The willing sacrifice of Christ:

v. 5. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me;

v. 6. in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure.

v. 7. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.

v. 8. Above, when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure there in, which are offered by the Law,

v. 9. then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that He may establish the second.

v. 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The inadequacy of the Law, of the Old Testament worship with its sacrifices, having been demonstrated, the author immediately proceeds to point out that Christ’s offering was willing and fully adequate: Wherefore, on entering the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not want, but a body didst Thou prepare for Me; in burnt offerings and sin-offerings Thou hast no pleasure; then I said, Behold, I come, in the roll of the Book it is written concerning Me, I come to do Thy mill, O God. The author quotes Psa 40:6-8, thus indicating that this is a Messianic psalm, and that the Messiah Himself expressed the scope of His work. Christ’s entrance into this world, His incarnation, suffering, and death, was made in full agreement with the gracious counsel of the Triune God concerning the salvation of mankind. It was the willingness of His vicarious work that gave it its wonderful value. Christ knew that with His entrance into the world the new and better covenant had begun, that the sacrifices and offerings, the whole burnt offerings and the sin-offerings of the Old Testament, had lost all their significance. God no longer wanted them, He no longer had any pleasure in them; the substance having appeared, there was no longer need of a shadow, of a type. See also Psa 50:7-15; Psa 51:18-19; Isa 1:11; Jer 6:20; Jer 7:21-23; Hos 6:6; Amo 5:21-23. Instead of that, the Lord had formed or prepared a body for the Messiah. The Hebrew text has, literally, Ears didst Thou bore for Me, which may refer to Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, as indicating that Christ was the willing servant of His heavenly Father in the matter of His Passion and death. Or, if we adhere more strictly to the Greek text, it is evident that the Messiah states His willingness to have the will of God accomplished in His human body. This is brought out still more strongly in His cry: I come to do Thy will, O God, as it is written in the roll of the Book concerning Me. Christ’s entire ministry, during all of which time He fulfilled the Law of God for us, and especially His suffering and death, was not inevitable in the sense of His having submitted to it by force of necessity, but only in this sense, that He, of His own free will and in accordance with the gracious, eternal counsel of God, laid down His life for all mankind, Joh 10:17-18. Mark that He says “in the roll of the Book,” thus referring to an accepted canon of Scripture, even in the Old Testament. The word “roll” originally designated the end of the rod on which the parchment making up a book was rolled, and finally the roll itself.

The sacred writer now explains the significance of the quotation: He says above (in the first part of the quotation), Sacrifices and gifts and burnt offerings and sin-offerings Thou didst not want, nor didst Thou take pleasure therein (yet these are offered according to the Law), then He added, Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God! He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. It was true, indeed, that the Ceremonial Law of the Jews prescribed the offering of the various sacrifices, those for every day and for the Sabbath, as well as those for the great festivals and for the Day of Atonement. But these sacrifices had served their purpose in the old covenant. They have been done away with, abolished, repealed, by the coming of Christ, who willingly offered His body as the adequate offering to gain a perfect redemption for the sins of the whole world. Thus the old way of sacrifices and offerings was replaced by the one adequate, eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all this in accordance with the gracious will of God. Of this will the author says: in which will we are sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all. In or by the gracious will of God, as expressed in the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son on the altar of the cross, as realized in the perfect atonement made by Christ, we are now sanctified, made holy and just in the sight of God, for the perfect righteousness of Christ, as established through His active and passive obedience, is imputed to us by faith. Thus we have now been brought into the one true fellowship with God through the offering of the body of Christ in accordance with the Father’s eternal will, a sacrifice so perfect that its adequacy lasts throughout eternity. The one perfect offering:

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Heb 10:5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, The following passage is a citation from Psalms 40 and the use of it plainly enough leads us to understand the words as uttered in the person of the Messiah; which is agreeable to other places in the Psalms. Indeed, unless we understand the words in this view, the citation must not only appear impertinent, but the proof urged to be none at all. But see the notes on that psalm.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 10:5 . ] Wherefore, i.e. in accordance with the impossibility declared at Heb 10:4 .

] He saith . As subject thereto is naturally supplied Christ , although He was not mentioned again since Heb 9:28 . This determination of the subject is already placed beyond doubt by the whole connection, but not less by the pointing back of , Heb 10:10 , to , Heb 10:5 . According to the view of our author, Christ is speaking [98] in the person of the psalmist. The psalm itself, indeed, as is almost universally acknowledged, refuses to admit of the Messianic interpretation (comp. especially Heb 10:13 [12]). The present , moreover, might be placed, because the utterance is one extending into the present, i.e. one which may still be daily read in the Scripture.

] at His coming into the world, i.e. on the eve of coming (see Winer, Gramm. , 7 Aufl. p. 249) into the world [99] ( sc . by His incarnation). This determining of time is taken from the , Heb 10:7 . According to Bleek, who is preceded therein by Grotius, and followed by de Wette, as more recently by Maier and Beyschlag, die Christologie des Neuen Testaments , Berl. 1866, p. 192, the author in penning the words was thinking “less of the moment of the incarnation and birth than of the public coming forth upon earth to the work assigned to Him by the Father, in connection with which His entrance into the world first became manifested to the world itself.” But in that case must have been written, and the formula (Joh 1:9 ; Joh 6:14 ; Joh 11:27 ; Rom 5:12 ; 1Ti 1:15 , al .) would lose its natural signification. The same applies against Delitzsch, who, bringing in that which lies very remote, will have the words explained: “incarnate, and having entered upon the years of human self-determination, signified Isa 7:16 ,” an exposition which is not any the more rendered acceptable, when Delitzsch adds, with a view to doing justice to the participle present : “we need not regard the as a point; we can also conceive of it as a line.” [100] For the author cannot possibly have thought of Christ’s , and His temporally therewith coinciding, as something constantly repeated and only progressively developed.

] sacrifice and offering (bloody and un-bloody sacrifices) Thou didst not will . Kindred utterances in the O. T.: Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 51:18 ff. [16 ff.]; Isa 1:11 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ff.; 1Sa 15:22 . That, however, the author founded his Scripture proof precisely upon Psa 40 , was occasioned principally by the addition, very important for his purpose: , which is found there.

] but a body hast Thou prepared me, sc . in order to be clothed with the same, and by the giving up of the same unto death to fulfil Thy will. Comp. Heb 10:7 . Thus, without doubt, the author found in his copy of the LXX. But that the Hebrew words: ( the ears hast Thou digged to me, i.e. by revelation opened up religious knowledge to me), were even originally rendered by the LXX. by , as is contended by Jac. Cappellus, Wolf, Carpzov, Tholuck, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Maier, Moll, and others, is a supposition hardly to be entertained. Probably the LXX. rendered the Hebrew words by , as they are still found in some ancient MSS. of that version, and arose, not “from the translator being unable to attach any satisfactory meaning to the words ‘the ears hast thou digged to me,’ and therefore altering them with his own hand” (Kurtz); but only from an accidental corruption of the text, in that , the final letter of the immediately preceding, was wrongly carried over to the following word, and instead of the letter was erroneously read.

[98] Arbitrarily does Kurtz place in a double sense, in that he will have it understood on the part of the psalmist of a speaking in words , on the part of Christ of a speaking by deeds .

[99] Without reason do Delitzsch and Alford object against this interpretation, that the following is not in harmony therewith. See the exposition of the words.

[100] So, in accord with Delitzsch, also Alford, who observes: “It expresses, I believe, the whole time during which the Lord, being ripened in human resolution, was in intent devoting Himself to the doing of His Father’s will: the time of which that youthful question, ‘Wist ye not that I must be ?’ was one of the opening announcements.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Heb 10:5-10 . Scripture proof, from Psa 40:7-9 [6 8], that deliverance from sins is to be obtained, not by animal sacrifices, but only by the fulfilling of the will of God. On the ground of this fulfilment of God’s will by Christ are we Christians sanctified.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

VI
Scriptural proof of the complete efficacy of the sanctification obtained on the basis of the obedience of Jesus Christ

Heb 10:5-18

5Wherefore, when he cometh [while coming, ] into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared [didst thou form for, ] me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no 7[hadst not] pleasure5 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering [sacrifices and offerings]6 and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by [according to] the7 law; 9Then said he [he said], Lo, I come to do thy will, O God [om. O God].8 He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which [In which] will we are [have been] sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest9 [indeed, ] standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man [one]10 after he had offered one sacrificefor sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting. 14[awaiting] till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected 15for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof [And, ] the Holy Ghost also Isaiah 16 a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days; saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, 17and in [upon] their minds [understanding]11 will I write [inscribe, ] them; And 18their sins and their iniquities will I remember12 no more. Now [But] where remission of these is, there is no more [an] offering for sin.

