“A BODY YOU
HAVE PREPARED FOR ME”
Hebrews
10:1-18
5
Therefore, when He comes into the world, He
says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;
The theme of the text before us today is the purpose of the
incarnation… Because that is what Christmas is all about! Joseph
was told to name Him Jesus “Because He will save His people”
When we think about the birth the babe in the manger… comforting thoughts of tenderness, gentleness and beauty are
typically the first kinds of things that come to mind for most of us.
We love to sing about the holy birth, the Virgin, the angels,
the shepherds, the star and the wisemen, visions of God’s shining glory all around and of the promise of peace on earth!
And that is all good and it is all true… But this passage from the book of Hebrews
reminds us of another aspect
of the Christmas story that is just
as true and is so very important to remember
A
BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME… The writer attributes these words as coming from the
mouth of Jesus Christ and they express
the main reason why God sent Him
into the world!
These prophetic words from the pen of King David in Ps.40 and quoted
here Heb were inspired to inform us of the awesome purpose that God had
for
sending His Son to be born in the flesh.
This beautiful, perfect child was born to provide the way of salvation for lost mankind… a need that was
highlighted for centuries through the rituals of the sacrificial system of the
Mosaic Law
With the sounds of angels praising and exalting God still in the air… the process of the redemption
of mankind had now begun in a way that was not possible before this birth!
This unique and perfectly
prepared body… this virgin born Son of man… this one and… only begotten Son of God
was here for a very definite and divine purpose. To accomplish
salvation!
He was born to die for the sins of the
world! Let’s look at our verse in
context Heb.10:1-18
1
For the Law, since it has only a
shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which
they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
2 Otherwise,
would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been
cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He
says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;
7
“THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN
THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)
TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
8
After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND
OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT
DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered
according to the Law),
9
then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO
YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
10 By
this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.
11 Every
priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
13 waiting
from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. 14 For
by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
16 “THIS
IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE
LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND, I WILL
WRITE THEM,”
It may not be obvious
at first glance, but this passage is all about mankind’s desperate
need for Christmas, more
precisely our need for a perfect and
final answer to the sin problem!
1 For
the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and
not the very form of things, can never,
by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
The “Shadow of good things to
come” is talking about a foreshadow… a forecast… a
preview of some greater thing that is coming that is
being introduced and portrayed by the shadow.
The Law with the sacrifices introduces God’s great concern for humanity
and it foreshadows His great
gift, that He would give to deal with the problem of sin and death
once and for all.
The Law was never meant to be the final solution to the problem, it
was given to demonstrate the need for redemption and the kind of sacrifice that it would take to actually atone for sin.
2 Otherwise,
would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once
been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
If the old sacrifices were
sufficient for the job, they would not have needed to be repeated
over and over… year after year… they were not supposed to be
sufficient… they were a shadow.
The sacrificial system of the Law
was an imperfect representation of God’s final, perfect provision that would actually
solve
the problem and restore access to eternal life for
humanity!
But it was going to require an all sufficient
payment to pay the legally
required, nonnegotiable deadly cost for the sins of mankind.
Ø Ro.3:16 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, again… the daily
offerings and bloody sacrifices
year after year on the Day of Atonement
did not solve the problem,
Their purpose was to be a reminder
of the desperate need for a sufficient
final solution!
It was going to take
purer, more perfect, innocent blood than from animals to
make
permanent atonement for the sins of humanity… it would take sinless
human blood sacrificed willingly!
It was going to take… Jesus the eternal and only begotten Son, the incarnate
Son of God, the Christmas gift
that the Father gave to the
world that He so loved… to be the final solution
to the sin problem!
Ø Jn.15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for
his friends.”
God the Father
demonstrated His great love for the
world on Christmas by sending His
Son!
Jesus willingly provided and
demonstrated His great love for mankind on the Cross… His beautiful, self-sacrificial…
personal
love for you and me and for whosoever will believe in Him!
5 Therefore,
when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU
HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU
HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;
From before the foundation of the
world… the Father, Son and Holy Spirit… planed and purposed to provide
the gracious
gift of salvation by grace through
faith in the Son!
The incarnation in
human flesh and the resurrection of the body of Jesus are the Creators validation of
the goodness of the material creation.
Through Christ He has redeemed
all of creation!
Ø Ro.8:19-22 – For
the anxious longing of the creation
waits eagerly for the revealing
of the sons of God.
