Study Desk

And because his obedience was perfect, he was able to give eternal salvation to all who obey him.

The people were given the law concerning the system of priests from the tribe of Levi, but they could not be made perfect through that system. So there was a need for another priest to come, a priest like Melchizedek, not Aaron.

The law of Moses could not make anything perfect. But now a better hope has been given to us, and with this hope we can come near to God.

The law chooses high priests who are people with weaknesses, but the word of God's oath came later than the law. It made God's Son to be the high priest, and that Son has been made perfect forever.

This is an example for the present time. It shows that the gifts and sacrifices offered cannot make the conscience of the worshiper perfect.

But when Christ came as the high priest of the good things we now have, he entered the greater and more perfect tent. It is not made by humans and does not belong to this world.

How much more is done by the blood of Christ. He offered himself through the eternal Spirit as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will make our consciences pure from useless acts so we may serve the living God.

The law is only an unclear picture of the good things coming in the future; it is not the real thing. The people under the law offer the same sacrifices every year, but these sacrifices can never make perfect those who come near to worship God.

If the law could make them perfect, the sacrifices would have already stopped. The worshipers would be made clean, and they would no longer have a sense of sin.

With one sacrifice he made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

God planned to give us something better so that they would be made perfect, but only together with us.

Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God's throne.

You have come to the meeting of God's firstborn children whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect.

Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need.

Every good action and every perfect gift is from God. These good gifts come down from the Creator of the sun, moon, and stars, who does not change like their shifting shadows.

But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God's perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God's teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy.

So you see that Abraham's faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did.

We all make many mistakes. If people never said anything wrong, they would be perfect and able to control their entire selves, too.

but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb.

No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.