Beginning

7 Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem. He was a priest of God who is the greatest of all. Melchizedek met Abraham when Abraham came back from killing some bad kings. And Melchizedek blessed him.

² Abraham divided all that he took away from the kings into ten parts. He gave Melchizedek one part. First, the name Melchizedek means the king who is true and right with God. Then he was king of Salem. That means king of peace.

³ He has no father or mother. The names of the family from which he comes are not written down. It is not written down that he was born or that he died. But, like the Son of God, he stays on being a priest for ever.

⁴ Just think how great he was! Even Abraham, the father of our people, gave him a tenth, one part out of ten, of all he brought back.

⁵ The sons of Levi, who are priests, have the right by law to take a tenth of what the people have. These people are their own brothers. They also are Abraham's children.

⁶ But Melchizedek was not from Levi's family. Yet he took a tenth of what Abraham had. And he blessed Abraham, to whom God made the promise.

⁷ Everyone knows this is true. The person who is blessed is not so great as the person who blesses him.

⁸ Here, priests take their tenth, but they are people who will die one day. But Melchizedek, who took his tenth, never dies. The holy writings say it is so.

⁹ And we say that Levi, the priest who takes the tenth from the people, gave his tenth through Abraham.

¹⁰ He was not yet born when Melchizedek met Abraham.

¹¹ It was while the sons of Levi were priests that the law was made for the people. If those priests were good enough, why would another priest need to come who was like Melchizedek? Why would he not be like Aaron?

¹² If the kind of priest is changed, then the law must be changed also.

¹³ The one we are talking about belonged to another tribe. No man from his tribe ever made sacrifices in God's house.

¹⁴ Everyone knows that our Lord Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. And Moses never said anything about priests coming from that tribe.

¹⁵ You can understand it even better when another priest comes who is like Melchizedek.

¹⁶ He was not made a priest by law. The law said that the priest must come from a certain tribe. But he was made a priest because he has power to live for ever.

¹⁷ This is what the holy writings say about him, `You are a priest for ever, like Melchizedek.'

¹⁸ The old law given to Moses by God was put away. It was weak and no good.

¹⁹ The law did not make anything right. But something better has been brought to us. It is God's promise. And by that promise we come near to God.

²⁰ Also Christ was not made a priest without God's strong promise. The others were made priests without God's strong promise.

²¹ But this man was made priest by God's strong promise. God said to him, `The Lord has made a strong promise, and he will not change it. "You are a priest for ever." '

²² Also because of this, Jesus makes a better agreement with God for people.

²³ The other priests were many, because they died and could not go on with their work.

²⁴ But because Jesus lives forever, he is a priest for ever and no one takes his place.

²⁵ Because of that, he is able to save people for ever, if they come to God by him. He lives for ever to talk to God for them.

²⁶ We needed such a high priest as he is. He is holy. He is good. He has never done any wrong. He has been taken away from among bad people, and taken up higher than the sky.

²⁷ He does not need to make sacrifices every day. The other high priests make sacrifices every day, first for the wrong things they have done, and then for the people. He did it once when he offered himself as the sacrifice.

²⁸ The law makes men high priests, and they are weak. But the word of God's promise came after the law. It makes his Son high priest for ever, and he is all right.

8 The real point of what we are saying is this. We now have a high priest who sits beside God's throne or chief chair in heaven.

² He is priest in the true holy place where God lives. The Lord made that place, man did not.

³ Every high priest is chosen to offer gifts and sacrifices. So this high priest must have something to offer also.

⁴ If he were still on earth, he would not be a priest. There are priests on earth already who offer gifts the way the law says.

⁵ The work they do shows what the work of the priest in heaven is. When Moses made a house for God, here is what God told him to do. He said, `Be sure you make everything like I showed you on the mountain.'

⁶ But Christ has been given a much better work, because he is the man who is between God and men in making an agreement. This is a much better agreement. It was made by better promises.

⁷ If the first agreement had been all right, there would have been no need to make another.

⁸ When the people had done wrong, God's words to them were, `The days will come, the Lord says, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

⁹ It will not be like the agreement that I made with their fathers. I made that agreement the day I led them by the hand out of the country of Egypt. But they did not keep their part of my agreement, so I left them alone, the Lord says.

