Hebrews 10

 ¹The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. (MRL: The author wants us to think about heaven, and not To dismiss the next era for us, after death. It seems somewhat trendy with some followers of Jesus to throw off ideas of a future life, after death and to emphasize only the present life. In this way they might mirror modern Orthodox Judaism, if my understanding from is correct.  They mean to contrast a life that ignores the current life and focuses only on heaven.)

For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ²If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? (MRL: This tells us Hebrews was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70.)

For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,⁴because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 ⁵Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 
   “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, 
      but a body you prepared for me; 
 ⁶with burnt offerings and sin offerings 
      you were not pleased. 
 ⁷Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— 
      I have come to do your will, O God.’ “<sup class="footnote" value="[a]”>[a] 

(MRL: I believe that God worked through normal men, in this case Jeremiah, to write the text. God also worked through Paul to write the text, and helped him understand that this text from Yimeyahu applies to the Messiah. I don’t know whether Judaism of Sha’ul’s and Gamliel’s era would have accepted that passage from the prophet as Messianic.)

 ⁸First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). ⁹Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 ¹¹Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, ¹⁴because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

 ¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 
 ¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them 
      after that time, says the Lord. 
   I will put my laws in their hearts, 
      and I will write them on their minds.”<sup class="footnote" value="[b]”>[b] ¹⁷Then he adds: 
   “Their sins and lawless acts 
      I will remember no more.”<sup class="footnote" value="[c]”>[c]¹⁸And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. ¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (MRL: In a book to Messianic Jews it seems this verse must refer to synagogue meetings.)

 ²⁶If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”<sup class="footnote" value="[d]”>[d] and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”<sup class="footnote" value="[e]”>[e]³¹It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 ³²Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

 ³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. ³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷For in just a very little while, 
   “He who is coming will come and will not delay. 
    ³⁸But my righteous one<sup class="footnote" value="[f]”>[f] will live by faith. 
   And if he shrinks back, 
      I will not be pleased with him.”<sup class="footnote" value="[g]”>[g] ³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.