Heb 10:7-9 | KingComments | STEP | . The word “for” indicates that the writer continues his argument. He compares the many imperfect animal sacrifices of former times with the one and only perfect sacrifice of Christ. He speaks about “the Law” because that is the basis of the whole religion appointed by God for His people Israel in the Old Testament. Of that whole service he says that this “has [only] a shadow of the good things to come”. By that he wants to say that the law surely says something about good things that will be enjoyed in future in the kingdom of peace by God’s people and by the whole creation. However, it is just ‘a shadow’ of it, which means a vague reproduction. This Old Testament worship service is “not the very form of things”. A ‘form’ shows more reality than a shadow. We can say that a form is a faithful reproduction of reality, but still a form is not reality. That becomes clear from what follows. As proof the writer refers again to the sacrifices that were yearly offered on the day of atonement. It is precisely its repetition that proves that a sacrifice that was offered had made no one perfect who drew near to God. By offering the same sacrifices again and again the thought of the necessity for forgiveness and atonement was surely there. At the same time, however, it made it clear that the whole service was imperfect. It did not make those, who performed the service, perfect before God. The sacrifices did not make someone, who brought the offering, perfect in conscience in the light of the forgiveness of his sins. . If there was brought a sacrifice that was sufficient for the one who offered it to get a perfect conscience, then it wouldn’t be necessary anymore to bring another offering. The whole offering service then would have lost its reason of existence. Such an offering would have then made the offeror perfect in conscience: that is a conscience that is cleansed by forgiveness of sins. The result would be that there is no more fear for God concerning any sin. . But what do you see with Israel? There you see that by bringing these offerings again and again every year, the sins on the contrary are continually “a reminder”. There is in fact no sufficient offering. That makes the doctrine and the practice of the mass sacrifice of the roman-catholic church condemnable. In the mass sacrifice the roman-catholic church repeats the offering again and again and its followers are left in uncertainty about the forgiveness of sins. . The blood of animals or a mass sacrifice could or can never ever do anything about the guilt of man. It is not possible that sins are taken away by that. The words ‘take away’ have a powerful meaning. It is the utter removal of sin so that it is no longer part of the situation. It is utterly reprehensible to attribute that effect to any sacrifice a human being brings. . You might ask the question: but why did God prescribe the offerings to His people Israel and what is the purpose and meaning of it? The only meaning of the animal sacrifices is in the reference to the sacrifice of Christ. This is apparent from the beautiful way in which the writer makes the transition from the animal offerings to the offering of Christ. For this he uses some verses from Psalm 40 ( ). The writer, guided by the Holy Spirit, is telling something here that you do not read in Psalm 40. He declares that these verses were spoken by the Lord Jesus, right before He became Man and so came into the world. This quotation also makes clear that this psalm is actually about the Lord Jesus, although David is the poet. Through this quotation it is explained to you what Christ said to God when He accepted to do the will of God. Here you also have a proof of His existence before He became Man. Although the name of Christ is not mentioned, ‘He’ cannot possibly be a reference to anyone else. After all, Christ became Man and came into the world like that. He speaks to God about sacrifices and offerings that were offered under the old covenant, of which He says, God has not desired them. Of course that does not point to God’s commandment to bring those offerings, for God indeed wanted His people to bring them. But God did not desire them or even purposed them to be offerings that could really take away sins. He surely could forgive each Israelite who came with such an offering (and a sincere heart) because He saw Christ in that offering. He Himself actually made Christ available as the true offering by preparing Him a body. That means that it was God Who wanted Christ to become Man. And what is the task for a man to do toward God? To obey. By becoming Man the Lord Jesus committed Himself to execute the entire will of God. If you take one more look at the verse in Psalm 40, then it will strike you that it is written there: “My ears You have