¹⁰ After those days, the Lord says, I will make an agreement with the people of Israel. This is my agreement. I will put my laws in their minds. I will write them in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.

¹¹ A man will not need to teach another man, or his brother. He will not say, "Know the Lord," because everyone from the youngest to the oldest will know me.

¹² I will be kind even when they do what is not right, and I will never remember the wrong things they do.'

¹³ God says this is a new agreement, and that makes the first one old. When a thing is old and no good, it is about ready to be thrown away.

9 The first agreement had laws about worship. And it had a holy place on earth where the agreement was kept.

² A house was made. In the first part of the house were the light, the table, and the bread of God. This first part was called the Holy Place.

³ The next part of the house was called the Most Holy Place.

⁴ In the Most Holy Place was a pan made of gold. In this pan a fire could burn to make a sweet-smelling smoke. The box of the agreement was also in the Most Holy Place. It was covered all over with gold. In this box were: the golden pot, which had some of the food God sent from heaven for the people in the desert; Aaron's stick which grew flowers on it; and the stones which had God's agreement written on them.

⁵ On top of the box were the shapes of two angels. They showed that God is great. Their wings spread over the cover of the box. It was the place where God showed that he is kind. But we cannot take time to tell about every part of these things now.

⁶ These things were made ready. The priests always went into the first part of the house to do their work for God.

⁷ But only the high priest went into the second part. And he went in only once a year. He never went in without taking blood with him. He gave the blood to God for the wrong things he had done and for the wrong things people had done.

⁸ This is how the Holy Spirit showed that the way into the Most Holy Place was not yet open to everybody. It was not open as long as the first house was still standing.

⁹ This first part is a picture of the time we are in now. In it gifts and sacrifices are made to God. But they cannot make a person's heart clean to worship God.

¹⁰ These are only things to eat and drink and different kinds of washings. They are laws made for the body until the time when everything is made right again.

¹¹ But Christ has come as the high priest of the good things which have come. He went through a greater and better house which was not made by men's hands. It is not a part of this world.

¹² He did not take the blood of goats and young cows. He took his own blood. And he went into the Most Holy Place just once. He paid for our sins and made us free for ever.

¹³ The priest takes the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes from a young cow that has been burned. He puts this on the people who have done wrong things. This makes their bodies clean.

¹⁴ If the blood of animals can do that, then the blood of Christ will clean our hearts much better. Christ gave himself to God as the sacrifice. He did this by the Spirit who lives for ever. He was a perfect sacrifice. He will clean our hearts from useless acts of worship. Then we can serve the living God.

¹⁵ That is why he is the middle man of a new agreement. He died and paid for the wrong things that were done under the first agreement. Because he is a middle man, those people who are called by God can have what he promised. This will belong to them for ever.

¹⁶ A person can say who will get his things when he dies. He writes this agreement down. Before anyone can have them, it must be proved that the person has died.

¹⁷ The agreement has no power until the one who made it has died. It has no power as long as the one who made it is living.

¹⁸ So even the old agreement made by God was not begun without blood.

¹⁹ Moses told all the people every part of the law. Then he took the blood of young cows and goats. He put some of the blood on the book of the law itself and on all the people. He took water and red wool and a plant called hyssop.

²⁰ As he did this, he said, `This is the blood for the agreement which God has made for you.'

²¹ In the same way, he put some of the blood on the house he had made for God, and on all the things that were used in worship.

²² Yes, by the old law almost everything is made clean with blood. If no animal is killed to give blood, then there is no way for people to be forgiven for the wrong things they have done.

²³ These things on earth show in a little way what things in heaven are like. The things on earth had to be cleaned by the blood of animals. But the things in heaven had to be cleaned with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴ Christ did not go into a holy place made by men's hands. The holy places on earth only show in a little way what the true holy place in heaven is like. He went into heaven itself. Now he stands before God for our sake.

²⁵ Christ did not have to offer himself as a sacrifice many times. He is not like the high priest who went into the Holy Place every year and took blood that was not his own blood.

²⁶ If Christ were like him, he would have had to die many times ever since the world was first made. But as it is now, Christ came once in the last days of the world. He came to clean away what is wrong by giving himself as a sacrifice.

²⁷ People must die, and after that they will be judged.

²⁸ So Christ gave himself as a sacrifice only once. He took on himself the wrong things many people have done. He will come a second time. But he will not come to do anything about the wrong things people have done. He will come to save those who are looking and waiting for him.

