As you read about the sacrificial requirements of the Mosaic Law (The Old Covenant/Testament), the amount of animal sacrifices becomes daunting. They were performed by God’s people according to God’s command. So why does David write, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted” (Psalm 40:6)? The sacrificial system was not the ultimate remedy for the plight of humanity. Those sacrifices were merely a reminder of the sins of humanity (Hebrews 10:3). Also, no animal willfully volunteered to be sacrificed, nor did it have any righteousness to be imputed to the faithful. It was only a temporary foreshadowing of the true remedy – the greater reality of Messiah who would present his own perfect life as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity.
The writer of Hebrews attributes this quote to Jesus (it certainly could not apply to David), who would come to do the Father’s will. It focuses on the necessity of a body – hence Christmas. Christ necessarily had a body not only to be sacrificed, but to live a faultless and complete life among us in the Father’s will.
And what was the Father’s will?
It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring;
he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Isaiah 53:10
Christ purposed to come into the world to do the Father’s will (Hebrews 10:7) and do it with delight (Psalm 40:8). But in the crushing moments before his betrayal, he found it necessary to confirm the Father’s will due to the unspeakable cost – separation from the Father. When Jesus said, “yet not my will but yours be done” he was communicating love. Christ’s sacrifice was his supreme act of love – for the Father. He was fulfilling the Father’s love for us.
The Father’s desire and sovereign plan was to create a redeemed and new humanity by reconciling sinners to himself. That is why – the same night of Jesus’ prayer in the garden and his betrayal, he uttered very significant words to his apostles, “this cup …is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20; I Corinthians 11:25). Jesus’ crushing sacrifice launched something new – righteous humanity. A new humanity was created in the perfect likeness of Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 4:17-24). Unlike the animals, his sacrifice was the supreme, definitive, and final one because his life was perfect, and because he is an infinite being.
God is creating masterpieces in his people who – now, under the new covenant – have full and complete forgiveness, newness (the nature of the parent handed down to the child), and his presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit. As the writer of Hebrews insightfully writes, “by that will” (the Father’s will and the Son’s willful, delightful obedience) “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). We – in Christ – are set apart to God. We are set apart to him not just one day a week, but we exist (do everyday life) in a state of being devoted to him. This is not something we do – it is what Christ has done for us.
The best way to remember Christ’s sacrifice for you is to practice the presence of God. That is your privilege because you have been reconciled to him. That is the measure of your success. So, draw near to God, abide in Christ, walk in the Spirit, and let his word dwell in you richly. Then live in the outflow.
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