A SACRIFICE FOR ALL
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for carrying out your plan for my redemption. Thank you for your Son, who gave himself for me.
Read HEBREWS 10:1–10
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
10 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.’”[a]
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.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 10:7 Psalm 40:6-8 (see Septuagint)
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
May our lives be consecrated to the Lord this day.1
Think Further
The writer of Hebrews likes the expression ‘once for all,’ using it five times. We encountered it twice in yesterday’s reading, it appears twice in these verses, and once in chapter 7.2 Four times he connects the expression with the sacrifice of Christ, making his point that this sacrifice is unique, once only, and never to be repeated. The other time is when he contrasts Christ’s unique sacrifice with the former sacrifices that were repeated ‘endlessly year after year’ (v. 1). If they had been eternally effective, he asks, ‘would they not have stopped being offered?’ (v. 2). For then, the worshippers would have been cleansed ‘once for all’ and the sacrifices would no longer be necessary.
Reflecting on Psalm 40:6–8, the writer shows why the sacrifice of Christ was effective. Encoded into the Old Testament was the understanding that animal sacrifices were insufficient to atone for sin in any lasting way, especially when offered superficially. What God desires is the freely offered submission of the will, seen in the climax of the psalm quotation, ‘I have come to do your will, my God’ (v. 7). When Jesus came into the world (v. 5), he announced in words taken from this psalm that he was coming to do God’s will.3
The verses indicate that, for Jesus, doing God’s will involved the offering of his body. We need to take care, however, not to reduce the will of God for Jesus to the cross alone. His death was the culmination of an entire life freely offered to God. To do God’s will, whatever that involved, was what made his death on the cross effective in making us holy.
Apply
Jesus offered his will completely to God. God calls us to do the same. Make this the subject of your prayers today.
Closing prayer
Submitted to the will of your Father, Jesus, you held nothing back for my sake. Help me to give all that I am for you and for your glory.
1 From Frances R Havergal, 1836–79, ‘Take my life and let it be’ 2 See Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:2, 10 3 John 6:38
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