Old/New Testament

The stopping of the sacrifices

10 The law, you see, possesses a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the actual form of the things themselves. Thus it is unable to make worshipers perfect through the annual round in which the same sacrifices are continually being offered. ² If the worshipers really had been purified once and for all, they would no longer have sin on their consciences—so they would have stopped offering sacrifices, wouldn’t they? ³ But, as it is, the sacrifices serve as a regular annual reminder of sins, ⁴ since it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take sins away.

⁵ That’s why, when the Messiah comes into the world, this is what he says:

⁸ When he says, earlier, “you didn’t want, and you didn’t like, sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings and sin-offerings” (all of which are offered in accordance with the law), ⁹ then he says, “Look! I’ve come to do your will!” He takes away the first so that he can establish the second. ¹⁰ And it’s by that “will” that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus the Messiah, once for all.

The finished achievement of the Messiah

¹¹ Thus it comes about that every priest stands daily at his duty, offering over and over the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But Jesus offered a single sacrifice on behalf of sins, for all time, and then “sat down at the right hand of God.” ¹³ From that moment on he is waiting “until his enemies are made a stool for his feet.” ¹⁴ By a single sacrifice, you see, he has made perfect forever those who are sanctified.

¹⁵ The holy spirit bears witness to this too. For, after it is said,

then he adds:

¹⁸ Where these are put away, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin.