Epistle to the Hebrews

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel . After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be to them a God, And they will be to me a people.

They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, Every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' For all will know me, From the least of them to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more."

In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.

For there was a tabernacle prepared. In the first part were the lampstand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.

After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,

having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't now speak in detail.

Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services,

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.

The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn't yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing;

which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshipper perfect;

being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.

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,

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.

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:

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

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.

For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.