6. When everything in the Tent was made ready in this way, the priests went into the first room every day to worship.
7. But only the high priest could go into the second room, and he did that only once a year. He could never enter the inner room without taking blood with him, which he offered to God for himself and for sins the people did without knowing they did them.
8. The Holy Spirit uses this to show that the way into the Most Holy Place was not open while the system of the old Holy Tent was still being used.
9. This is an example for the present time. It shows that the gifts and sacrifices offered cannot make the conscience of the worshiper perfect.
10. These gifts and sacrifices were only about food and drink and special washings. They were rules for the body, to be followed until the time of God’s new way.
11. But when Christ came as the high priest of the good things we now have, he entered the greater and more perfect tent. It is not made by humans and does not belong to this world.
12. Christ entered the Most Holy Place only once—and for all time. He did not take with him the blood of goats and calves. His sacrifice was his own blood, and by it he set us free from sin forever.
13. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a cow are sprinkled on the people who are unclean, and this makes their bodies clean again.