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…”

Jesus Christ provided, He was, the better sacrifice. The argument of the book of Hebrews is leading up to this conclusion, and our verse today begins the swing to the object casting the shadow back into the Old Testament. The section from verse 5 to 10 forms an enlightened commentary on Psalm 40:6-8. That which was hinted at there is now fully explained here.

While Psalm 40 was clearly written by David, the writer of Hebrews applies the words to Jesus, and specifically to the time of His incarnation. The question of precise timing is not the issue, but the fact of it. It certainly assumes the pre-existence of Christ. But the real intent here is one of purpose. Christ came into the world for a specific purpose. His life and ultimate death as a sacrifice was not an afterthought, but was premeditated, intentional. And that had to do with replacing the rituals of the Law with something better.

Psalm 40 makes clear, even during the time of the Law, that the ritual sacrifices were never to be an end in themselves. In fact, the intention of God has always been obedience. Yes, God had instituted the sacrifices, but they were a means to an end, to show people their need of repentance and obedience, and to point to God’s ultimate solution, the perfect sacrifice. Outward conformity was not impressive to God. If the end was not achieved, the means were useless. How could He “be pleased with rivers of animal blood or with heaps of animal carcasses?” (MacDonald). Many of God’s people went through all this without inner remorse or true repentance. God did not desire such empty ritualism.

God prepared a body for Christ that would make for a perfect sacrifice, because in that body, He lived a perfect life of obedience. The clause, “a body You have prepared for Me…” is a direct quote from Psalm 40:6, taken from the Greek translation of the OT (called the Septuagint) which was the common version of the OT used in Jesus’ day. But the underlying words in the Hebrew text (called the Masoretic Text), while being capable of that rendering, can also take on the meaning, “my ears you have opened” (as most modern translations take it, relying on the Masoretic Text more than the Septuagint). The idea is that Christ was given open ears, in the sense of hearing and obeying God. Either way, the ideas are the same ultimate thought. Christ was sent to live a perfectly obedient, a body/ear to obey the Lord. He had no need to offer sacrifice for Himself, but to provide a perfect sacrifice for us.

Lord, thank You for the perfect obedience of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You sent Him with the purpose of being a sacrifice for me that satisfies You.