Book of Common Prayer

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.

The coming judgment

¹⁹ So Jesus made this response to them.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “The son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son does too, and in the same way. ²⁰ The father loves the son, you see, and shows him all the things that he’s doing. Yes: he will show him even greater things than these, and that’ll amaze you! ²¹ For, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the son gives life to anyone he chooses.

²² “The father doesn’t judge anyone, you see; he has handed over all judgment to the son, ²³ so that everyone should honor the son just as they honor the father. Anyone who doesn’t honor the son doesn’t honor the father who sent him.

²⁴ “I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who hears my word, and believes in the one who sent me, has the life of God’s coming age. Such a person won’t come into judgment; they will have passed out of death into life. ²⁵ I’m telling you the solemn truth: the time is coming—in fact, it’s here already!—when the dead will hear the voice of God’s son, and those who hear it will live. ²⁶ You see, just as the father has life in himself, in the same way he has given the son the privilege of having life in himself. ²⁷ He has even given him authority to pass judgment, because he is the son of man.

²⁸ “Don’t be surprised at this. The time is coming, you see, when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice. ²⁹ They will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”