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The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
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and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
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And since every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, it was necessary for this One also to have something to offer.
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Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law.
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The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”(a)
The New Covenant
(Jeremiah 31:26–40)
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Now, however, Jesus has received a much more excellent ministry, just as the covenant He mediates is better and is founded on better promises.
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For if that first covenant had been without fault, no place would have been sought for a second.
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But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
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It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide by My covenant, and I disregarded them,
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declares the Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
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No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.
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For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”(b)
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By speaking of a new covenant,(c) He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Footnotes