Not Less Than the Best
Opening Prayer
Jesus, I pray that nothing and no one will take the place of You as my Lord.
Read Hebrews 10:1–10
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Christ came to do God’s will. How can you accomplish his will today?The readers of this letter would have been steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures. Everything the writer says about the sacrificial system would have been very familiar to them. The author’s argument, though, is that the sacrificial system by itself isn’t enough: it cannot bring forgiveness; it simply points us towards Jesus.
And to make the point the author turns from the sacrifices of the Temple to one of the hymns of the Temple. He takes the words of Psalm 40:6–8 and uses them as a script for Jesus, a prophecy of all that he came to do.
In Jesus’ mouth these words point us beyond the sacrifices, which do not in the end please God. Instead he speaks about the way in which he truly fulfilled the will of God through his death. His death alone—and nothing else—fulfills the will of God and leads to our salvation and sanctification.
Apply
As you look at your own life, how is Jesus making you holy? In what area of your life can you allow God to work today?
Closing prayer
Jesus, I praise You for all that You are, and for all that You have done to fulfill Your Father’s will.
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