[Heb 10:5., while coming into, i. e., historically, not specially at his birth; but not , on entering, or, after entering., didst thou frame, fit out, perfect.

Heb 10:6. , offerings for sin.

Heb 10:7. , denoting purpose, i.e., in order to do.

Heb 10:8. , above, further back, while saying., characteristic; such as are., are offered, not, were offered.

Heb 10:9., he hath said (Heb 1:13; Heb 4:3).

Heb 10:10. , in which will, not by which will. , we have been sanctified; a completed act. We are sanctified might be that which habitually takes place, which would require .

Heb 10:11. , every priest indeed=while every priest.

Heb 10:12. , but this one, but he. Tisch. reads , but he himself, but against preponderating authority, including that of Sin., after offering.

Heb 10:13. , as to the rest, in future= scil. , for the remaining time., with subj. ., for the more classical , those who are being sanctified, or who are sanctified from time to time, , would be those who have been sanctified.

Heb 10:15. , and testifies for us also.

Heb 10:16., I will inscribe.

Heb 10:17.-, Alf., dissenting from nearly all the recent comm., makes the apodosis of the citation commence here instead of with , Heb 10:16; but although there are objections to the latter, the difficulties of his construction, I think, are still greater; and the examples of the use of which he cites as justifying this construction (Heb 1:6; Heb 2:13; Heb 4:5) present really no analogy to it.K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb 10:5. Therefore while entering into the world, etc.The refers to the impossibility spoken of in Heb 10:4. The author is not adducing a proof of a doctrine perfectly evident and unquestioned; nor is he herenot until a little aftershowing that even in the Old Covenant itself is expressed the consciousness of this state of things. He adduces, it is true, the words of Psa 40:7-9, in which David, after his anointing, but before ascending the throne, recognizes a relative fulfilment of the prophecy, that the Prince is to spring forth from Judah, and declares that he, in contrast with Saul, is ready, under the guidance of Samuel (1Sa 15:22), to accomplish the will of Jehovah, which lays stress, not on ritual sacrifices, but upon the offering of obedience, and the sacrifice of the will. But the form of the application is not that of citation; for the subject of is not David but Christ. And besides, since the present is not=venturus (Erasm.), but is coincident in time with , the author clearly treats the words of the Psalm, not as a direct prophecy of Christ regarding himself. He rather puts into the mouth of Christ, on the basis of the typical relation of the Old and New Covenant, the words of David as his own, since they are fulfilled by him; and his special purpose is to render prominent the self-moved and voluntary act of the antitypal David in his entrance into the world for the sake of offering himself as an all-sufficient expiatory offering. As the part, is not , we can refer it neither to the later entrance of Jesus on His public ministry (Bl., De W.), nor to the age of conscious choice and volition in man, indicated Isa 7:16 (Del.).

But a body didst thou form for me.The Heb. text has: Ears didst thou bore for me. This is referred by Hengst., von Gerl., and others, with the ancient intpp. (who also translate erroneously bore through, perforate) to the custom mentioned Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, of boring through the ear-lap of a servant who might become free, but preferred to remain in the voluntary and permanent service of his master. But we should rather refer the expression to our capacity of understanding by means of the ear, the expressed will of God, and thus of learning the way and means of acceptable sacrifice. Any arbitrary change of the text may not be charged upon our author. He found the reading in the MSS. of the Sept., of which but few and inconsiderable ones have or , Bl., Ln., and others, assume that is an old corruption in the text, sprung from . But neither is literally rendered by . We must, therefore, suppose a generalizing of the thought as early as the Greek translation, and the more so as the further rendering , favored the supposition that the one who is speaking here is He of whom Moses and the prophets testified, and for whose divinely decreed coming the Old Testament had prepared the way (Del.). =little head is originally the name of the knobs at the end of the staves about which the scroll or volume was wound, and then the volume itself, with or without the addition of , Eze 2:9; Eze 3:1-3; Ezr 6:2. Luther renders the word by chiefly, pre-eminently, inasmuch as some took it as=chief part or portion. Others translate in the beginning, as if having reference to a definite passage. In the Hebr. text the language is: I come with the volume of the book which is written of me, referring to the Princes code, Deu 17:14 ff., which the sovereign was always to keep at hand for his guidance. In the Heb. and in the Sept., the words to do Thy will, O God, are followed by, it was my pleasure, . In dropping this word, our author throws the clause into parenthesis, and makes dependent on , which Thol. takes in its classical use as Perf., I am come, I am present takes in the classics the Dat., but in Hellenistic Gr. (Heb 10:38) or frequently, as here, Heb 10:6, the Acc. Also Lev 7:37; Num 8:8, the Sept. designates the sin offering by the bare , the idea of sacrifice being supplied from the connection (c., Ln.).

Heb 10:10. In which will, etc is not the will and obedience of Christ (Calv., Justinian, Carpz., and others), but the purpose and counsel of God, which is to be regarded as a purpose of love conceived in eternity, carried out in time by means of the freewill offering of Christ, and in the Holy Scripture is to be recognized as an openly revealed plan. belongs not to (c., Schlicht., Stein, etc.), which construction would have required a repetition of the art., but to , which expresses not one subjective sanctification, but one objective reception into true relationship to God, and into the actual fellowship of the members of the people of God as the , Heb 6:10; Heb 13:24. The mediator of this relation is Christ, , Heb 2:11.

Heb 10:11. And while every priest, indeed, standeth, etc.The introduces a new antithesisto wit: that between the never-ceasing, yet ever-ineffectual and unavailing service of the Jewish priests, and the regal repose of the Messiah, who, after accomplishing an expiation of never-failing efficacy, exalted above the need of further sacrifice, sits enthroned at the right hand of God. In the inner forecourt none was permitted to sit; it was only to those who held watch without that this privilege was accorded, while the designation of the Levitical service by the words, and he stood before the face of Jehovah, is to be taken in its literal sense. A like contrast is expressed Heb 1:13 ff. in relation to the angels. , to take away round about, from every side, refers to the sin which begirts and encompasses man, Heb 5:2; Heb 12:1. is the time still remaining until the Parousia. The parallelism of the clauses, and the progress of the thought, require our taking , Heb 10:12, not with the participial clause (Theophyl., Luth., Beng., Bhme, Lachm., etc.), but with . The of Christs offering is the burden and crown of the thought, Heb 10:1-10; in Heb 10:11-14 the ever-during throne after a once forever completed sacrifice, occupies the foreground (Del.). The Perf. in connection with the Pres. Part. , shows that here the reference is not to the subjective perfection of Christians reaching the end of life, and kept after the example of Jesus, by obedience in suffering (Heb 5:9; Heb 12:2); but to the translation of those who have become subjects of the high-priestly work of Christ, into that condition of perfection objectively and eternally valid in the sight of God, which the law, with its numerous and perpetually recurring rites and offerings, was unable to secure (Heb 7:19; Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1). The Scripture proof consists in a selection from the passage, Jer 31:31-34, already cited Heb 8:8-12.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The fact that the words of David, which, within the Old Testament itself, express not the legal, but the evangelical idea of sacrifice, are put into the mouth of Christ, as spoken on His entrance into the world, shows Christ in self-conscious pre-existence, destining Himself to be a free-will offering in perfect obedience to the will of the Father, whose will thus becomes identical with that of the Son.

2. The fact, still further, that even in the Old Testament obedience is put in place of animal sacrifices, and thus this also is declared to be a sacrifice, and, indeed, the true sacrifice, furnishes the Scripture proof of the doctrine, that Christs voluntary offering of Himself in perfect and loving obedience, is the genuine sacrifice, well pleasing to God, to which prophecies and types point.

3. In the fact, finally, that Christs offering of Himself has fulfilled the saving and loving will of God, not merely as expressed in Scripture, but as existing in His determinate counsel, the idea of sacrifice is realized; the purpose of God to institute an economy of salvation, based upon the expiation of sins by an efficacious sacrifice, is attained; and hence there is no further offering for sin, either, in the same, or any different form, as evinced also by the express testimony of the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah.

