Image: Page from Hebrews in Codex Vaticanus
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday morning’s sermon on Hebrews 10:1-10:
Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in
the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
What
is the spiritual application to be made from this passage?
John Owen
said it teaches that if God calls someone to some task he will also provide the
means for the accomplishment of that task.
The Father decreed that the Son would redeem sinful humanity by a better
sacrifice. To that end, he prepared him
a body. Owen: “Whatever God designs, appoints, and calls
any unto, he will provide for them all that is needful unto the special duties
of obedience whereunto they are so appointed and called (Hebrews, Vol. 6, p. 461).”
But
that just does not seem enough.
We
could say the point is to stress the necessity of the incarnation. He had to be a man to identify with us (Heb
4:15).
In the
end, however, I think the greatest spiritual benefit of this passage is that it
evokes awe and worship at the knowledge revealed of the eternal counsels of
God. We get to overhear a conversation in
the Godhead from eternity past.
The spiritual
benefit is to contemplate: If we are
saved it is only because we were made the beneficiaries of the gracious plan of
God. It was a plan conceived in mercy in the mysterious counsels of God in
which the Father decreed that the Son would enter into the world as a real
flesh and blood man. John Owen reminds
us of the fully Trinitarian comprehension of the description: “The Father prepared it in the authoritative disposition of all things; the
Holy Ghost actually wrought it; and
he himself [the Son] assumed it.” (Hebrews, Vol. 6, p. 464).
Indeed,
he would take on a body which was prepared for him. And the Son declared to the Father, Let it be
written in the divine record book. “Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God.”
And he
really came and he really perfected God’s plan.
And he really laid down his life.
And he really bled and died. And
three days later, he really raised it up again.
And he really ascended to the right hand of the Father. And he is really
coming again to judge the living and the dead.
And his sacrifice really did away with the old covenant sacrificial
system. And he has really cleansed our
conscience of sin. And this really is
the only way a man might be made perfect or definitively sanctified by God.
The practical
result is worship: Praise be to God!
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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