Hebrews 10

http://www.esvbible.org/Hebrews+10/

What Moses taught about the holy sacrifices is only a glimpse at what now exists. Once a sacrifice was made, the person was forgiven of all of his or her past sins, but as soon as he or she sinned once more, it meant death once again. It is impossible to stick to all of the Mosaic Laws and never stumble. That is why the sacrifice system exists, and why we need to be cleansed. Those sacrifices lasted but a short moment, but the sacrifice Jesus made of Himself lasts for all of eternity; therefore, the Mosaic sacrifices only show the greatness of what we have in part. The Jewish sacrifices cannot make us whole and perfect again. If they could, all of the people before Christ could have sacrificed one and done. They would be free from sin and have clear consciences after only one sacrifice, but the Mosaic sacrifices happened on a yearly cycle. This cycle not only cleansed them once a year of the previous sins, but it reminded them of their sinful nature. Next, the author quotes a Psalm. Because these former sacrifices could not truly cleanse us of our sins, Jesus said that the people did not approve of the sacrificial system, and He said that He has come to do the work of God. The work of God is to bring God's people back to God, so that they may live eternally with Him. We are all God's people. Jesus came to end the sacrificial cycle. In the old ways, the chief priest and all of the priests would have to do their jobs over and over again in the never ending cycle, from one chief priest to another, but when Jesus came, He sacrificed His own body as a once and for all deal. He established obedience that God wants. We can be holy because of what Jesus did for God.  All those other chief priests worked on the cycle but could not truly forgive us our sins, but Jesus, the chief priest of all priests, made a single sacrifice that lasts for all people forever. Now, He sits in the highest place in Heaven, waiting to make His enemies His footstool. God made another promise that He will hold His teachings in our hearts and write them on our minds. Additionally, He will never hold our disobediences against us again. When our sins are forgiven, there is no longer a need for sacrifice. When Jesus died, He took on the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Him onto Himself, so that they would be covered with His blood and forgiven. That is why God had to forsake Him on the cross. God cannot be in the presence of sin. Our disobediences are no longer held against us because they are forgiven from 2000 years ago on the cross. Because of Jesus, we can enter the Holy of Holies. He acts as a new curtain for us to pass through because He is the only way through, and He makes the final judgements. We must stay with Him and keep coming back to Him. We must hold firmly to our declaration of faith. The one who made the promise is faithful, but now it is up to us, the ones who received the promise to remain faithful.

We must always love each other and work on ways to encourage one another in the Spirit to show love and do good things. We should not stop gathering with other believers, as some do, but we must always fellowship  and encourage one another as we see the day of the Lord approach. Those who continue to sin after seeing the truth cannot bring on any sacrifice to undo their sins. Those who see who Jesus truly is and what He did for us, and do not turn towards Him are just waiting for a terrifying judgement and eternal fire that will consume all of God's enemies. If two or three witnesses accused someone of not following Moses's Teachings under those times, that person was executed. How much worse will a punishment be for someone who does not follow God's Son. Those people look at Jesus' sacrifice and just see the same death as any other person. He insults the Holy Spirit and God's grace. He deserves a worse punishment. God said that He alone has the right to take revenge. He will pay back. He also says that He will judge His people. We have no right to judge others. That is God's job alone. We must encourage and love them and try to lead them to the right path. We should not reject them or execute them. The punishment that they have coming is much worse than any of that. God will implement the punishment, and He can do so much more than we can because it is His right to lay out punishment. When we learn the truth, we experience  lot of hardship and pain. We are mocked and laughed at. We may know others treated this way too. We are judged and imprisoned. Yet we smile when we lose all of our possessions because we know that we have things that are so much greater waiting for us in Heaven. Don't lose confidence. Keep going strong. Your reward will come if you just have endurance to do what God wants you to do. He made us that promise. The person who has God's approval will live by faith, but the one who turns back, God will not be pleased with Him. We don't belong with those who turned back and were destroyed, but we belong with those who live by faith. That means that those who turned back persecute us now, but in time, we will come to a place where only people who lived by faith surround us.