4. When God places His willto wit: the performance, by His servants, of that which He wills, positively as a second requisition, it appears in contrast with the first, viz., the offering of external and symbolical sacrifices. But the offering of such sacrifices was itself a matter of express divine ordination; and thus a contradiction seems to emerge and an antagonism within the sphere of the divine counsels and purposes themselves. In truth, however, there is no contradiction between the two, but simply a taking away of the earlier system of the divine appointment first, and its replacement by the second. The transitory nature of the first is not merely prefigured by the symbolical character of the legal sacrifices themselves, but expressly declared within the very limits of the Old Testament revelation, partly by statements regarding the essential will of God, partly by the prediction of a new and perfect covenant. But in a merely outward offering God has never had pleasure. The fact of its being brought from the property of the worshipper, always had a reference to his personality and will. But even the voluntary offering of things stands in no equal or parallel relation to the entire persons voluntary sacrifice of himself. Thus the Old Testament utterances are, as to the matter of fact, in no way self-contradictory.

5. Our transference into a true saving and peace-imparting fellowship with God, or our objective sanctification is brought about by the personal offering of Jesus Christ upon the cross (Eph 5:2); which offering is the fulfilment of the essential will and eternal saving purpose of God, and has once for all accomplished what was only shadowed forth by those typical sacrifices which year by year were offered by the priests who ministered before God, always the same, and of such quality that their impotence completely to take away sin was everywhere conspicuous.

6. The waiting of the Royal Priest, who is enthroned at the right hand of God, for the complete subjection of all His enemies, does not involve the idea of His personal inactivity until the time of His second coming, but expresses, in contrast with that activity of the earthly priests which never attains to its end, the exalted repose of the Mediator, who, in every relation, has reached the goal of perfection; who, after bringing to actual realization the ideal of propitiation which was typically announced in the Aaronic high-priesthood, now receives forever the position typically predicted in the royal priesthood of Melchisedek, a position exempted from future sacrifices, and fraught with unlimited homage, honor, and capacity for the bestowment of blessings.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The efficient cause of our salvation is the eternal gracious will of God; the meritorious cause is Jesus Christ with His personal sacrifice.No creature had power to reconcile the world with God; but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ has rendered possible a perfect taking away of sin, and a perfection of the sanctified.We have nothing to fear from any hidden purpose of God; we should rather regulate ourselves and all things according to His revealed will.In Jesus Christs offering of Himself for our redemption is evinced the perfect harmony of the righteous and the gracious will of God.The cross is the altar on which Christ has offered, once for all, His blood for atonement, and His body for sanctification.Obedience to the will of God not merely gives value to the sacrifice we bring, but is itself the best sacrifice.How can the offering of sacrifices work the forgiveness of sin?

Starke:Sin must be, in the eyes of God, an evil overwhelmingly great, since by no other means, whether work, obedience, or sacrifice, can it be atoned for and done away, but only by the all-holy sacrifice of Christ, 1Pe 1:19; 1 John 1:18.Jesus Christ is the only object revealed in the entire Scriptures to whom they can be pointed who would obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal blessedness, Act 10:43.The myriad sacrifices of the Old Testament could not have been, in the slightest degree, acceptable to God, except so far as they prefigured the perfect propitiatory offering of the Messiah, an offering of which He had long before smelled the sweet odor, Eph 5:2.See how willingly thy Jesus suffered for thee; shouldest thou then not again somewhat willingly suffer for Him? Joh 18:4; 1Pe 2:21.No worship of God can be acceptable to God otherwise than in Christ.The Divine service of the Old Testament was burdensome and oppressive; we cannot sufficiently thank God, that in Christ we are free from it. He who now will not serve God shall have all the less excuse, and heavier condemnation, Gal 5:1.We are under obligation to serve God every day, and can never serve Him sufficiently, Luk 17:10; Rev 7:15.He who suffers with Christ, and conquers in Christ, will, with Christ, be gloriously exalted, 2Ti 2:11-12; Rev 3:21.We may bid defiance to our enemies; in Christ shall we triumph; but they shall be overthrown and lie prostrate, Rom 8:34 ff.Thou puttest faith in a trustworthy man; it were a shame not to believe the true God Himself, who has testified that the sacrifice of Christ alone suffices for our sins, 1Jn 5:9.To have the law of the Lord in our mouth merely, and make our boast of it, is nothing; but whoever has it written on his heart, and retains it, he is pleasing to God.

Rieger.What gave to the sacrifice of Jesus its everlasting value, is that in it all was executed according to the direction and will of God.Sanctification comprehends all the different elements in the restoration of man, calling, justifying, glorifying.The Holy Spirit also gladly interests and occupies himself with the gracious covenant of God on behalf of us poor sinners. He recognises with joy every forward step that we take therein.The grace of Christ, the blessing of His single sacrifice, gives wide scope for the love of God, for His pleasure in us, the objects of His grace; and with the love of God comes a larger communion of the Holy Spirit.The language of the Son has been, under the impulses of the Spirit of Christ, recorded in writing by holy men, and thus gradually grew up the whole Old Testament Scripture, together with the pledge and obligation therein recorded, of Him who was to come, and upon which, even on the cross, His attention was fixed, until He saw all had been accomplished.

Schleiermacher (Festival Discourses):The death of the Redeemer, the end of all sacrifices: first, because there is needed no other remembrance of sin, which otherwise must have been renewed from day to day, and from year to year; but, secondly, because sin is now really taken away, and such insufficient provisional aids are no longer needed.

Heubner:The value of our body, and of the whole sensible world, consists in their being means and instruments of the Holy Spirit.God has had no pleasure in offerings which were made without repentance and faith; they could at best continue only till Christ; and finally, God regarded them merely as types.The continued dominion of Christ amidst all the uprisings of His enemies, amidst all the endeavors against Him, His doctrine and His Church, is a pledge of our reconciliation, and of our ultimate completed blessedness.Forgiveness of sins is the condition of our receiving the Holy Spirit.Christ, with His holy suffering, love and perfect obedience is the one only thing wherein God can have infinite pleasure, and for the sake of which He can look graciously on the race of men.

Menken:The divine majesty and universal dominion to which our perfected Mediator and High-Priest attained immediately on His entrance into the heavenly all-holy, stands in glorious contrast with the momentary and fearful waiting of the Levitical high-priest before the shadowy semblance of the divine throne; but it assures us, also, that we have in our eternal High-Priest in heaven all that we need for our salvation, and most complete perfection. He is all, and possesses all.

Footnotes:

[5]Heb 10:6. the form adopted (after A. C. D*.,) by Lachm. and Tisch., is to be preferred to .

[6]Heb 10:8.The plur. , is, according to Sin. A. C. D*., 17, 23, 57, to be read instead of the sing., which repeats the words, Heb 10:5, and in Sin. is substituted by the corrector.

[7]Heb 10:8.The Art. before is wanting in Sin. A. C., 37, 46, 71, 73.

[8]Heb 10:8.The reading after is interpolated from Heb 10:7, and, with Sin. A. C. D. E. K., 17, 39, 46, is to be expunged.

[9]Heb 10:11.The authorities vary between and . The sense demands the former word, which is also found in Sin.

[10]Heb 10:12.The authority of Sin. A. C. D*. E., 67**, 80, 116, requires instead of .

[11]Heb 10:16.Instead of , as read by D***. E. J. K., and most minusc., ., is to be preferred with Sin. A. C. D*., 17, 31, 47.

[12]Heb 10:17.Instead of , read with Sin. A. C. D*. E., 17, . Sin. has the former reading as a correction.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2309
CHRIST SUPERSEDING THE LEGAL SACRIFICES

Heb 10:5-10. When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt-offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

THERE is not any important truth contained in the New Testament, which was not before revealed in the Old. But we have an advantage over the Jews, in that the obscurity, which was cast over the language of prophecy, is removed by the interpretations of men divinely inspired to explain the sacred oracles. Hence we are enabled to see, what the Jews could never comprehend, though plainly and repeatedly declared to them, Gods determination to abrogate the Mosaic economy, in order to make way for the Christian dispensation. This was declared by David, while the law was yet in full force: and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews both quotes his words in proof of this point, and confirms them by additional declarations to the same effect.
We shall consider,

I.