opened.” In Hebrew it is literally said: “My ears You have dug”. ‘Dug’ here means prepared to obey. The Holy Spirit, however, as He more often does, has used the Greek translation (Septuagint) of Psalm 40:6-8. In the Septuagint ‘My ears You have dug’ is translated as “a body You have prepared for Me”. Because this translation renders the true meaning it is quoted here by the Holy Spirit. You may say that by doing so the ear is identified with the body. You probably know the saying: to be all ears. That was the case with the Lord Jesus. His body was prepared to do anything with it that God wanted Him to do. The opened ear was the means through which He listened to the will of His God and the body was the means through which that will was performed. The Lord Jesus has taken a body that He will never give up anymore. There are two more verses that deal with the ‘ear’ of the Lord Jesus. The one verse speaks about the ‘piercing’ of the ear ( ) and the other one speaks about the ‘opening’ of the ear ( ). In these three verses about the ear you can see the sequence regarding His life on earth. They deal with 1. His coming into the world: His birth as Man ( ), 2. His going through the world: He opened His ear morning by morning ( ) and 3. His leaving the world: He gave His life for His own to serve them forever ( ). . The body of the Lord Jesus is therefore the true sacrifice (or peace offering) and grain offering. After His agreement to do God’s will the Lord Jesus speaks to God about two more Old Testament offerings. Now He mentions “whole burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin”. He also indicates as to them, that God could not be satisfied with those offerings regarding the removing of sins. He determines that the whole offering service of the Old Testament could create absolutely no situation at all in which God could bless man. . When that became evident by the complete failure of man, the Lord Jesus offered Himself to fulfill the will of God. He did that with the perfect knowledge of what is written about Him in the Old Testament. After all, the Old Testament speaks everywhere about Him and about His coming on earth (cf. ; ). He knew that the right moment finally had come now and that it was fully according to the time that God had appointed ( ). It was the right time according to the will of God to perform His counsel that was written in the scroll of the book. The will of God here is: to provide for His people forgiveness, perfection and access to the sanctuary and finally the entrance into the kingdom of peace. Although His coming was established in the counsel, Christ still perfectly offers Himself freely to fulfill all things. He declares that He will do the will of God. Such a statement from anyone’s mouth would be boasting. With Him it is perfection. There is no doubt whether He would be able to do it or not. What He declares in heaven He does on earth. . In this verse the writer explains the quotation. He repeats what the Lord Jesus said “above”, which means when He came into the world ( ). Then He said that God’s will couldn’t possibly be fulfilled by animal or vegetable offerings, although they were appointed by God Himself as offerings. They couldn’t form a basis for God’s plan with man and creation. . Therefore it is that great that a “then” follows with the commitment of the Lord Jesus: “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” God’s plan will be performed by Him Who is coming and Who will bring the perfect offering. And He did that! By what He did, He took away “the first” and put something else instead. The ‘first’ is everything that was appointed by God in the Old Testament for His people. The insufficiency of any of that was evident. When the Lord Jesus came He took the place of the whole service. Everything God had asked of man in that service is perfectly accomplished and fulfilled by Him. He takes the place of all types that God had prescribed; He is the replacement of all of them. The ‘shadow service’ made room for reality and therefore there is no room for the shadow service anymore. Every basis of its existence has been taken away. However, He not only took away ‘the first’, He actually has also established “the second”. He also changed the principle, through which man is now able to draw near to God. To be able to draw near to God the law demanded perfect obedience. On that basis it was impossible to draw near to God. Now that the Lord Jesus has perfectly fulfilled God’s will, He is the basis of our connections to God. Through Him as the new and perfect offering there is a new covenant with a new priesthood that enables us to draw near to God in a new, heavenly sanctuary. Now read Hebrews 10:1-9 again. Reflection: Which differences do you see between the former offerings and the true offering?

