Study Desk

For by a single offering He has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin.

And the Holy Spirit also gives us His testimony; for when He had said,

But where these have been forgiven no further offering for sin is required.

by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil--that is to say, of His earthly nature--

let us draw near with sincerity and unfaltering faith, having had our hearts sprinkled, once for all, from consciences oppressed with sin, and our bodies bathed in pure water.

Let us hold firmly to an unflinching avowal of our hope, for He is faithful who gave us the promises.

For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains in reserve any other sacrifice for sins.

For we know who it is that has said, "Vengeance belongs to Me: I will pay back;" and again, "The Lord will be His people's judge."

For you not only showed sympathy with those who were imprisoned, but you even submitted with joy when your property was taken from you, being well aware that you have in your own selves a more valuable possession and one which will remain.

Therefore do not cast from you your confident hope, for it will receive a vast reward.

For you stand in need of patient endurance, so that, as the result of having done the will of God, you may receive the promised blessing.

For there is still but a short time and then "The coming One will come and will not delay.

Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see.

For by it the saints of old won God's approval.

Through faith Enoch was taken from the earth so that he did not see death, and he could not be found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken we have evidence that he truly pleased God.

But where there is no faith it is impossible truly to please Him; for the man who draws near to God must believe that there is a God and that He proves Himself a rewarder of those who earnestly try to find Him.

Through faith Noah, being divinely taught about things as yet unseen, reverently gave heed and built an ark for the safety of his family, and by this act he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which depends on faith.

Through faith Abraham, upon being called to leave home and go into a land which he was soon to receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going to.

Through faith he came and made his home for a time in a land which had been promised to him, as if in a foreign country, living in tents together with Isaac and Jacob, sharers with him in the same promise;

for he continually looked forward to the city which has the foundations, whose architect and builder is God.