The quotation as explained by the Apostle

In his comment on Davids words the Apostle throws great light upon,

1.

What is expressed in them

The Psalm beyond all doubt refers to Christ: for it was not possible that David should boast of his own obedience as superseding the law; since a compliance with the law constituted a very essential part of his duty. If it be thought that what is spoken in ver. 12. is adverse to this construction, it must be remembered that the sins of the whole world were Christs by imputation [Note: Isa 53:6.]; and therefore they might justly draw from him that complaint.

In the Psalm David speaks in the person of Christ, whom he represents as addressing the Father to this effect: Thou didst never design the legal sacrifices to take away sin; that office thou hast assigned to me: and I have most willingly undertaken it, nor will ever relinquish my services till I have completed all that I have undertaken.

That the sacrifices were never ordained to take away sin is plain, from the contempt poured upon them by God himself in comparison of moral duties [Note: 1Sa 15:22. Hos 6:6.]; yes, and absolutely too, if unaccompanied with suitable dispositions in the offerers [Note: Isa 1:11-14; Isa 66:3.].

That Christ was sent into the world for that end appears also from the very first promise made to man, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head [Note: Gen 3:15.].

That he willingly undertook the office is declared by David much more strongly than in the passage as quoted by the Apostle. In the passage as quoted in my text, it is merely said, I come to do thy will, O God: but in the Psalm it is written, Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart. All which additional expressions shew the zeal with which Christ undertook our cause, and executed the arduous work that was assigned him.

That he would never relinquish it till it was accomplished was also strongly declared in those words, Mine ears thou hast opened, which refer to the custom of boring the ear of a servant who refused to be liberated at the day of release, and engaged to abide for ever in his masters service [Note: Exo 21:5-6.]. The Apostle, in citing the passage, varies it in words, though he adheres to it in sense. He says, A body hast thou prepared me; that is, It was necessary to the completion of my undertaking, that I should have somewhat to offer in sacrifice; and therefore thou hast prepared for me a body in the womb of a pure virgin, that being free from the taint and corruption transmitted to all the posterity of Adam, it might be fit to be offered in sacrifice for the sins of the whole world [Note: The Apostles meaning is precisely expressed, Php 2:6-8.].

But, to the inconceivable advantage of the Church, the Apostle brings forth from Davids words,]

2.

What is implied in them

[Here we see the benefit of having an inspired commentator on the Old Testament. No Jew could have conceived all that was designed to be revealed in these words: but we are informed by God himself, that when it was said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, it was designed to intimate, that all the legal sacrifices should be swept away, and the whole Jewish economy be superseded by the Christian dispensation: He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. This was an explanation of Gods hidden purpose, an explanation, which no uninspired man could have dared to offer. But in several other parts of this epistle are similar explanations given, and not in a way of conjecture, but of authoritative declaration. Thus, from the mention of a new covenant which God would make with his people, the Apostle infers, In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away [Note: Heb 8:8; Heb 8:13.]. In another place, having cited Gods declaration that, to those who laid hold on that covenant, their sins and iniquities he would remember no more, he draws this inference; Now where remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin; and consequently all the Jewish sacrifices are swept away [Note: Heb 10:17-18.]. Again, in another place having cited the words of the Prophet Haggai, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven, he says, This word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things which are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain [Note: Heb 12:26-27.].]

Thus we have obtained a deep insight into the recondite meaning of our text, and may with confidence proceed to consider,

II.

His declaration founded upon it

There are two important points which the Apostle deduces from these words of David; namely, that salvation flows,

1.

From Gods will as the source

[Sanctification imports a setting apart of any thing for God. Hence the tabernacle with all its vessels are said to have been sanctified [Note: Exo 40:10-12.]; and Christ himself says, For their sakes I sanctify myself [Note: Joh 17:19.]: and it is in this sense that the term sanctified is used in the text [Note: Comp. ver. 14.]: it means a separation for God, in order to eternal salvation.

Now it is solely from the will of God thus made known to his Son, and thus fulfilled by him, that any of the children of men are made partakers of salvation. It was not possible for any such plan to have originated with any other than God himself. When Gods dealings with the fallen angels were considered, who would have imagined that man, partaking of their iniquity, should yet be rescued from their doom? Supposing that such a thought could have entered into the mind of man, who could have contrived such a way of maintaining the honour of the Divine government, and of making the discordant attributes of justice and mercy to harmonize in the salvation of man? If such an expedient as the substitution of Gods own Son in the place of sinners could have been devised, who could have dared to propose it to the Deity; or have prevailed upon him to acquiesce in it? The more this is considered, the more will the salvation of man appear to be totally independent of man himself (as far as respects the contriving or the meriting of it), and to be the fruit of infinite wisdom, sovereign grace, and unbounded love [Note: 2Ti 1:9.]. From the first laying of the foundation to the bringing forth of the top-stone, we must cry, Grace, grace unto it [Note: Zec 4:6-7.].]

2.

From Christs sacrifice as the means

[It might seem that men, under the law, were accepted on account of the sacrifices, which were offered according to the Mosaic ritual. But, not to mention the impossibility that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin [Note: ver. 4.], the very repetition of those sacrifices shewed their insufficiency for the removal of guilt, or for the satisfying of mens consciences [Note: ver. 1:3. Heb 9:9.]. They had no effect but as they led the offerers to the Lord Jesus Christ, or expressed their faith in his all-atoning sacrifice. All who have ever found acceptance with God, whether before the law, or under it, or since its abolition, have been admitted to mercy purely through the one offering of Jesus Christ. Nothing but that could ever satisfy Divine justice; nothing but that could ever atone for one single sin: nor can any creature, to the end of the world, ever obtain favour with God, but in consideration of that sacrifice presented to God for us, and pleaded by us as the one ground of our hope [Note: Act 4:12. 1Co 3:11.]. Here I cannot but call your attention to the minuteness and force of Davids statement, and to the redoubled force and energy expressed in the Apostles citation of it. David enumerates the different kinds of sacrifices, in order to shew, that none (whether those burnt without the camp [Note: Lev 16:27.], or those consumed on the altar [Note: Exo 29:38-42.], or those of which but a small part was burnt, and the rest was divided between the priest and the offerer [Note: Lev 7:1-6; Lev 7:19. The word all includes the offerers. See Lev 7:15-16 and Num 18:11.]) were of any avail to take away sin. And twice does the Apostle repeat this enumeration of them, in order the more abundantly to manifest the eternal purpose of God to liberate us from the Jewish yoke, and to establish throughout the world the purer dispensation of the Gospel; so that all, whether Jews or Gentiles, should henceforth know nothing as a ground of hope, but Jesus Christ and him crucified.]

Infer
1.

How vain is mens confidence in any services of their own!

[To have been baptized in our infancy, to have attended punctually the outward duties of the Sabbath, and to have waited occasionally upon the Lord at his table, are deemed in general satisfactory evidences of our conversion to God, and sufficient grounds for our hope towards him. But, if the whole multitude of legal institutions, framed by Gods own order, and according to a model shewn to Moses in the mount, were of no value as recommending men to God, how much less can the few services which we perform be sufficient to procure us acceptance with him? But it may be said, that moral services are more pleasing to God than ceremonial: true; but we are not told that God willed them, any more than the others, as means of effecting our reconciliation with him. It was the incarnation and death of Christ that God willed; and, in a remarkable correspondence with the text, he thrice, by an audible voice from heaven, said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased [Note: , ver. 8. with . Mat 3:17.]. Let every self-righteous hope then be banished; and let us learn to glory in Christ alone [Note: Gal 6:14.].]

2.

What encouragement have all to devote themselves to God through Christ!

