Hebrews 10 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The law was just a shadow of the good things coming — not the reality itself. That's why the same sacrifices repeated year after year could never make the people who approach God completely whole.

If those sacrifices had actually worked, wouldn't people have stopped offering them? Once truly cleansed, they wouldn't still feel the weight of their failures.

Instead, those sacrifices were an annual reminder of failures —

because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to actually take away failures.

That's why, when The One came into the world, he said: "You didn't want sacrifices and offerings — instead, you prepared a body for me.

Burnt offerings and failure offerings gave you no pleasure.

Then I said, 'Here I am — it's written about me in the scroll — I've come to do what you want, God.'"

First he said, "You didn't want sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and failure offerings — they gave you no pleasure" — even though the law required them.

Then he said, "Here I am — I've come to do what you want." He sets aside the first system to establish the second.

And because of that decision — God's will — we have been made whole through the offering of the body of Jesus, The One, once and for all.

Every priest stands day after day performing his duties, offering the same sacrifices over and over — sacrifices that can never take away failures.

But this man offered one sacrifice for failures and then sat down at God's right side — permanently.

Since then, he's been waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool.

Because with one offering, he has permanently made whole those who are being transformed.

The Breath of God also confirms this to us. First he says:

"This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my instructions in their hearts and write them on their minds."

"Then he adds: Their failures and their rebellions — I will never think about again."

And where these have been forgiven, there's no longer any need for an offering to cover failures.

So brothers and sisters, since we can now confidently walk right into God's most intimate presence through the blood of Jesus —

through the new and living way he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his body) —

and since we have a great priest over God's household —

let's approach with sincere hearts and absolute confidence in our trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water.

Let's hold on to the hope we've declared without wavering, because the one who made the promise can be trusted completely.

And let's figure out how to motivate each other toward love and good action —

not giving up on gathering together, like some have gotten into the habit of doing, but encouraging each other — and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Because if we deliberately keep on failing after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there is no sacrifice left for failures —

only a terrifying expectation of judgment and a blazing fire that will consume the opposition.

Anyone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much worse do you think the punishment will be for someone who has trampled on the Son of God, treated as worthless the blood of the covenant that made them whole, and insulted the Breath of God who brings undeserved kindness?

We know the one who said, "Justice is mine — I will settle accounts," and again, "Yahweh will judge his people."

It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But remember the earlier days when, after you first saw the light, you endured an intense struggle with suffering.

Sometimes you were publicly humiliated and attacked. Other times you stood shoulder to shoulder with others who were going through the same thing.

You suffered alongside those in chains, and you accepted the seizure of your possessions with joy, because you knew you had something better and more lasting.

So don't throw away your confidence — it comes with a massive reward.

You need endurance, so that after you've done what God wants, you'll receive what he promised.

Because in just a little while, the one who is coming will come and won't delay.

"My just one will live by trust. But if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him."

But we are not the kind of people who shrink back and are destroyed. We are people of trust, and our lives are being preserved.