Retired: Traditional Worship
1God gave people rules about how to worship. Those rules were an important part of the first agreement. There was a worship center too. 2God’s people set up a tent they could use in worship. They called the large, front room the Holy Place. There, they set up a lamp and a table for the sacred bread. 3They hung a curtain to separate the front room from the smaller back room. They called the back room the Most Holy Place.4Inside this sacred room they put a gold altar, which they used for burning incense. The ark of the covenant was in there too. It was a wooden chest plated with gold all over. Inside that chest was a golden jar with some manna, Aaron’s almond wood staff that budded, and stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. 5Covering the chest was a lid with figures representing glorious celestial beings called cherubim. This was the place where God’s people found forgiveness. [1] I’m not going to go into more detail about that now. 6Once the tent was set up and ready, priests regularly went into the front room to perform their worship rituals. 7They didn’t go into that back room. It was off limits to everyone but the high priest. Even he couldn’t go in there except on the annual day of repentance. [2] And when he did, he had to take blood—an offering for both his sins and the unintentional sins of the entire nation.
8This worship practice is the Holy Spirit’s way of helping us understand that the Most Holy Place—God’s presence—wasn’t available to us back then. Not when God’s people worshiped at a tent. [3] 9This isn’t just about history. It’s about us too. Think about those gifts and sacrifices priests brought to the tent. Those offerings don’t erase our sense of guilt. 10Those offerings are about food and drinks along with ritual baths and other rules about the human body. That was for then. This is for now—a revitalized system for a new age.
God’s New Deal with People
11Christ came as high priest of everything good in our life, now and to come. He went into the real worship center, not some tent copy of it made by human hands. 12He went into the authentic Most Holy Place. He did it just once, but forever. He didn’t get there courtesy of blood from goats and calves. He got there because of his own blood. He didn’t free us from sin for just a year. He redeemed us forever.13When someone becomes ritually unclean, they go through cleansing rituals. [4] This can involve blood of goats and bulls and ashes of a heifer. [5] 14Well, blood of Christ is better. Encouraged and empowered by the eternal Spirit, [6] he offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice. There was nothing wrong with him. His blood washed away our guilt. It left us with a clear conscience and a desire to live our life for the living God.
Jesus, the Perfect Peacemaker
15That’s why he’s the perfect choice as a mediator. That’s why he’s the one who delivered God’s new agreement to everyone invited to live forever. Jesus died to save people held hostage for sins they committed during the first agreement. His death paid the ransom to free them. [7] 16We’ve got to prove someone is dead before we can execute the person’s will. 17The will isn’t valid until the person who made the will dies. That’s in the contract. 18God’s first contract agreement with people couldn’t go into effect without death. There had to be blood.19Here’s what happened. Moses, with the Book of Law, told the people every commandment God gave them. Then he dipped hyssop branches and scarlet wool into the blood of calves and goats. He used this to sprinkle blood on the Book of Law and on the people. 20Moses said, “This blood executes the contract agreement God has with you. The agreement is now active.” 21He sprinkled blood on the tent worship center and all the ministry utensils and furnishings. 22When we look closely at the Jewish law, we can see that anything needing forgiveness is going to get sprinkled with blood. No blood, no forgiveness.
Purifying People for Heaven
23The tent worship center and everything with it are just shadows compared to the real place of worship in heaven. We can purify things here with the blood of animals. But to purify people for the genuine place of worship in heaven, [8] we need better blood.24Christ didn’t go into some worship center made by humans, and copied from heaven’s original. He went to heaven. He’s there now. He’s speaking up for us in the company of God. 25He didn’t go to heaven with the plan of offering himself in sacrifice every year, like the high priest offering animal sacrifices every year in the worship center’s Most Holy Place. 26If Jesus had to do that, he would have suffered and died many times since the world started.
27Humans die once. Then they’re judged. 28Jesus died once. He did it to carry away the sins of many people. He’s coming back, and it has nothing to do with sin. He’s coming to save people excitedly waiting for him.