[We have the united testimony of Prophets and Apostles that God willeth the salvation of men through the sacrifice of his own Son, and that Christ as willingly offered himself a sacrifice in order to effect their salvation. What more can be wanted but that we go to God in that new and living way, which is so clearly pointed out to us? We can have no doubt of Gods willingness to save, or of the sufficiency of that salvation which he has provided for us. Let nothing then keep us back from God: but let us look to Christ as the propitiation for our sins [Note: 1Jn 2:2.], and plead the merit of his all-atoning blood. Thus, sanctifying ourselves in his name, we shall be perfected before God [Note: ver. 14. with Heb 9:12.]; being sanctified also by the Holy Ghost, we shall be acceptable in the sight of God and our Father for ever and ever [Note: Rom 15:16.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(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. (8) Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; (9) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (10) By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (12) But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

It is hardly necessary for me to inform the Reader, that these words were spoken before, under the spirit of prophecy, by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the 40th Psalm (Psa 40 ), and at least a thousand years before Christ’s incarnation. So infinitely interested God the Holy Ghost was that the Church should always be on the lookout for the Lord Jesus Christ, that from the moment of the Fall, when it was promised, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s Head, and he the heal; every part of scripture, more or less, is engaged to celebrate the great event, and to admonish the Church with the expectation of his coming. Hence, we find the Prophets with one voice, and in the most lofty strain, speaking in raptures of the Lord’s coming. The Patriarch Abraham saw the day of Christ afar off, rejoiced, and was glad. Jacob spake of the Shiloh. David lived, and died in the full assurance, that of his loins Christ should arise after the flesh. Isaiah, under the same divine teaching, cried out to the Church; Behold, your God will come and save you. Jeremiah, Micah, Zechariah, Malachi, yea, and all the Prophets. I stay not to quote passages from their inspired writings in proof, this would be almost endless.

But it is blessed to find the same preached in type and figure, as well as proclaimed in prophecy. Christ saith, a body hast thou prepared me; or, as the other scripture hath rendered the phrase, mine ears hast thou opened, or digged; Psa 40:6 , alluding to the servant in Israel, who, when offering to serve his master forever, had his ear bored at the door post; and for the love he bore his master, and his wife and children, thereby declared himself to be his servant forever, Exo 21:5-6 . What a sweet thought the whole furnisheth! Christ, as God-Man-Mediator, having betrothed himself to our nature, becomes the Surety, and Sponsor to Jehovah, for the redemption of his Wife and Children, the Church. Hence he cries, Lo! I come to do thy will, 0 God! Mine ears hast thou opened! Isa 1:5 .

I beg the Reader to pause over this blessed view, for it is blessed. Through all the Old Testament Scripture, we find the proclamation, Lo! I come. And we find the Church or the constant look out for Christ’s coming. The Church is introduced as saying: It is the voice of my Beloved! behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, Son 2:8 ; Zec 2:10-11 . Hence, as the time drew nearer, we are told, that there were some who departed not from the temple night, nor day, waiting for the consolation of Israel: Luk 2:37Luk 2:37 . Yea, after Christ actually came, the message of John the Baptist is in proof, how universal the expectation of the Lord’s people was, when the question of enquiry was worded so expressly to this individual Person: art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Mat 11:3 .

But, Reader! in contemplating the Lord’s coming, in the days of his flesh, for the accomplishment of redemption, let us not overlook the Lord’s coming now, by the sweet influences of his Spirit, to make that redemption personally blessed to each soul. Jesus comes now in his word, and by his ordinances, providences, promises, manifestations; and in the many, numberless, nameless ways, by which he maketh himself known to his people, otherwise than he doth to the world. And, oh! what grace in him, what joy to them? And it must be so. For there is a mutual connection between Jesus and his people. His glory is their joy; their happiness, his pleasure. While he gives out grace, their souls are made blessed in him. And when they are everlastingly housed in his embraces in heaven; he sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. It would be always well for every regenerated child of God to have this in view, for it would give strength to his faith. When an exercised soul can say, My God, my, Savior will be glorified, when I am blessed in his salvation!

For the very delightful expressions, of the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and for the vast difference between the priests under the Law, standing daily to minister, and Christ forever sitting down on the right hand of God, having obtained eternal redemption for us; I refer to Heb 1:3 , where the subject is already considered.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Ver. 5. But a body hast thou prepared ] A metaphor from mechanics, who do artificially fit one part of their work to another, and so finish the whole, . God fitted his Son’s body to be joined with the Deity, and to be an expiatory sacrifice for sin.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5 10 .] Christ’s voluntary self-offering shewn to be the perfect fulfilment of the will of God .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

5 .] Wherefore (seeing that the animal sacrifices of the O. T. had no power to take away sin, and that for that end a nobler sacrifice was wanting) coming into the world he saith (first, on the citation from Psa 40 . That Psalm, which is inscribed “A Psalm of David,” seems to be a general retrospect, in some time of trouble, of God’s former mercies to him, and of his own course of loving obedience as distinguished from mere expression of outward thankfulness by sacrifice and offering. Thus understood, there will be no difficulty in the direct application of its words to Him, of whose sufferings and of whose obedience all human experiences in suffering and obeying are but a faint resemblance. I have entered on this subject in speaking of the Messianic citation in ch. 2, and need not lay down again the principles there contended for, further than to say, that the more any son of man approaches, in position, or office, or individual spiritual experience, the incarnate Son of God, the more directly may his holy breathings in the power of Christ’s Spirit be taken as the utterances of Christ Himself. And of all men, the prophet-king of Israel thus resembled and out-shadowed Him the most. The Psalm itself seems to belong to the time of David’s persecution by Saul; and the sentiment of this portion of it is, as Delitzsch observes, an echo of Samuel’s saying to Saul in 1Sa 15:22 , “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”

Next, what is ? It expresses, I believe, the whole time during which the Lord, being ripened in human resolution, was in intent devoting himself to the doing of his Father’s will: the time of which that youthful question “Wist ye not that I must be ?” was one of the opening announcements. See also Isa 7:16 . To refer these words thus to his maturing purpose, seems far better than to understand them as Erasmus, “veluti mundum ingressurus,” from the O. T. point of time: or as Grot., with whom are Bleek and De W., “cum e vita privata egrediens nomine Dei agere cpit cum populo,” for that would more naturally require , besides being liable to the objection, that it is not of Christ’s declaration before the world, but of his purpose as regards the Father, that our text treats: or as Lnem., “in intent to enter into the world,” by becoming man: or “ nascendo ,” as Bhme, and similarly Hofmann: for thus it could hardly be said, ), Sacrifice (of slain animals) and offering (of any kind: see reff.) thou wouldest not (similar declarations are found frequently in the O. T., and mostly in the Prophets: see Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 51:16 f.: Isa 1:11 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ff.: Mic 6:6-8 ), but a body didst thou prepare for me ( , “ mine ears hast thou opened ,” “fodisti,” “concavas reddidisti,” i. e. to hear and obey Thee. The idea of there being any allusion to the custom of boring through the ear of a slave who voluntarily remained subject to his master, Exo 21:6 and Deu 15:17 , seems to be a mistake. Neither the verb , nor the plural substantive , will bear it without forcing: in Exod. l. c., the subst. is singular, and the verb is . See Bleek, vol. ii. p. 633, note. The difficulty is, how such a clause can be rendered by , as it is in the LXX. Some (e. g. Bleek, Lnem., after Usher de LXX Int. Vers. p. 85 sq., Semler, Michaelis, Ernesti, al.) have supposed a misreading , owing to the last letter of the foregoing word preceding , the being mistaken for M. The reading is now found only in one ms. of the LXX (Holmes, 39), in two (Holmes, 142, 156): it is the rendering of Theodotion, of the Quinta and Sexta in Origen, of Jerome (“aures autem perfecisti mihi”), of Eusebius (comm. in loc. Bleek, ii. p. 631, note, ), of the Psalterium San-Germanense (in Sabatier: “aures perfecisti mihi”), and Irenus (Interp. iv. 17. 1, p. 248), which two last Delitzsch suspects, but apparently without ground, of being corrections from the vulgate. Over against this hypothesis, of the present LXX text having sprung from a misreading, we may set the idea that the LXX have chosen this expression by which to render the Hebrew , as being more inteligible to the reader. This is the hypothesis adopted by Delitzsch, and that which was maintained with slight variation by Jac. Cappellus (“quia rem, ut alias spe, spectarunt magis quam verba”), Wolf (whose note gives all the literature of the passage at his own time. His view is that the of our Lord was the , and thus answers to the “perfossio auris”), Carpzov, Tholuck, Ebrard, al. Others again suppose that the Writer of this Epistle has altered the expression to suit better the prophetical purpose. So an old Scholiast in the Lond. edn. of the LXX, 1653: , , . I would leave the difficulty an unsolved one, not being satisfied by either of the above views, and having no other to propound. As Christian believers, our course is plain. How the word came into the LXX, we cannot say: but being there, it is now sanctioned for us by the citation here: not as the, or even a proper rendering of the Hebrew, but as a prophetic utterance, equivalent to and representing that other):