20 For the creation
was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected
it, in hope
21 that the
creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into
the freedom of the glory of the children
of God.
Ø Rev.21:1 – Then
I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any
sea.
The original creation was good but was subjected to futility
with the fall of man… But God is
not
finished with His creation yet. He is in the process of redeeming it
along with His children!
God designed the human body to be the vehicle
through which human beings… created in the image
of God, could reason and communicate, express
themselves and share love!
The human body is the highest form of all created matter.
The human person is created in in
the very
likeness of God Himself! God places the highest value in all of creation upon man!
Ø Gen.1:26 – Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
While all of
creation reflects God’s glory, only man
was created in God’s image and likeness!
There are all kinds of views
and opinions about what it means for man to be created in the image
and likeness of God, many of those views do not see fit to include the
body of man in the equation.
Without going into a long
theological explanation, I will simply say that the Bible gives no
justification to say that any aspect of God’s creation of man…
is not in His image and likeness.
Of course, we know that
God is not physical, He is Spirit…
but that does not, in any way, negate that His physical creation represents and
reflects His Being in some
significant ways.
And again, the highest
representation… the “Crown of Creation”
as it has been called… is man!
That certainly includes
body, soul and spirit. Jesus Christ
was human, in the flesh and perfect!
Ø Heb.2:14 – Therefore, since the children
share in flesh and blood, He Himself
likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless
him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Ø Ro.8:3 – For what the Law
could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as
an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
Jesus was flesh
and blood… fully human in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. Because flesh, that is to
say… the
human body itself is not sin, only under condemnation because of sins
committed. The body is not evil!
Even after the fall God still
insists that man is still in the image of God and so He instituted capital punishment as the first law of the new
dispensation of Human Government
after the flood!
Ø Gen.9:6 – “Whoever sheds man’s
blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.
There is no indication of
a devaluing
of the value of man as in the image
of God here, no basis for the extreme “marred image dogma”.
Then as if one proof was
not enough… there is a similar statement in the New Testament book of James 3:9 – declaring that man still in the likeness of God.
Now there is certainly no
denying that man suffered terrible judgement at the fall… resulting in the curse
of death upon the mortal physical
body of man and the casting out of the Garden…
Resulting in the denial
of access to the Tree of Life,
meaning for all of mankind following… there would be a separation from the
tree’s life sustaining properties and healing qualities.
By the way… at the right
time… according to God’s kind
intentions and by His unmistakable promise… access to the Tree will be restored for all of
redeemed mankind in the future!
Ø Rev.2:7 – ‘He who has an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
Ø Rev.22:1-2 – Then
he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the
throne of God and of the Lamb,
2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the
river was the tree of life, bearing
twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the
nations.
Ø Rev.22:14 – Blessed
are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the
gates into the city.
In order to fulfill all of
these wonderful prophecies and to keep His promises… in the fullness
of time God sent forth His Son… born in a human body… in order to redeem the human body.
Ø Gal.4:4-5 – But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
The incarnation of the second
person of the Holy Trinity was proof that it is possible for perfection to exist on the material plane… indeed in human flesh!
His beautiful, perfect, sinless human body is the prototype
for all the future redeemed
glorified bodies of the saints
of all the ages. Our eternal bodies will be like His
glorified resurrected body
Ø 2 Cor.3:18 – But
we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord,
the Spirit.
This process of
transformation begins with the new birth.
It begins with the regeneration of the inner man and is completed with the translation
of the body at the resurrection!
Ø 1 Jn.3:2 – Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has
not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will
see Him just as He is.
This is the reason for Christmas!
To provide the perfect remedy to perfect what was lost!
16 “THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS,
SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR
MIND, I WILL WRITE THEM,”
There is no longer any offering for sin my dear friends…
because no further offering is required!
Jesus paid it all! That was why he was born, that is why He died, that is why He rose
again!
Now,
everyone who believes in Jesus as
their personal Savior has a glorious
eternal future to look forward to… a future to be lived in a perfect,
glorified
body just like Jesus has!
That was the purpose of
the incarnation and that dear friends is the promise of Christmas…
5 Therefore,
when He comes into the world, He
says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME;
7 “THEN
I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN
THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)
TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
Thank you, our Father in
Heaven, for loving us so much that you sent your Son to be our Savior!
Thank you, dear Lord
Jesus, for your great love for us and for you’re willing sacrifice that saved
us, and redeemed us fully… body, soul and spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment