Hebrews 9:16-28 ▼

16 For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be established.

17 For a will is in force only when somebody has died, since it never takes effect as long as the one who made it is alive.

18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

19 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,

20 saying, |This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you.|

21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and everything used in worship.

22 In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness.

23 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.

24 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.

25 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.

26 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.

27 Indeed, just as people are destined to die once and after that to be judged,

28 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.