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 10:5-10 . The adequacy of Christ’s sacrifice as fulfilling God’s will. “wherefore,” “such being the ineffectiveness of the sacrifices of the law and the condition of conscience of those under them,” “when He that is Heb 9:28 to whom alone . is applicable comes into the world,” referring generally to His incarnate state, not to His entrance on his public ministry. , the words are quoted from Psa 40:6-8 and put in the mouth of Christ although the whole Psalm cannot be considered Messianic, cf. Heb 10:12 . In what sense can be used of Christ? It is not meant that He was present in the psalmist and so uttered what is here here referred to Him. This idea is negatived by . It was when incarnate he used the words. Neither is it merely meant that by his conduct Christ showed that these words were a true expression of his mind. Rather, the words are considered prophetic, depicting beforehand the mind of Christ regarding O.T. sacrifice, and His own mission. In several O.T. passages God’s preference for obedience is affirmed (1Sa 15:22 , Psa 50:8 , Micah, Isa 1:11 , Hos 6:6 ) but this psalm is here selected because the phrase “a body hast thou prepared for me” lends itself to the writer’s purpose. In the Psalm, indeed, sacrifice is contrasted with obedience to the will of God. A body is prepared for Christ that in it He may obey God. But it is the offering of this body as a sacrifice in contrast to the animal sacrifices of the law, which this writer emphasises (Heb 10:10 ). “The contrast is between animal offerings and the offering of Himself by the Son. And what is said is that God did not will the former, but willed the other, and that the former are thereby abolished, and the other is established in their room, and as the will of God is effectual. The passage in the epistle is far from saying that the essence or worth of Christ’s offering of Himself lies simply in obedience to the will of God. It does not refer to the point wherein lies the intrinsic worth of the Son’s offering, or whether it may be resolved into obedience unto God. Its point is quite different. It argues that the Son’s offering of Himself is the true and final offering for sin, because it is the sacrifice, which, according to prophecy, God desired to be made” (Davidson).

The writer, in citing Psa 40 , follows the LXX, slightly altering the construction of the last clause by omitting , and thus making depend upon , “I am come to do thy will”. Cf. Heb 10:9 .

representing of the Psalm, animal sacrifice and meal offering. Cf. Eph 5:2 . “thou didst not will,” a contrast is intended between this clause and of the last clause of Heb 10:7 . “but a body didst Thou prepare for me,” implying that in this body God’s will would be accomplished. Cf. Heb 10:10 . The words are the LXX rendering of , “ears didst Thou dig [or open] for me”. The meaning is the same. The opened ear as the medium through which the will of God was received, and the body by which it was accomplished, alike signify obedience to the will of God. representing of the psalm, whole burnt offering and sin-offering. . occurs frequently in Leviticus to denote sin offering, being omitted. “thou didst not take pleasure in”. . “Then,” that is, when it was apparent that not by animal sacrifices or material offerings could God be propitiated, “I said, Lo! I am come to do Thy will, O God,” to accomplish that purpose of Thine which the sacrifices of the O.T. could not accomplish. That this is the correct construction is shown by Heb 10:9 . For construction, cf. Burton, M. and T. , 397; and Prof. Votaw, Use of Infin. in N. T . “in a book [lit. in a roll of a book] it has been written concerning me”. denoting “a little head” was first applied to the end of the stick on which the parchment was rolled, and from which in artistically finished books two cornua proceeded. [See Bleek, Rich’s Dict. of Antiq. , and Hatch’s Concordance ] In the Psalm the phrase is joined with the previous words and might be read, “Lo! I am come, with a roll of a book written for me,” in other words, with written instructions regarding the divine will as affecting me. The words can hardly mean that in Scripture predictions have been recorded regarding the writer of the Psalm. This, however, may be the meaning attached to the words as cited in the epistle, although it is quite as natural and legitimate to retain the original meaning and understand the words as a parenthetical explanation that Christ acknowledged as binding on Him all that had been written for the instruction of others in the will of God. But the likelihood is that if the writer was not merely transcribing the words as part of his quotation without attaching a definite meaning to them, he meant that the coming of the Messiah to do God’s will had been written in the book of God’s purpose. ( Cf. Psa 56:9 .)

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

world. Greek. kosmos. App-129.

offering. Greek. prosphora. See Act 21:26.

wouldest. Greek. thelo. App-102. The Hebrew is “demandedst”.

body, &c. See Psa 40:6, Psa 40:7.

prepared. Greek. katartizo. App-125.

Me = for Me.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

5-10.] Christs voluntary self-offering shewn to be the perfect fulfilment of the will of God.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 10:5. , when He comes into the world) In the 40th Psalm, the entrance of the Messiah into the world is set before us. The tabernacle itself was part of the world, ch. Heb 9:1; and it is here called the world, because the sacrifice of the Messiah extends much more widely than the Levitical sacrifices, reaching, as through all times, so through all the world, which is claimed for Him as His, Psa 40:10, because He is its heir. The word, , entering, is elicited from , I am come, and is represented by it, Heb 10:7.– .- , , ) LXX., in the psalm now quoted, – – , , , . The apostle joins those words, , , , which had been separated from those following, with those going before, which relate to the same thing, as the words, forty years, in the wilderness, ch. Heb 3:9.- ) Heb., thou hast bored my ears (comp. Exo 21:6), namely, that I may subserve Thy will with perfect love; comp. Isa 1:5. The slave, whose ears were bored, was claimed by the master whom he loved with his whole body as his property. Sam. Petitus, in var. lect. c. 28, ascribes the Greek translation of the Prophets and Psalms to the Essenes, and he ascribes to the Essenes this phrase, Thou hast fitted or prepared for me a body; for he says, that among the Essenes there was no slave, but that they had bodies or colleges, whose members served and obeyed one another. The favourers of liberty, however strong in that cause, might still retain the reading, ears; but the apostle maintains the proper (strict) acceptation of the term, body. The ears are a part: the body, as a whole, follows the example of their obedience. Thou hast prepared for me a body, viz. for the offering; Heb 10:10. The mentioning of the whole here is very suitable. There is an expression of Paul, concerning the body of Christ, very similar to this, Rom 7:4.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Heb 10:5-18

THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF THE ONE

OFFERING OF CHRIST SHOWN

(1) IN ITS FULFILLING THE

WILL OF GOD, AND

(2) IN ITS PROCURING FOR ALL

THE FAITHFUL, FREE, FULL,

AND ABSOLUTE FORGIVENESS

Heb 10:5-18

Heb 10:5 —Wherefore when he cometh into the world,-That is, since it is now manifest that the Levitical sacrifices had no power to take away sin, and since, therefore, a better sacrifice was needed for this purpose, Christ on coming into the world as Gods chosen minister to redeem it, says :

Heb 10:5 —Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, etc.-This citation is from the fortieth Psalm, and has reference primarily to David as a type of Christ; and secondarily to Christ himself as the antitype. See notes on 1:5. In the first part of this Psalm, David praises God for deliverance from his persecutors, as well as for many other tokens of Divine grace. And then with an earnest desire to serve God and to do his will, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou hast not desired; ears hast thou digged out for me: burnt- offering and sin-offering thou hast not asked. Then said I, Lo, I come [I bring myself as a sacrifice] (in the volume of the book it is written of me) ; to do thy will, O my God I have delighted, and thy Law is in the midst of my bowels. In this remarkable utterance of David, we have clearly set forth the utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to accomplish the will of God; and also Christs purpose to do this by the sacrifice of himself.

The general meaning of the passage then is plain enough. But how is the Greek rendering of our text, a body hast thou prepared me, to be reconciled with the Hebrew, ears hast thou digged out for me? It will not do to say with some that our author follows the Septuagint Version, without regard to the exact meaning of the passage. He never does this. When the Septuagint expresses correctly the meaning of the original, he then commonly quotes from it; otherwise, he either so modifies the rendering as to make it correct, or he gives us a new translation of the Hebrew. Even in the few lines which are here cited, there are several slight departures from the Septuagint; but in the clause which we have now under consideration, he follows the Septuagint exactly; no doubt because it expresses exactly the mind of the Spirit.

