So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.
Parallel translations
- WEB Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession.
- KJV Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
- BSB Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess.
- NKJV Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
- NASB Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has entered heaven, we should hold firmly to our confession. Christ's exalted priesthood grounds our perseverance.
Overview
Resuming the priesthood theme, the author presents Jesus as the 'great high priest' who has 'passed through the heavens' into God's presence. His exalted, heavenly priesthood far surpasses the earthly priests of the old covenant. This is the basis for the exhortation to 'hold tightly to our confession' and not drift away.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Heb 9:24For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
- Heb 12:2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Heb 10:23let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
- Heb 9:12nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
- Heb 6:20where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
- Eph 4:10He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
- Heb 2:17Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
- Heb 8:1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
- Rom 8:34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
- Heb 3:14For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end:
- Heb 7:25–26Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
- Heb 10:12but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;
- Heb 1:2–3has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
- Heb 3:5–6Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,
- Mark 16:19So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
- Acts 1:11who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”
- Luke 24:51While he blessed them, he withdrew from them, and was carried up into heaven.
- Acts 3:21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
- Heb 1:8But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.
- Mark 1:1The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
- Heb 2:1Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 4:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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