Mark a boundary around the mountain that the people must not cross, and tell them not to go up the mountain or even get near it. If any of you set foot on it, you are to be put to death;

and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people not to cross the boundary to come and look at me; if they do, many of them will die.

From the time John preached his message until this very day the Kingdom of heaven has suffered violent attacks, and violent men try to seize it.

"Do your best to go in through the narrow door; because many people will surely try to go in but will not be able.

"The Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets were in effect up to the time of John the Baptist; since then the Good News about the Kingdom of God is being told, and everyone forces their way in.

God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Let us have confidence, then, and approach God's throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.

We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus.

We have a great priest in charge of the house of God.

You have not come, as the people of Israel came, to what you can feel, to Mount Sinai with its blazing fire, the darkness and the gloom, the storm,

because they could not bear the order which said, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death."

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels.

You have come to Jesus, who arranged the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that promises much better things than does the blood of Abel.

Even the priests who come near me must purify themselves, or I will punish them."

The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

The Law was carved in letters on stone tablets, and God's glory appeared when it was given. Even though the brightness on Moses' face was fading, it was so strong that the people of Israel could not keep their eyes fixed on him. If the Law, which brings death when it is in force, came with such glory,

The system which brings condemnation was glorious; how much more glorious is the activity which brings salvation!

Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, "Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!"

Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, "Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between.

But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.