But how is this? To the careless and superficial reader, there may at first seem to be no connection between digging out, or thoroughly opening the ears of any one, and providing a body for him. But the thoughtful reader will at once see that, in the case of Christ, the two expressions are nearly equivalent, and that the latter differs from the former chiefly in this: that it is rather more specific and expressive. To dig out the ears of a person means simply to make him a willing and obedient servant. (Ex. 21:6.) But in order to so qualify Christ as to make him a fit servant for the redemption of mankind, a body was absolutely necessary. Without this, there could have been no adequate sacrifice for sin, and without an adequate sacrifice, there could have been no suitable atonement, and without an atonement, the claims of Divine Justice could not have been satisfied, and without this, the will of God could never have been accomplished in the redemption of mankind. The Greek, therefore, though not an exact translation of the Hebrew, is nevertheless in perfect harmony with it, plainly indicating that both come from the same fountain of Divine inspiration. The only question of doubt, then, is simply this: Whence did the translators of the Septuagint obtain the specific idea which they have here so happily expressed? Or in other words, How came they to put such a construction on the original Hebrew? To me it seems most probable that they simply followed the current interpretation of the passage, as it had been explained by the ancient prophets. See 1Co 14:1-4, and 1Pe 1:10-12.

Heb 10:6 —In burnt offerings, etc.-This is but an echo of the sentiment expressed in the preceding verse, making with it a sort of Hebrew parallelism, in which burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin are made to correspond with sacrifices and offerings in general. Together, the two verses express with great emphasis the utter insufficiency of the Levitical sacrifices to accomplish the will of God in the redemption of mankind. For the law of the burnt offerings, see Lev 1:1-17, and for that of the sin offerings, see Lev 4:1-5. The former was so called because it was wholly consumed on the altar, but the latter received its name from its having always special reference to sin and to the sin-offering of Christ. The former was instituted immediately after the fall of man, and in connection with the meat offering it constituted an important part of the Patriarchal worship. But the sin offering was instituted after the giving of the Law. It is first mentioned in Exo 24:14.

Heb 10:7 —Then said I, Lo, I come-The Septuagint rendering of this verse corresponds exactly with the Hebrew, and is as follows: Then said I, Lo, I come [to do thy will] : (in the volume of the book it is written of me) ; to do thy will, O my God, I have delighted. Our author, by omitting the latter part of the third clause, has changed in some measure the form of the whole verse, without affecting its meaning. He simply makes the phrase, to do thy will” in the third clause, depends directly on I come in the first. The second clause is thrown in parenthetically.

It is manifestly David that speaks in the Psalm from which the Apostle makes this citation. But, as Delitzsch says, he speaks in typically ordered words which issue, as it were, from the very soul of the Antitype, the Anointed of the future, who will not only be the King of Israel, but also the Captain of their salvation, as well as of that of the whole world.-David speaks; but Christ, whose Spirit already dwells and works in David, and who will hereafter receive from David his human nature, now already speaks in him. See notes on 1: 5.

Heb 10:7 —in the volume of the book it is written of me,-That is, in the roll or volume of the Law. Anciently, says A. Clarke, books were written on skins and rolled up. Among the Romans they were called volumina from volvo, I roll: and the Pentateuch in the Jewish synagogues is still written in the same way. There were two wooden rollers; on one they rolled on, and from the other they rolled off, as they proceeded in the reading. In the volume of the Pentateuch, which every king of Israel was required to transcribe and carry with him as a vade mecum (Deu 17:14-20), there is constant reference to Christ. Indeed, we may truly say of it, as John has said of the Apocalypse, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy.’ (Rev 19:10.) This testimony is given not only directly in such passages as Gen 3:15 Gen 22:17 Gen 49:10; Deu 18:18; but also indirectly in all the types and shadows of the Old Covenant.

Heb 10:8 —Above when he said,-Our author now proceeds to explain and apply the foregoing prophecy, and for this purpose he quotes it again substantially in such a form as best serves to give point and energy to his argument. But in doing so, he wholly overlooks the type, and applies the words of the Psalm directly to Christ as their true and proper author. It is no longer David, but Christ himself who appears in front of the great drama of redemption, and who comes forward to do the will of God, by giving his own life for the salvation of the world. Above, (that is in the former part of the quotation,) when he [Christ] saith, Sacrifices, and offerings, and whole burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; such as are offered according to the law.

Heb 10:9 —Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will-The reader will observe that in the preceding verse the Apostle has thrown together all the various kinds of Levitical offerings, no doubt for the purpose of making the contrast between them and the one offering of Christ, as strong and as pointed as possible. Numerous and various as they were, they nevertheless all failed to fulfill the will of God; but this, Christ has fully accomplished by the one offering of himself.

Heb 10:9 —he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.-The thing taken out of the way is not merely the Levitical sacrifices, but the whole arrangement under which they were offered, and the thing established is the more gracious and perfect arrangement according to which the offering of Christ was made once for all. This is indicated (1) by the use of the abstract neuters, the first (to proton) and the second (to deuteron) ; and (2) by what follows in the next verse.

Heb 10:10 —By the which will we are sanctified through the offering, etc.-From this clause taken in connection with what precedes, it is quite manifest that the thing taken out of the way, embracing the Old Covenant with all its rites and ceremonies, was not the will of God, but that the thing established and ratified by the sacrifice of Christ, is the will of God. He taketh away the first, which was not the will of God; that he may establish the second, which is the will of God. The term will as used here, denotes Gods redeeming purpose, conceived before the foundation of the world but gradually developed in the Holy Scriptures, and finally ratified by the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus. In the accomplishing of this will, embracing as it does the whole Gospel plan of salvation, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Heb 10:11 —And every priest standeth daily ministering, etc.-The keynote of what follows is found in the last word of the tenth verse, (ephapax) once for all. The Levitical sacrifices were not only numerous and various, but they were also often repeated: Every priest standeth, day by day, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. The same wearisome circle of ineffectual efforts, says Tholuck, which has been shown to characterize the performances of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, is now exhibited as characteristic of the priestly institute in general. Several manuscripts and some of the ancient versions have high priests (archiereus) instead of priest (hiereus), but the balance of authority is in favor of the reading found in our English Version.

Heb 10:12 —But this man, after he had, etc.-The main point of contrast here is, not between the one sacrifice and the many, but between the often repeated offerings of the many sacrifices of the Law, and the one offering of the sacrifice of Christ. For while every Leviti- cal priest standeth daily ministering, as one who has never finished his work; Christ, on the other hand, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down perpetually on the right hand of God, as one who has accomplished his work; that is, the particular work to which our author here refers: the work of making an atonement for the sins of the world. This will never have to be repeated. The contrast that is here made by the Apostle is well presented by Menken as follows: The priest of the Old Testament stands timid and uneasy in the Holy Place, anxiously performing his awful service there, and hastening to depart when the service is done, as from a place where he has no free access, and can never feel at home, whereas Christ sits down in everlasting rest and blessedness at the right hand of the Majesty in the Holy of Holies, his work accomplished, and he himself awaiting its reward.

Heb 10:13 —From henceforth expecting, etc.-The Apostle refers again to Psa 110:1, where David by the Spirit says, Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool. Christ is represented in our text as calmly and patiently waiting for the fulfillment of this promise. Not that he has ceased to work for the redemption of mankind, for he must reign, and that, too, with infinite power and energy, until the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. (1Co 15:25-26; Rev 19:11-21, etc.) But his sacrificial work is done. The one offering which he made of himself is all-sufficient, as our author shows further in the following verse.

Heb 10:14 —For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.-This is assigned as the reason why Christ has not to stand and daily repeat his offering, like the Levitical priests. The one offering which he has made of himself is enough. By it he has forever perfected them that are sanctified. But who are they? Evidently the same as the sanctified in 2: 11; those who by faith and obedience have put on Christ (Gal 3:27), and who have risen with him from the baptismal grave to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12 Col 3:1). All such have come to perfection in Christ, finding as they do in him all that pertains to life and godliness (2Pe 1:3), so that they have only to persevere in well doing to the end of life, by abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine, and then with spirits as pure as the angels before the throne of God, they will join the redeemed millions who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Heb 10:15 —Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us:-Our author now proceeds to prove and illustrate his position still further by referring to the inspired Hebrew writings. For this purpose he again quotes from the prophecy of Jeremiah (31: 33, 34), showing clearly that even under the Old Economy, it was Gods purpose that through the blood of the New Covenant the sanctified in Christ Jesus should enjoy absolute and eternal forgiveness. But in making use of this passage, he quotes only so much of it as has a direct bearing on his argument, and by so abbreviating it, he has left the construction of it somewhat doubtful. The main point to be determined is simply this: Where does the protasis of the sentence end, and the apodosis begin?

