Worship in the Holy Tent on Earth

¹The first covenant had rules for worship, and it also had an earthly sanctuary.

²A holy tent was set up. The first room in it had the lampstand and the table with the holy bread. This was called the Holy Place.

³Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place.

⁴It had the golden altar for incense and the wooden chest called the ark of the covenant. The ark was covered with gold. It held the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s walking stick that had budded, and the stone tablets that had the words of the covenant written on them.

⁵Above the ark, where God showed his glory, there were cherubim made of gold. They spread their wings over the place where sin was paid for. But we can’t discuss these things in detail now.

⁶That’s how everything was arranged in the holy tent. The priests came regularly into the outer room to do their work.

⁷But only the high priest could go into the inner room, and he could only go in once a year. He never entered without bringing blood with him, which he had to offer for himself and for the sins the people had committed without knowing any better.

⁸The Holy Spirit was showing us that God had not yet opened the way into the Most Holy Place as long as the first tent was there.

⁹It’s an illustration of the present time, when gifts and sacrifices are offered that can’t give the worshiper a clear conscience.

¹⁰They deal only with food and drink and different kinds of ceremonial washings, which are rules about the outside of a person. They had to be followed only until the new covenant came.

The Blood of Christ

¹¹But then, when Christ came as the high priest of the good things that have already arrived, he went through the greater and more perfect holy tent. That tent wasn’t made with human hands. In other words, it’s not part of this creation.

¹²He didn’t enter by shedding the blood of goats and calves. Instead, he entered the Most Holy Place by shedding his own blood, once and for all time. In that way, he paid the price to set us free from sin forever.

¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow are sprinkled on people the law calls unclean in order to make them holy. Then they’re considered clean on the outside.

¹⁴So how much cleaner will the blood of Christ make us! He offered himself to God without any flaw through the power of the eternal Holy Spirit. His blood washes away our feelings of guilt for committing sin. Sin always leads to death. But now we can serve the living God.

¹⁵That’s why Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. Now the people that God has called to himself can receive the eternal gift he promised. They can receive it because Christ has died to pay the price and set them free from the sins they committed under the first covenant.

¹⁶When someone leaves a will, it’s necessary to prove that the person who made it has died,

¹⁷because someone’s will only takes effect when they die. It never takes effect while the person who made it is still living.

¹⁸That’s why even the first covenant was not put into effect without the shedding of blood.

¹⁹Moses first announced every command of the law to all the people. Then he took the blood of calves, together with water, bright red wool, and branches from a hyssop plant, and he sprinkled the Book of the Covenant and all the people.

²⁰He said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.”

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

²²In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be made clean with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

²³So the copies of the heavenly things had to be made pure with these sacrifices. But the heavenly things themselves had to be made pure with better sacrifices.

²⁴Christ didn’t enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself in order to appear before God on our behalf. He’s there right now.

²⁵The high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that isn’t his own. But Christ didn’t enter heaven to offer himself again and again.

²⁶If he had, he would have had to suffer many times since the world was created. No, he has appeared once and for all time, now when God’s work is being completed. He has come to do away with sin by offering himself.

²⁷People have to die once, and after that they face judgment.

²⁸In the same way, Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. He will also come a second time, not to take away our sins, but to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him.