1Therefore, let us leave behind the elementary teaching about the Christ and press on to perfection, not always laying over again a foundation of repentance for a lifeless formality, of faith in God –
2teaching concerning baptisms and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and a final judgment.
3Yes and, with God’s help, we will.
4For if those who were once for all brought into the light, and learned to appreciate the gift from heaven, and came to share in the Holy Spirit,
5and learned to appreciate the beauty of the divine message, and the new powers of the coming age –
6if those, I say, fell away, it would be impossible to bring them again to repentance; they would be crucifying the Son of God over again for themselves, and exposing him to open contempt.
7Ground that drinks in the showers that from time to time fall on it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;
8but, if it bears thorns and thistles, it is regarded as worthless, it is in danger of being cursed, and its end will be the fire.
9But about you, dear friends, even though we speak in this way, we are confident of better things – of things that point to your salvation.
10For God is not unjust; he will not forget the work that you did, and the love that you showed for his name, in sending help to your fellow Christians – as you are still doing.
11But our great desire is that every one of you should be equally earnest to attain to a full conviction that our hope will be fulfilled, and that you should keep that hope to the end.
12Then you will not show yourselves slow to learn, but you will copy those who, through faith and patience, are now entering upon the enjoyment of God’s promises.
13When God gave his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater by whom he could swear, he swore by himself.
14His words were – ‘I will assuredly bless you and increase your numbers.’
15And so, after patiently waiting, Abraham obtained the fulfillment of God’s promise.
16People, of course, swear by what is greater than themselves, and with them an oath is accepted as putting a matter beyond all dispute.
17And therefore God, in his desire to show, with unmistakable plainness, to those who were to enter on the enjoyment of what he had promised, the unchangeableness of his purpose, bound himself with an oath.
18For he intended us to find great encouragement in these two unchangeable things, which make it impossible for God to prove false – we, I mean, who fled for safety where we might lay hold on the hope set before us.
19This hope is an anchor for our souls, secure and strong, and it reaches into the sanctuary that lies behind the curtain,
20where Jesus, our forerunner, has entered on our behalf, after being made for all time a high priest of the order of Melchizedek.