like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.
as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.