1 The law is only an unclear picture of the good things coming in the future; it is not the real thing. The people under the law offer the same sacrifices every year, but these sacrifices can never make perfect those who come near to worship God.
2 If the law could make them perfect, the sacrifices would have already stopped. The worshipers would be made clean, and they would no longer have a sense of sin.
3 But these sacrifices remind them of their sins every year,
4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.