Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible





Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Messiah. Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by rejoicing about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up for no reason by his carnal mind. read more.
He does not hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, which is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God enables it.


Then he told them, "These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds so that they might understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is how it is written: the Messiah was to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, read more.
and then repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

For the Law, being only a reflection of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, read more.
for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, the Scriptures say, when the Messiah was about to come into the world: "You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you never took delight. Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me." In this passage he says, "You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings," which are offered according to the Law. Then he says, "See, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah. Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God." Since that time, he has been waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say this must happen?"

Then Jesus told them, "O, how foolish you are! How slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! The Messiah had to suffer these things and then enter his glory, didn't he?" Then, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them all the passages of Scripture about himself.

having erased the charges that were brought against us, along with their obligations that were hostile to us. He took those charges away when he nailed them to the cross. And when he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross. Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days. read more.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Messiah.


But only the high priest went into the second part, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins committed by the people in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was indicating by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first part of the tent was still standing. This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper, read more.
since they deal only with food, drink, and various washings, which are required for the body until the time when things would be set right. But when the Messiah came as a high priest of the good things that have come, he went through the greater and more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not a part of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he went into the Most Holy Place once for all and secured our eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are unclean purifies them physically, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God! This is why the Messiah is the mediator of a new covenant; so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance promised them, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the offenses committed under the first covenant.


This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. For after every commandment in the Law had been spoken to all the people by Moses, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with some water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you." read more.
In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and everything used in worship. In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness. Thus it was necessary for these earthly copies of the things in heaven to be cleansed by these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves are made clean with better sacrifices than these. For the Messiah did not go into a sanctuary made by human hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God's presence on our behalf. Nor did he go into heaven to sacrifice himself again and again, the way the high priest goes into the Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once for all to remove sin by his sacrifice. Indeed, just as people are destined to die once and after that to be judged, so the Messiah was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for him.

For the Law, being only a reflection of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, read more.
for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, the Scriptures say, when the Messiah was about to come into the world: "You did not want sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you never took delight. Then I said, "See, I have come to do your will, O God' In the volume of the scroll this is written about me." In this passage he says, "You never wanted or took delight in sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings," which are offered according to the Law. Then he says, "See, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By God's will we have been sanctified once and for all through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, the Messiah.