Hebrews 10-11

Hebrews 10

¹For the law, having a shadow of the coming good things, not the image itself of the things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually yearly, perfect those who approach.

²Since, would they not indeed have ceased being offered, on account of the worshippers once purged having no longer any conscience of sins?

³But in these there is a calling to mind of sins yearly.

⁴For blood of bulls and goats is incapable of taking away sins.

⁵Wherefore coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body.

⁶Thou tookest no pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin.

⁷Then I said, Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will.

⁸Above, saying Sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou willedst not, neither tookest pleasure in (which are offered according to the law);

⁹then he said, Lo, I come to do thy will. He takes away the first that he may establish the second;

¹⁰by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹And every priest stands daily ministering, and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

¹²But *he*, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God,

¹³waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet.

¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified.

¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also bears us witness of it; for after what was said:

¹⁶This is the covenant which I will establish towards them after those days, saith the Lord: Giving my laws into their hearts, I will write them also in their understandings;

¹⁷and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more.

¹⁸But where there is remission of these, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin.

¹⁹Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus,

²⁰the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh,

²¹and having a great priest over the house of God,

²²let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water.

²³Let us hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering, (for he is faithful who has promised;)

²⁴and let us consider one another for provoking to love and good works;

²⁵not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom is with some; but encouraging one another, and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near.

²⁶For where we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins,

²⁷but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and heat of fire about to devour the adversaries.

²⁸Any one that has disregarded Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses:

²⁹of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

³⁰For we know him that said, To me belongs vengeance; *I* will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, The Lord shall judge his people.

³¹It is a fearful thing falling into the hands of the living God.

³²But call to mind the earlier days in which, having been enlightened, ye endured much conflict of sufferings;

³³on the one hand, when ye were made a spectacle both in reproaches and afflictions; and on the other, when ye became partakers with those who were passing through them.

³⁴For ye both sympathised with prisoners and accepted with joy the plunder of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better substance, and an abiding one.

³⁵Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense.

³⁶For ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.

³⁷For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay.

³⁸But the just shall live by faith; and, if he draw back, my soul does not take pleasure in him.

³⁹But *we* are not drawers back to perdition, but of faith to saving the soul.

Hebrews 11

¹Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

²For in the power of this the elders have obtained testimony.

³By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear.

⁴By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained testimony of being righteous, God bearing testimony to his gifts, and by it, having died, he yet speaks.

⁵By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God.

⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out.

⁷By faith, Noah, oracularly warned concerning things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

⁸By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out into the place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and went out, not knowing where he was going.

⁹By faith he sojourned as a stranger in the land of promise as a foreign country, having dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;

¹⁰for he waited for the city which has foundations, of which God is the artificer and constructor.

¹¹By faith also Sarah herself received strength for the conception of seed, and that beyond a seasonable age; since she counted him faithful who promised.

¹²Wherefore also there have been born of one, and that of one become dead, even as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the countless sand which is by the sea shore.

¹³All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth.

¹⁴For they who say such things shew clearly that they seek their country.

¹⁵And if they had called to mind that from whence they went out, they had had opportunity to have returned;

¹⁶but now they seek a better, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when tried, offered up Isaac, and he who had received to himself the promises offered up his only begotten son,

¹⁸as to whom it had been said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called:

¹⁹counting that God was able to raise him even from among the dead, whence also he received him in a figure.

²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

²¹By faith Jacob when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped on the top of his staff.

²²By faith Joseph when dying called to mind the going forth of the sons of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.

²³By faith Moses, being born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child beautiful; and they did not fear the injunction of the king.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he had become great, refused to be called son of Pharaoh's daughter;

²⁵choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin;

²⁶esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense.

²⁷By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible.

²⁸By faith he celebrated the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

²⁹By faith they passed through the Red sea as through dry land; of which the Egyptians having made trial were swallowed up.

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell, having been encircled for seven days.

³¹By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace.

³²And what more do I say? For the time would fail me telling of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David and Samuel, and of the prophets:

³³who by faith overcame kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped lions' mouths,

³⁴quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, made the armies of strangers give way.

³⁵Women received their dead again by resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted deliverance, that they might get a better resurrection;

³⁶and others underwent trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, and of bonds and imprisonment.

³⁷They were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, died by the death of the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, evil treated,

³⁸(of whom the world was not worthy,) wandering in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caverns of the earth.

³⁹And these all, having obtained witness through faith, did not receive the promise,

⁴⁰God having foreseen some better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us.