Thematic Bible: Insufficiency of


Thematic Bible



For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second. But finding fault with them, He says. "There are days coming," says the Lord, "When I will establish with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; Not according tot he covenant which I made with their forefathers, On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in my covenant, And therefore I disregarded them," says the Lord. read more.
"For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel, After these days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their minds, And upon their hearts will I write them; And I will be their God, And they shall be my people; And they shall not teach every man his fellow citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will have mercy upon their wrong-doings, And their sins I will remember no more." By calling the covenant "new," He has made the first one obsolete; and whatever is becoming obsolete and aged, is near to vanishing.

Now even the first covenant had its ordinances of public worship, and its sanctuary, a material one. For a tent was built, the outer one called the Holy Place, in which were the lamp and the table and the loaves of the Presence; and behind the second veil was the tent called the Holy of Holies. read more.
In it was the golden altar of incense, and also the Ark of the Covenant covered all over with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; while above it, overshadowing the mercy-seat, were the cherubim of glory. But I must not speak about these in detail. Such then were the arrangements. Into the outer tent the priests enter continually in the performance of their duties; but into the inner tent the high priest only goes alone, once a year, and that not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the ignorances of the people. The Holy Spirit teaching by this that the way into the Holiest has not yet been disclosed while the first tent is still standing. This is a parable, for the present time, according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered that are not able, as far as conscience is concerned, to perfect the worshiper; since they consist only in meats and drinks and various ablutions, carnal ordinances, imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ came, a High Priest of good things to come, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is to say, not of this material creation, not taking the blood of goats and oxen, but his own blood, and entered once for all into the Holy Place, obtaining for us an eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through his eternal spirit offered himself free from blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works unto the service of an ever-living God! And because of this he is the Mediator of a new testament, in order that, since a death has taken place to atone for offenses committed under the first testament, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For the Law, being only a shadow of the good things to come, and not their very substance, its priests cannot with the same sacrifice which year after year they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sin. But on the other hand, in these sacrifices sins are called to memory, year after year. read more.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. It is for this reason that the Christ, on coming into the world, declared. Sacrifice and offerings thou dost not desire, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sin offerings Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, "I am come??n the roll of the book it is written of me??o do thy will, O God." First when it is said, Thou hast no longing for, thou takest no delight in Sacrifices and offerings, or whole burnt offerings and sin offerings, (offerings regularly made under the law), and then it is added, Lo, I come to do thy will, he does away with the first, in order that he may establish the second. And it is by this will that we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For while every priest stands, day after day, at his ministrations, and many times repeats the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, this Priest, after offering one Sacrifice for sins, sat down forever on God's right hand;

But when these have been remitted, there is no more any offering for sin. Since, then, we have a cheerful confidence, brothers, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, that new and living way, through the veil (that is, his flesh);