‏ Hebrews 10:7-9

I Have Come to Do Your Will

Heb 10:1. The word “for” indicates that the writer continues his argument. He compares the many imperfect animal sacrifices of former times with the one and only perfect sacrifice of Christ. He speaks about “the Law” because that is the basis of the whole religion appointed by God for His people Israel in the Old Testament. Of that whole service he says that this “has [only] a shadow of the good things to come”. By that he wants to say that the law surely says something about good things that will be enjoyed in future in the kingdom of peace by God’s people and by the whole creation.

However, it is just ‘a shadow’ of it, which means a vague reproduction. This Old Testament worship service is “not the very form of things”. A ‘form’ shows more reality than a shadow. We can say that a form is a faithful reproduction of reality, but still a form is not reality. That becomes clear from what follows.

As proof the writer refers again to the sacrifices that were yearly offered on the day of atonement. It is precisely its repetition that proves that a sacrifice that was offered had made no one perfect who drew near to God. By offering the same sacrifices again and again the thought of the necessity for forgiveness and atonement was surely there. At the same time, however, it made it clear that the whole service was imperfect. It did not make those, who performed the service, perfect before God. The sacrifices did not make someone, who brought the offering, perfect in conscience in the light of the forgiveness of his sins.

Heb 10:2. If there was brought a sacrifice that was sufficient for the one who offered it to get a perfect conscience, then it wouldn’t be necessary anymore to bring another offering. The whole offering service then would have lost its reason of existence. Such an offering would have then made the offeror perfect in conscience: that is a conscience that is cleansed by forgiveness of sins. The result would be that there is no more fear for God concerning any sin.

Heb 10:3. But what do you see with Israel? There you see that by bringing these offerings again and again every year, the sins on the contrary are continually “a reminder”. There is in fact no sufficient offering. That makes the doctrine and the practice of the mass sacrifice of the roman-catholic church condemnable. In the mass sacrifice the roman-catholic church repeats the offering again and again and its followers are left in uncertainty about the forgiveness of sins.

Heb 10:4. The blood of animals or a mass sacrifice could or can never ever do anything about the guilt of man. It is not possible that sins are taken away by that. The words ‘take away’ have a powerful meaning. It is the utter removal of sin so that it is no longer part of the situation. It is utterly reprehensible to attribute that effect to any sacrifice a human being brings.

Heb 10:5. You might ask the question: but why did God prescribe the offerings to His people Israel and what is the purpose and meaning of it? The only meaning of the animal sacrifices is in the reference to the sacrifice of Christ. This is apparent from the beautiful way in which the writer makes the transition from the animal offerings to the offering of Christ.

For this he uses some verses from Psalm 40 (Psa 40:6-8). The writer, guided by the Holy Spirit, is telling something here that you do not read in Psalm 40. He declares that these verses were spoken by the Lord Jesus, right before He became Man and so came into the world. This quotation also makes clear that this psalm is actually about the Lord Jesus, although David is the poet. Through this quotation it is explained to you what Christ said to God when He accepted to do the will of God. Here you also have a proof of His existence before He became Man.

Although the name of Christ is not mentioned, ‘He’ cannot possibly be a reference to anyone else. After all, Christ became Man and came into the world like that. He speaks to God about sacrifices and offerings that were offered under the old covenant, of which He says, God has not desired them. Of course that does not point to God’s commandment to bring those offerings, for God indeed wanted His people to bring them. But God did not desire them or even purposed them to be offerings that could really take away sins.

He surely could forgive each Israelite who came with such an offering (and a sincere heart) because He saw Christ in that offering. He Himself actually made Christ available as the true offering by preparing Him a body. That means that it was God Who wanted Christ to become Man. And what is the task for a man to do toward God? To obey.

By becoming Man the Lord Jesus committed Himself to execute the entire will of God. If you take one more look at the verse in Psalm 40, then it will strike you that it is written there: “My ears You have opened.” In Hebrew it is literally said: “My ears You have dug”. ‘Dug’ here means prepared to obey. The Holy Spirit, however, as He more often does, has used the Greek translation (Septuagint) of Psalm 40:6-8. In the Septuagint ‘My ears You have dug’ is translated as “a body You have prepared for Me”. Because this translation renders the true meaning it is quoted here by the Holy Spirit. You may say that by doing so the ear is identified with the body.

