s why even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. ¹⁹ For when every commandment had been read out to the people by Moses, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has made with you.” ²¹ Then, in the same way, he sprinkled with blood the Tabernacle, and all the vessels used in worship. ²² In fact, according to the law more or less everything is purified with blood; sins are not remitted unless blood is shed!

The Messiah’s work in the heavenly sanctuary

²³ That’s why it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly objects to be purified in this way, while the heavenly things themselves require better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For the Messiah did not enter into a sanctuary made by human hands, the copy and pattern of the heavenly one, but into the heavenly one itself, where he now appears in God’s presence on our behalf.

²⁵ Nor did he intend to offer himself over and over again, in the same way as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Had that been the case, he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. Instead, he has appeared once, at the close of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of his own self.

²⁷ Furthermore, just as it is laid down that humans have to die once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so the Messiah, having been offered once and for all to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time. This will no longer have anything to do with sin. It will be in order to save those who are eagerly awaiting him.