Hebrews 9

Priestly Duties and Limitations Hebrews 9:6–10

⁶Verse 6. Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, ⁷Verse 7. but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. ⁸Verse 8. The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing; ⁹Verse 9. which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect; ¹⁰Verse 10. being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.

Christ as the New High Priest Hebrews 9:11–15

¹¹Verse 11. But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, ¹²Verse 12. nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³Verse 13. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: ¹⁴Verse 14. how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

¹⁵Verse 15. For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The Necessity of Blood Sacrifice Hebrews 9:16–22

¹⁶Verse 16. For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. ¹⁷Verse 17. For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. ¹⁸Verse 18. Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. ¹⁹Verse 19. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰Verse 20. saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

²¹Verse 21. Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. ²²Verse 22. According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.

Christ's Unique Sacrifice and Second Coming Hebrews 9:23–28

²³Verse 23. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴Verse 24. For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵Verse 25. nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, ²⁶Verse 26. or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

²⁷Verse 27. Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, ²⁸Verse 28. so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.