Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Hebrews 10:5 - 10:10

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Hebrews 10:5 - 10:10


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The willing sacrifice of Christ:

v. 5. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me;

v. 6. in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure.

v. 7. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.

v. 8. Above, when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure there in, which are offered by the Law,

v. 9. then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that He may establish the second.

v. 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The inadequacy of the Law, of the Old Testament worship with its sacrifices, having been demonstrated, the author immediately proceeds to point out that Christ's offering was willing and fully adequate: Wherefore, on entering the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not want, but a body didst Thou prepare for Me; in burnt offerings and sin-offerings Thou hast no pleasure;—then I said, Behold, I come, in the roll of the Book it is written concerning Me, I come to do Thy mill, O God. The author quotes Psa_40:6-8, thus indicating that this is a Messianic psalm, and that the Messiah Himself expressed the scope of His work. Christ's entrance into this world, His incarnation, suffering, and death, was made in full agreement with the gracious counsel of the Triune God concerning the salvation of mankind. It was the willingness of His vicarious work that gave it its wonderful value. Christ knew that with His entrance into the world the new and better covenant had begun, that the sacrifices and offerings, the whole burnt offerings and the sin-offerings of the Old Testament, had lost all their significance. God no longer wanted them, He no longer had any pleasure in them; the substance having appeared, there was no longer need of a shadow, of a type. See also Psa_50:7-15; Psa_51:18-19; Isa_1:11; Jer_6:20; Jer_7:21-23; Hos_6:6; Amo_5:21-23. Instead of that, the Lord had formed or prepared a body for the Messiah. The Hebrew text has, literally, Ears didst Thou bore for Me, which may refer to Exo_21:6; Deu_15:17, as indicating that Christ was the willing servant of His heavenly Father in the matter of His Passion and death. Or, if we adhere more strictly to the Greek text, it is evident that the Messiah states His willingness to have the will of God accomplished in His human body. This is brought out still more strongly in His cry: I come to do Thy will, O God, as it is written in the roll of the Book concerning Me. Christ's entire ministry, during all of which time He fulfilled the Law of God for us, and especially His suffering and death, was not inevitable in the sense of His having submitted to it by force of necessity, but only in this sense, that He, of His own free will and in accordance with the gracious, eternal counsel of God, laid down His life for all mankind, Joh_10:17-18. Mark that He says "in the roll of the Book," thus referring to an accepted canon of Scripture, even in the Old Testament. The word "roll" originally designated the end of the rod on which the parchment making up a book was rolled, and finally the roll itself.

The sacred writer now explains the significance of the quotation: He says above (in the first part of the quotation), Sacrifices and gifts and burnt offerings and sin-offerings Thou didst not want, nor didst Thou take pleasure therein (yet these are offered according to the Law), then He added, Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God! He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. —It was true, indeed, that the Ceremonial Law of the Jews prescribed the offering of the various sacrifices, those for every day and for the Sabbath, as well as those for the great festivals and for the Day of Atonement. But these sacrifices had served their purpose in the old covenant. They have been done away with, abolished, repealed, by the coming of Christ, who willingly offered His body as the adequate offering to gain a perfect redemption for the sins of the whole world. Thus the old way of sacrifices and offerings was replaced by the one adequate, eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all this in accordance with the gracious will of God. Of this will the author says: in which will we are sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all. In or by the gracious will of God, as expressed in the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son on the altar of the cross, as realized in the perfect atonement made by Christ, we are now sanctified, made holy and just in the sight of God, for the perfect righteousness of Christ, as established through His active and passive obedience, is imputed to us by faith. Thus we have now been brought into the one true fellowship with God through the offering of the body of Christ in accordance with the Father's eternal will, a sacrifice so perfect that its adequacy lasts throughout eternity. The one perfect offering: