1 Therefore, setting aside the first message about Christ, let us move on toward completeness, not putting down again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God,
2 of teaching about washings and the laying on of hands, about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
3 And we will do this, if God allows.
4 For when people have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the mighty powers of the age that is coming,
6 and have then fallen aside, it is impossible to renew them once more to repentance, for they crucify the Son of God afresh for themselves and make a public spectacle of him.
7 For earth that drinks the rain that comes on it again and again, and bears vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is worked, partakes of blessing from God;
8 but when it brings forth thorns and briars it is rejected and near a curse, and its end is burning.
9 But about you, beloved, we are persuaded of better things, things bound up with salvation, even if we speak in this manner.
10 For God is not unrighteous, to forget your work and the labor of love that you displayed toward his name when you served the saints and while you still serve them.
11 And our desire is that each of you display the same earnestness toward the full assurance of hope to the end,
12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who by faith and long endurance are heirs of the promises.
13 For God, when he gave his promise to Abraham, swore by himself, because he had no one greater to swear by,
14 saying, "I will certainly bless you and multiply you greatly."
15 And thus, having persevered patiently, he attained the promise.
16 For men swear by what is greater, and for them the oath, serving as confirmation, settles every dispute.
17 So when God wanted to demonstrate still more fully to the heirs of the promise how fixed his counsel was, he stepped in with an oath,
18 so that through two things that cannot change, in which God cannot possibly lie, we who have fled for refuge might have powerful encouragement to seize the hope that lies before us.
19 This hope we hold as an anchor of the soul, secure and unshaken, which goes into the place inside the veil,
20 where Jesus entered ahead of us as our forerunner, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.