How does Hebrews 10:5 emphasize Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament sacrifices? Setting the scene in Hebrews 10 • Hebrews has been showing that every aspect of the old covenant—priests, sacrifices, tabernacle—was provisional. • The writer now points to the moment Christ entered the world, anchoring His mission in Scripture itself. Reading Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.’” Why the old sacrifices fell short • Hebrews 10:1 – The law had “only a shadow of the good things to come.” • Hebrews 10:4 – “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” • Repetition of offerings (Hebrews 10:11) revealed their inability to cleanse the conscience permanently. A body prepared for Me • The Father prepared a real, human body for the Son—incarnation in its fullest sense (John 1:14). • Only a true human life could bear sin for humans (Isaiah 53:4-6). • The “body” language moves the focus from external rituals to the obedient life and sacrificial death of Christ. Echoes from Psalm 40:6-8 • Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 because David’s words ultimately point to Messiah. • Psalm 40:7 – “Here I am; I have come—it is written about Me in the scroll.” • David contrasts mechanical offerings with delighting to do God’s will—perfectly realized in Jesus. Christ, the once-for-all offering • Hebrews 10:10 – “By this will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” • Hebrews 10:14 – One offering perfected forever those who are being sanctified. • John 1:29 – “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” • Colossians 2:17 – Sacrificial regulations were “a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.” Living in the fulfillment • Confidence to draw near (Hebrews 10:19-22). • Freedom from guilt, because His single sacrifice has eternal efficacy (Romans 8:1). • Motivation for wholehearted obedience, mirroring His “I delight to do Your will” (1 Peter 1:15-16). Hebrews 10:5 stands as the hinge between shadow and substance, declaring that in the prepared body of Christ every shadow sacrifice finds its glorious, completed reality. |
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