Add parallel Print Page Options

20 Jesus has opened a new way for us to come near to God. That way gives us life with God. It leads us through the curtain into God's Most Holy Place. Jesus opened that curtain for us when he offered his own body to God as a sacrifice.[a] 21 We have a great priest who rules the people of God's house. 22 So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. But we must be honest and we must continue to trust him. He has made us clean from the dirt of our sins. Our thoughts no longer give us trouble about our sins. We have become clean. It is like he has washed our bodies with clean water.[b]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 10:20 The curtain in the tabernacle was like a door to the Most Holy Place. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain tore into two pieces. See Matthew 27:51. That is a picture of what is really true in heaven. When Jesus died on our behalf, he opened the way to God. The blood of his sacrifice makes us clean because God has forgiven our sins if we believe in Jesus. So now, we do not need to be afraid when we come to God. We can come near to him and he will not punish us. We are like people who can go into the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle.
  2. 10:22 In the old agreement, they threw the blood of a sacrifice on the priests to show that they were clean. But in the new agreement, God has made us completely clean, not just on the outside. At a Christian baptism, they use water to show that a person now believes in Christ. That person is now clean because of the death of Christ as a sacrifice on his behalf.