11 Therefore, do not forget that formerly you were Gentiles as to your bodily condition. You were called the Uncircumcision by those who style themselves the Circumcised–their circumcision being one which the knife has effected.
12 At that time you were living apart from Christ, estranged from the Commonwealth of Israel, with no share by birth in the Covenants which are based on the Promises, and you had no hope and no God, in all the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were so far away have been brought near through the death of Christ.
16 For where there is a legal will,' there must also be a death brought forward in evidence–the death of him who made it.
17 And a will is only of force in the case of a deceased person, being never of any avail so long as he who made it lives.
18 Accordingly we find that the first Covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
19 For when Moses had proclaimed to all the people every commandment contained in the Law, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats and with them water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, »This is the blood which confirms the Covenant that God has made binding upon you.«
17 So that if any one is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old state of things has passed away; a new state of things has come into existence.
18 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has appointed us to serve in the ministry of reconciliation.
19 We are to tell how God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging men's transgressions to their account, and that He has entrusted to us the Message of this reconciliation.
20 On Christ's behalf therefore we come as ambassadors, God, as it were, making entreaty through our lips: we, on Christ's behalf, beseech men to be reconciled to God.
21 He has made Him who knew nothing of sin to be sin for us, in order that in Him we may become the righteousness of God.
4 Such is the confidence which we have through Christ in the presence of God;
5 not that of ourselves we are competent to decide anything by our own reasonings, but our competency comes from God.
6 It is He also who has made us competent to serve Him in connexion with a new Covenant, which is not a written code but a Spirit; for the written code inflicts death, but the Spirit gives Life.
14 how much more certainly shall the blood of Christ, who strengthened by the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, free from blemish, purify your consciences from lifeless works for you to serve the ever-living God?
15 And because of this He is the negotiator of a new Covenant, in order that, since a life has been given in atonement for the offences committed under the first Covenant, those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance which has been promised to them.
1 For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.
2 For then would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, because the consciences of the worshippers –who in that case would now have been cleansed once for all– would no longer be burdened with sins?
3 But in those sacrifices sins are recalled to memory year after year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
10 This is love indeed–we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
13 By using the words, »a new Covenant,« He has made the first one obsolete; but whatever is decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether.
27 And He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, »Drink from it, all of you;
28 for this is my blood which is to be poured out for many for the remission of sins–the blood which ratifies the Covenant.
22 so much the more also is the Covenant of which Jesus has become the guarantor, a better covenant.
6 But, as a matter of fact, the ministry which Christ has obtained is all the nobler a ministry, in that He is at the same time the negotiator of a sublimer covenant, based upon sublimer promises.
7 For if that first Covenant had been free from imperfection, there would have been no attempt to introduce another.
20 He gave them the cup in like manner, when the meal was over. »This cup,« He said, »is the new Covenant ratified by my blood which is to be poured out on your behalf.