Christ the Mediator

1 God, who, of old, at many times and in many ways, spoke to our ancestors, by the prophets, 2 has in these latter days spoken to us by the Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 For he is the radiance of the glory of God and the expression of his being, upholding all creation by the power of his word; and, when he had made an expiation for the sins of humanity, he took his seat at the right hand of God’s Majesty on high, 4 having shown himself as much greater than the angels as the name that he has inherited surpasses theirs.

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say –

“You are my Son; this day I have become your Father”?

or again –

“I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son”?

6 And again, when God brought the firstborn into the world, he said –

“Let all the angels of God bow down before him.”

7 Speaking of the angels, he said –

“He makes the winds his angels

and the flames of fire his servants”;

8 while of the Son he said –

“God is your throne for ever and ever;

the sceptre of his kingdom is the sceptre of Justice;

9 You love righteousness and hates iniquity;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the festal oil more abundantly than your peers.”

10 Again –

“You, Lord, in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

11 They will perish, but you remain;

as a garment they will all grow old;

12 As a mantle you will fold them up,

and as a garment they will be changed,

but you are the same, and your years will know no end.”

13 To which of the angels has God ever said –

“Sit you at my right hand

until I put your enemies as a stool for your feet”?

14 Are not all the angels spirits in the service of God, sent out to minister for the sake of those who are destined to obtain salvation?

2 Therefore we must give still more heed to what we were taught, so we do not drift away. 2 For, if the message which was delivered by angels had its authority confirmed, so that every offence against it, or neglect of it, met with a fitting requital, 3 how can we, of all people, expect to escape, if we disregard so great a salvation? It was the Master who at the outset spoke of this salvation, and its authority was confirmed for us by those who heard him, 4 while God himself added his testimony to it by signs, and marvels, and many different miracles, as well as by imparting the Holy Spirit as he saw fit.Titleless Section Break

5 God has not given to angels the control of that future world of which we are speaking! 6 No; a writer has declared somewhere –

“What are mere mortals that you should remember them?

Or human beings that you should care for them?

7 You have made them, for a while, lower than angels;

with glory and honour you have crowned them;

you have set them over all that your hands have made;

8 you have placed all things beneath their feet.”

This “placing of everything” under humanity means that there was nothing which was not placed under them. As yet, however, we do not see everything placed under humanity. 9 What our eyes do see is Jesus, who was made for a while lower than angels, now, because of his sufferings and death, crowned with glory and honour; so that his tasting the bitterness of death should, in God’s loving kindness, be on behalf of all humanity. 10 It was, indeed, fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should, when leading many children to glory, make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who purifies, and those whom he purifies, all spring from One; and therefore he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. 12 He says –

“I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

13 And again –

“As for me, I will put my trust in God.”

And yet again –

“See, here am I and the children whom God gave me.”

14 Therefore, since human nature is the common heritage of the children, Jesus also shared it, in order that by death he might render powerless him whose power lies in death – that is, the devil – 15 and so might deliver all those who, from fear of death, had all their lives been living in slavery. 16 It was not, surely, to the help of the angels that Jesus came, but to the help of the descendants of Abraham. 17 And consequently it was necessary that he should in all points be made like his brothers and sisters, in order that he might prove a merciful as well as a faithful high priest in humanity’s relations with God, for the purpose of expiating the sins of his people. 18 The fact that he himself suffered under temptation enables him to help those who are tempted.

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3 Therefore, my Christian friends, you who, all alike, have received the call from heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our religion. 2 See how faithful he was to the God who appointed him, as Moses was in the whole house of God. 3 He has been deemed worthy of far higher honour than Moses, just as the founder of the house is held in greater regard than the house itself. 4 For every house has its founder, and the founder of the universe is God. 5 While the faithful service of Moses in the whole house of God was that of a servant, whose duty was to bear testimony to a message still to come, 6 the faithfulness of Christ was that of a son set over the house of God. And we are his house – if only we retain, unshaken to the end, the courage and confidence inspired by our hope.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says –

“If today you hear God’s voice,

8 harden not your hearts, as when Israel provoked me

on the day when they tried my patience in the desert,

9 Where your ancestors tried my forbearance,

and saw my mighty deeds for forty years.

10 Therefore I was sorely vexed with that generation,

and I said – ‘Their hearts are always straying;

they have never learned my ways’;

11 While in my wrath I swore –

‘They will never enter upon my rest.’ ”

12 Be careful, friends, that there is never found in anyone of you a wicked and faithless heart, shown by that person separating themselves from the living God. 13 Rather encourage one another daily – while there is a today – to prevent anyone among you from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we now all share in the Christ, if indeed we retain, unshaken to the end, the confidence that we had at the first. 15 To use the words of scripture –

“If today you hear God’s voice,

harden not your hearts, as when Israel provoked me.”

