Book of Common Prayer

4 We still have God's promise that people will go into his resting place. So let us take care that not one of you will be kept out.

² The good news has been told to us just as it was told to the people in the desert. But the message which they heard did not do them any good. Even though they heard it, they did not believe it.

³ But we who believe, will go into that resting place of God. It is as God said, `When I was angry, I said, "They will never go into my resting place." ' He said this even though his work had been finished ever since he had made the world.

⁴ Here is what he said, somewhere in the holy writings, about the seventh day: `And God rested on the seventh day after doing all his work.'

⁵ And now here he says again, `They will never go into my resting place.'

⁶ So that means some people will go in. But the people who first heard the good news about it did not go in. They did not believe it.

⁷ So he chose another day called `Today.' He spoke through David many years later, who said, `Today, when you hear his voice, do not make your hearts hard.'

⁸ If Joshua had led those people to rest, God would not have talked later about another day.

⁹ So there is still a rest for God's people, like a Sabbath day.

¹⁰ The person who goes into God's resting place will rest after doing his work, just as God rested after doing his work.

¹¹ So let us do our best to go into that resting place. Those people died in the wilderness because they did not believe. So let us take care that the same thing does not happen to one of us.

¹² God's word is living and full of power. It is more sharp than any sword that cuts on both sides. What God says cuts through and divides the mind and spirit. It cuts through and divides the place where the bones are joined, and the part inside the bone. What God says is able to judge the things people think and plan in their hearts.

¹³ God is the one we must meet. Nothing can be hidden from him. Everything is open and he can see it.

¹⁴ We have a great high priest who has gone into heaven. He is Jesus, the Son of God. Because we have such a great high priest, let us hold on to the things we believe.

¹⁵ We have a high priest who can feel with us when we are weak. He has been tested in every way, just as we are. But he did not do anything wrong.

¹⁶ So let us trust him when we come to worship God. He is so good. He will be kind to us and help us when we need it.

8 So now those who belong to Christ Jesus will not be judged.

² The Spirit gives life in Christ Jesus. And the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of wrong things, and the law of death.

³ God has done what the law could not do. The things people did made the law weak. God sent his own Son in a body of man. His body was like the bodies which others use to do wrong things. He sent him because people have done wrong things. And he judged the wrong things people have done in their bodies.

⁴ He did this so that we might be good people as the law said we should be. We are good people if we live the way the Spirit wants us to live, not the way our bodies want to live.

⁵ Some people live the way their bodies want to live. They think only about the things their bodies want to do. Other people live the way the Spirit wants them to live. They think about the things the Spirit wants them to do.

⁶ If you keep your mind on the things your bodies want to do, you will die. But if you keep your mind on the things the Spirit wants, you will live and have peace.

⁷ People who think about the things of this life are God's enemies. They do not obey God's law. They cannot obey it.

⁸ People who do what their bodies want cannot please God.

⁹ Does God's Spirit live in you? If he does, then you are not living the way the body wants, but you are living the way the Spirit wants. If anyone does not have Christ's Spirit, he does not belong to Christ.

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your bodies are dead because of the wrong things you have done. But your spirits live because you have been made right with God.

¹¹ God raised Christ Jesus from death. Does God's Spirit live in you? Then God will also give life to your bodies which die. He does this through his Spirit who lives in you.