10 The law can show only a little about the good things that are coming. It cannot show the good things themselves. People come to worship God. But the law can never make them all right by the same sacrifices that are brought every year.

² If the law could make people all right, they would stop making sacrifices. The people who come to worship would be made clean for all time, and they would not remember the wrong things they had done.

³ But, by making these sacrifices, they show that they do remember the wrong things they have done.

⁴ The blood of bulls and goats can never clean wrong things from people's hearts.

⁵ That is why Christ said when he came into the world, `You did not want sacrifices and gifts. But you made a body for me.

⁶ Animals that are burned for sacrifices, and animals killed to clean away the wrong things that people do, did not satisfy you.

⁷ Then I said, "See, I have come to do what you, God, want me to do." This is what is written about me in the book of the law.'

⁸ First he said, `You did not want sacrifices and gifts, and animals that are given to be burned as sacrifices, and animals killed to clean away people's wrong ways. You did not like them.' These sacrifices are made to obey the law.

⁹ Then he said, `See, I have come to do what you want me to do.' He took away the first kind of sacrifices so that the second kind would remain.

¹⁰ God wanted us to be made holy. We have been made holy by Jesus Christ. He made us holy by once making his body a sacrifice.

¹¹ Every priest stands day after day doing his work. He makes the same sacrifices many times. But these sacrifices can never clean away the wrong things people have done.

¹² But Christ made one sacrifice to clean away their wrong ways for ever. Then he sat down beside God.

¹³ Since then, he is waiting till his enemies are put under him.

¹⁴ By one sacrifice Christ has made right for ever all those people who are being made holy.

¹⁵ The Holy Spirit tells us about this also.

¹⁶ First he said, `This is the agreement that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts. I will write them in their minds.'

¹⁷ Then he also said, `I will never remember the wrong things they have done and the times they did not obey.'

¹⁸ When these wrong things have been forgiven, a sacrifice is not needed for them again.

¹⁹ So, my brothers, we can go into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.

²⁰ He made a new and living way for us. He opened up God's way specially for us. It lets us through the big curtain or cloth which hides God from us. This happened when Jesus gave his body as a sacrifice.

²¹ Also, we have a high priest who has charge of God's people.

²² So let us come to him with a true heart. Let us come because we believe all these things. Let us come with our hearts washed clean from our wrong ways. Let us come with our bodies washed with clean water.

²³ We must hold on to God's promise that we have said we believed. And we must never let go. He has promised and he will do it.

²⁴ Let us think of one another and help one another to love and to do good things.

²⁵ Do not stop going to church meetings. Some people do stop. But help each other to be strong. You must do it all the more as you see the Great Day coming closer.

²⁶ Do we go on doing what is wrong after we know the truth? If we do, then there is no sacrifice any more for the wrong things we do.

²⁷ But we will be judged, and that makes us fear. God's anger will be like a very hot fire that will burn up those who are against him.

²⁸ Any man who broke the law of Moses was killed, if two or three people proved that he had broken the law. He will not be forgiven.

²⁹ But the person who should have much bigger punishment is the one who turns against the Son of God. That person was made holy by the blood of the new agreement and then calls it nothing. He no longer honours and respects the Spirit who has been so kind to him.

³⁰ We know God who has said, `I am the one who will punish people. I will repay them.' Also, `The Lord will judge his people.'

³¹ People should fear very much to be punished by the living God.

³² Remember the first days when you had the light of God's truth. In those days you were strong, even though you had to fight against many troubles.

³³ Sometimes it was because people said and did wrong things to you and everybody saw it. And sometimes it was because you stood with others who had wrong things done to them.

³⁴ You shared in the troubles of those who were in prison. When your things were taken from you, you were happy. You knew that you had better things in heaven, things that would always belong to you.

³⁵ So do not stop believing God now. Your faith will bring you much reward.

³⁶ You must not give up believing. Then you will do what God wants you to do. Then you will get what he promised you.

³⁷ The holy writings say `In a little while, the one who is to come will come. He will not wait any longer.

³⁸ If a person does what is right because he believes in God, he will live. If he turns back, I will not be pleased with him.'

³⁹ We are not the people who turn back and so are lost. But we are people who believe, and so we are saved.