You probably know the saying: to be all ears. That was the case with the Lord Jesus. His body was prepared to do anything with it that God wanted Him to do. The opened ear was the means through which He listened to the will of His God and the body was the means through which that will was performed. The Lord Jesus has taken a body that He will never give up anymore.

There are two more verses that deal with the ‘ear’ of the Lord Jesus. The one verse speaks about the ‘piercing’ of the ear (Exo 21:6) and the other one speaks about the ‘opening’ of the ear (Isa 50:4). In these three verses about the ear you can see the sequence regarding His life on earth. They deal with

1. His coming into the world: His birth as Man (Psa 40:6-7),

2. His going through the world: He opened His ear morning by morning (Isa 50:4) and

3. His leaving the world: He gave His life for His own to serve them forever (Exo 21:6).

Heb 10:6. The body of the Lord Jesus is therefore the true sacrifice (or peace offering) and grain offering. After His agreement to do God’s will the Lord Jesus speaks to God about two more Old Testament offerings. Now He mentions “whole burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin”. He also indicates as to them, that God could not be satisfied with those offerings regarding the removing of sins. He determines that the whole offering service of the Old Testament could create absolutely no situation at all in which God could bless man.

Heb 10:7. When that became evident by the complete failure of man, the Lord Jesus offered Himself to fulfill the will of God. He did that with the perfect knowledge of what is written about Him in the Old Testament. After all, the Old Testament speaks everywhere about Him and about His coming on earth (cf. Mt 5:17; Lk 24:27).

He knew that the right moment finally had come now and that it was fully according to the time that God had appointed (Gal 4:4). It was the right time according to the will of God to perform His counsel that was written in the scroll of the book. The will of God here is: to provide for His people forgiveness, perfection and access to the sanctuary and finally the entrance into the kingdom of peace.

Although His coming was established in the counsel, Christ still perfectly offers Himself freely to fulfill all things. He declares that He will do the will of God. Such a statement from anyone’s mouth would be boasting. With Him it is perfection. There is no doubt whether He would be able to do it or not. What He declares in heaven He does on earth.

Heb 10:8. In this verse the writer explains the quotation. He repeats what the Lord Jesus said “above”, which means when He came into the world (Heb 10:5). Then He said that God’s will couldn’t possibly be fulfilled by animal or vegetable offerings, although they were appointed by God Himself as offerings. They couldn’t form a basis for God’s plan with man and creation.

Heb 10:9. Therefore it is that great that a “then” follows with the commitment of the Lord Jesus: “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” God’s plan will be performed by Him Who is coming and Who will bring the perfect offering. And He did that!

By what He did, He took away “the first” and put something else instead. The ‘first’ is everything that was appointed by God in the Old Testament for His people. The insufficiency of any of that was evident. When the Lord Jesus came He took the place of the whole service. Everything God had asked of man in that service is perfectly accomplished and fulfilled by Him. He takes the place of all types that God had prescribed; He is the replacement of all of them. The ‘shadow service’ made room for reality and therefore there is no room for the shadow service anymore. Every basis of its existence has been taken away.

However, He not only took away ‘the first’, He actually has also established “the second”. He also changed the principle, through which man is now able to draw near to God. To be able to draw near to God the law demanded perfect obedience. On that basis it was impossible to draw near to God. Now that the Lord Jesus has perfectly fulfilled God’s will, He is the basis of our connections to God. Through Him as the new and perfect offering there is a new covenant with a new priesthood that enables us to draw near to God in a new, heavenly sanctuary.

Now read Hebrews 10:1-9 again.

Reflection: Which differences do you see between the former offerings and the true offering?