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Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
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This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
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Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
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Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.
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This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.
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It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
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Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
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so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
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Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
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But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
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Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
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First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.
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And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
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But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
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For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
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And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
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If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
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By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,
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Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
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And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
