Hebrews 9:13-22

13The old rules said that the priest must use the blood of goats or bulls to make people clean. Or he could burn a young cow and mix the ashes with water. He would then splash the blood or the ashes over the people who were unclean. Then those people became clean again in their bodies, and they could worship God.

14But the blood of Christ's sacrifice will do much more than that! Christ offered himself to God, in the power of his Spirit, who lives for ever. That sacrifice was completely good. There was no wrong thing in Christ. He offered his own blood to make us completely clean inside ourselves. We no longer have to do things that lead to death. Instead, we can serve the God who lives for ever.

15So, by Christ's death, God brings a new agreement between him and his people. God's people receive from him the good things that will be with them for ever. God has promised to give those things to the people that he has chosen. Christ's death has made them free from their sins. God will no longer punish them like the first agreement says should happen.

16Think about this. A person may make an agreement about who will receive his things after his death. But nobody receives anything until it is clear that the person has really died.

17The agreement only has authority after the death of the person who made it. It has no authority while that person is still alive.

18So even God's first agreement with his people needed the blood of an animal. The agreement only had authority after a death.

19It was like this. Moses read God's laws aloud to all Israel's people. He told them every rule that God had given them. After that, Moses killed some young cows and goats. He took some of their blood and he mixed it with water. He threw some of the blood to drop onto the book of God's laws. He also caused some to drop onto all the people. He used red sheep's hair and some small branches of a plant called hyssop to throw the blood and water.

20When Moses did this, he said to the people, ‘This blood shows that God's agreement with you has authority.’

21In the same way, Moses threw some of the blood onto the tabernacle. He also caused blood to drop onto all the things that the priests used to serve God there.

22God's Law taught that blood was necessary to make almost everything clean. We see that God does not forgive people for their sins unless there is blood from a death.