16 Who were they who heard God speak and yet provoked him? Were not they all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 And with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for forty years? Was not it with those who had sinned, and who fell dead in the desert? 18 And who were they to whom God swore that they should not enter upon his rest, if not those who had proved faithless? 19 We see, then, that they failed to enter upon it because of their want of faith. 4 We must, therefore, be very careful, though there is a promise still standing that we will enter upon God’s rest, that none of you even appear to have missed it. 2 For we have had the good news told us just as they had. But the message which they heard did them no good, since they did not share the faith of those who were attentive to it. 3 Upon that rest we who have believed are now entering. As God has said –

“In my wrath I swore –

‘They will never enter upon my rest;’ ”

Although God’s work was finished at the creation of the world; 4 for, in a passage referring to the seventh day, you will find these words –

“God rested on the seventh day after all his work.”

5 On the other hand, we read in that passage –

“They will never enter upon my rest.”

6 Since, then, there is still a promise that some will enter upon this rest, and since those who were first told the good news did not enter upon it, because of their disbelief, 7 again God fixed a day. “Today,” he said, speaking after a long interval through the mouth of David, in the passage already quoted –

“If today you hear God’s voice

harden not your hearts.”

8 Now if Joshua had given “rest” to the people, God would not have spoken of another and later day. 9 There is, then, a Sabbath rest still awaiting God’s people. 10 For the person who enters upon God’s rest do themselves rest after their work, just as God did. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter upon that rest, so that none of us fall through such disbelief as that of which we have had an example. 12 God’s message is a living and active power, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing its way until it penetrates soul and spirit – not the joints only but the marrow – and detecting the inmost thoughts and purposes of the mind. 13 There is no created thing that can hide itself from the sight of God. Everything is exposed and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we have to give account.

14 We have, then, in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has passed into the highest heaven; let us, therefore, hold fast to the faith which we have professed. 15 Our high priest is not one unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who has in every way been tempted, exactly as we have been, but without sinning. 16 Therefore, let us draw near boldly to the throne of love, to find pity and love for the hour of need.

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5 Every high priest, taken from among the people, is appointed as their representative in their relations with God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices in expiation of sins. 2 And he is able to sympathise with the ignorant and deluded, since he is himself subject to weakness, 3 and is therefore bound to offer sacrifices for sins, not only for the people, but equally so for himself. 4 Nor does anyone take that high office on themselves, until they have been called to do so by God, as Aaron was. 5 In the same way, even the Christ did not take the honour of the high priesthood on himself, but he was appointed by him who said to him –

“You are my Son; this day I have become your Father”;

6 and on another occasion also –

“You are a priest for all time of the order of Melchizedek.”

7 Jesus, in the days of his earthly life, offered prayers and supplications, with earnest cries and with tears, to him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard because of his devout submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from his sufferings; 9 and, being made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, 10 while God himself pronounced him a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.Titleless Section Break

11 Now on this subject I have much to say, but it is difficult to explain it to you, because you have shown yourselves so slow to learn. 12 For whereas, considering the time that has elapsed, you ought to be teaching others, you still need someone to teach you the alphabet of the divine revelation, and need again to be fed with milk instead of with “solid food.” 13 For everyone who still has to take milk knows nothing of the teaching of righteousness; they are a mere infant. 14 But solid food is for Christians of mature faith – those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish right from wrong. 6 Therefore, let us leave behind the elementary teaching about the Christ and press on to perfection, not always laying over again a foundation of repentance for a lifeless formality, of faith in God – 2 teaching concerning baptisms and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and a final judgment. 3 Yes and, with God’s help, we will. 4 For if those who were once for all brought into the light, and learned to appreciate the gift from heaven, and came to share in the Holy Spirit, 5 and learned to appreciate the beauty of the divine message, and the new powers of the coming age – 6 if those, I say, fell away, it would be impossible to bring them again to repentance; they would be crucifying the Son of God over again for themselves, and exposing him to open contempt. 7 Ground that drinks in the showers that from time to time fall on it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8 but, if it bears thorns and thistles, it is regarded as worthless, it is in danger of being cursed, and its end will be the fire.

9 But about you, dear friends, even though we speak in this way, we are confident of better things – of things that point to your salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget the work that you did, and the love that you showed for his name, in sending help to your fellow Christians – as you are still doing. 11 But our great desire is that every one of you should be equally earnest to attain to a full conviction that our hope will be fulfilled, and that you should keep that hope to the end. 12 Then you will not show yourselves slow to learn, but you will copy those who, through faith and patience, are now entering upon the enjoyment of God’s promises.

13 When God gave his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater by whom he could swear, he swore by himself. 14 His words were –

“I will assuredly bless you and increase your numbers.”

15 And so, after patiently waiting, Abraham obtained the fulfilment of God’s promise. 16 People, of course, swear by what is greater than themselves, and with them an oath is accepted as putting a matter beyond all dispute. 17 And therefore God, in his desire to show, with unmistakable plainness, to those who were to enter on the enjoyment of what he had promised, the unchangeableness of his purpose, bound himself with an oath. 18 For he intended us to find great encouragement in these two unchangeable things, which make it impossible for God to prove false – we, I mean, who fled for safety where we might lay hold on the hope set before us. 19 This hope is an anchor for our souls, secure and strong, and it reaches into the sanctuary that lies behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, our forerunner, has entered on our behalf, after being made for all time a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.