Hebrews 9 (NMV)
1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.
2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence. This is called the Holy Place.
3 Behind the second curtain was a section called the Most Holy Place.
4 It held the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, which was covered on all sides with gold. In it were the golden jar containing the manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot go into detail about these things now.
6 With these things prepared this way, the priests enter the first room regularly to perform their duties.
7 But only the high priest enters the second room, and only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.
8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing.
9 This is a symbol for the present time. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.
10 They are only external regulations, dealing with food and drink and various washings, imposed until the time of the new order.
11 But Christ has appeared as a High Priest of the good things that have come. Through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,
12 He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we may serve the living God?
15 For this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the violations committed under the first covenant.
16 Where a covenant is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
17 For a covenant is valid only when someone has died; it does not take effect while the one who made it is still living.
18 That is why the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
19 For when every command had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people,
20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you."
21 In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels used in worship with blood.
22 According to the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
25 He did not enter to offer Himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment,
28 so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for Him.