Heb 10:16-17—Most commentators, since Beza, make the division in the middle of the sixteenth verse as follows : For after having said, This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, the Lord [then] says, Patting my laws into their hearts, I will also write them on their understanding; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more But some of our ablest expositors make the apodosis begin with the seventeenth verse, and render the whole passage as follows: For after having said, This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, putting my laws into their hearts, I will also write them on their understanding, [he then adds] and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

On the whole, I think with Beza, Delitzsch, and others, that the first construction is the most natural, and also most consistent with our authors free manner of quoting from the original text. It matters but little, however, which of these renderings is adopted. In either case, the main object of the writer is evidently to prove from the Old Testament Scriptures, that the subjects of the New Covenant enjoy, through the one offering of Christ, free, full, and absolute forgiveness.

Heb 10:18 —Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.-That is, where there is absolute forgiveness of sins, there is no further need of a sin-offering. Another atonement would be wholly superfluous. This, as we have seen in commenting on 8: 12, is one of the leading points of contrast between the Old and the New Covenant. Under the former, the offerings were numerous, and were perpetually repeated; while they served to procure for the Israelites nothing more than a mere civil and ecclesiastical forgiveness. But under the latter, the one offering of Christ procures for all the sanctified absolute and everlasting forgiveness.

REFLECTIONS

1. This is one of the most profoundly interesting sections in the whole Bible. Leading us back, as it does, to the original gracious purpose of God, conceived, of course, before the foundation of the world, but gradually revealed and illustrated from the fall of man until it was fully developed in the kingdom of Christ, it embraces within itself an outline of the whole remedial system. We see in it both the shadow and the substance in their true and proper relations to each other; and all looking to the one grand consummation, when the last enemy, Death, having been vanquished, the kingdom will be delivered up to God the Father. To understand this one section, therefore, in all its legitimate bearings, is, in fact, to understand the whole economy of Divine grace.

2. Judaism, though in itself but a shadow, differs nevertheless in many respects from all false systems of religion; but chiefly in this, that it has in Christianity a real corresponding substance. The religious systems of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other heathen nations, were nothing but shadows; mere counterfeits without any corresponding realities. The Romans, for instance, had their high priest or Pontifex Maximus, as well as the Jews. But while the Jewish high priest was a type of Christ, the Roman Pontifex Maximus was a type of nothing: a mere shadow of a shadow, without any corresponding substance. And this is true also of all the heathen temples, sacrifices, etc.; so that there is really no proper parallelism between Judaism and any other system of religion outside of the Bible. The one was given by God himself ; but the other is wholly of human origin.

3. Christians should ever rejoice that the way into the holiest of all is now made manifest. (Heb 9:8 Heb 10:19-20.) Christ has made it so very plain, that all may now understand it and walk in it. Indeed he is himself the way, the truth, the resurrection and the life. The man who is in him, and who walks in him, cannot fail to enter, even as he himself did, into the holy of holies. Well, therefore, might Christ now say to us, as he once said to his disciples while on earth, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.,, Let us all then strive to walk worthy of our high and holy calling; with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4. The great end of all religion is to purify the conscience from all that is impure and unholy; and so to qualify us for the service of God here, and for the enjoyment of his presence hereafter. (Heb 9:14.) Without this, all outward purifications are of no avail. The body will soon go to corruption, do as we may. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, is the irrevocable decree of God with respect to all flesh. But if by Divine grace the spirit is made like that of Christ, then also the body will in due time be made like the body of Christ. (1Jn 3:2.) And if we are like Christ, we will be with him (Joh 14:3), and be made heirs of the universe through him (1Co 3:21-23).

5. There has ever been but one ground of pardon, justification, sanctification, and redemption. The conditions of enjoying the great boon of eternal life have varied somewhat in different ages and under different circumstances. Some things were required of the Jews, which are not now required of Christians; and some things are required of Christians, which were wholly unknown to the Jews. But neither Jews nor Christians ever did or ever can do anything by way of making an atonement for sin. This can be done only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was just as necessary for the redemption of the sins that were committed under the first covenant, as it is for the redemption of those that are now committed under the second covenant. (9: 15; Rom 3:25-26.) This is the fountain which God by the mouth of Zechariah (13: 1) promised that he would open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness; and this is the fountain to which every penitent sinner is now invited to come and be cleansed.

6. How infinitely glorious will be the second advent of our blessed Lord. (Heb 9:28.) His first coming was in weakness, poverty, and suffering, because he was then made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law; that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Gal 4:4-5.) He had then to be made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2Co 5:21.) But now his sacrificial work is done. His sufferings and sorrows are all over. He has borne away all our sins in his own person; and by the one offering of himself he has brought in everlasting righteousness. And hence when he comes again, it will be to redeem his saints, and to convict all the impious concerning all their works of impiety which they impiously did, and concerning all the hard things which impious sinners spoke against him. (Jud 1:14-15.) Then all that are in their graves will hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation. (Joh 5:28-29.) The judgment will sit, and the books will be opened. And then every man will be rewarded according to his works. (Rev 20:11-15.) Sinner, are you prepared to meet him at his coming? If not, why not at once repent of your sins? Why not accept of the mercy which he now offers to you through the Gospel? Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2Co 6:2.)

7. God is not an arbitrary, but a just and righteous Sovereign. (Heb 10:1-4.) Otherwise he might have accepted the blood of bulls and of goats as an atonement for sin; nay more, he might have even allowed all sin to pass with impunity. But this was impossible. Gods own nature would not allow this. Justice, absolute and eternal justice, had to be satisfied before any sinner could be pardoned absolutely; for justice and judgment are the habitation of Gods throne. (Psa 89:14.) But nothing it seems save the blood of Christ was sufficient to pay the ransom. And hence even this was not withheld by our ever gracious and merciful Father. For, as ve are told, he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (Joh 3:16.) But before this can be made available to the sinner, it must be humbly and thankfully accepted by him. He must reverently bow to the authority of Jesus, and receive him as the anointed Sovereign of the universe. (Php 2:9-11.) To those who do so willingly, Christ has become the author of eternal salvation (Heb 5:9) ; but to those who reject Christ, the Gospel is but a savor of death unto death (2Co 2:16). Better for all such that they had never been born; for by an eternal moral necessity they must be banished with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. (2Th 1:9-10.)

8. How infinitely consoling is the assurance given to us in this section, that the one offering of Christ has so far satisfied the will of God, by meeting the claims of Divine justice against the sinner, that he can now be just in justifying every one who believes and obeys him. (Heb 10:5-10; Rom 3:25-26.) This is indeed to us as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, reaching even within the Vail. For, as our author says in his letter to the Romans ( Rom 5:10), If when we were enemies to God by wicked works, we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son; much more being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. On this rock we may now rest our hopes in confidence, feeling assured that all things work together for good to them that love God (Rom 8:28) ; and that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39). May God help us then to renounce all self-righteousness and selfreliance, and to trust only in him who of God has become unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

Commentary on Heb 10:5-18 by Donald E. Boatman

Heb 10:5 –Wherefore when He cometh into the world

Since the Levitical sacrifices had no power to take away sin, therefore a better sacrifice was needed, Christ came therefore to give a sacrifice that could redeem the world.

Heb 10:5 –He saith (Psa 40:6)

Calvin says this Psalm is improperly applied to Christ, for look at the contrast. It says, My iniquities have laid hold on me. (Heb 10:12.)

Christ could quote part of the verse and apply it to Himself without applying all of it to Himself.

Heb 10:5 –sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not

We would expect Christ to have some things to say on the matter of sacrifice, and this is it. Christ says God was not satisfied with the old covenant atonement.

Heb 10:5 –but a body didst Thou prepare for Me

This is New Testament doctrine.

a. Joh 1:14 : The Word became flesh.

b. Php 2:5-11.

Observe how the Psalm reads in the original language:

An ear Thou hast opened for Me.

An ear Thou hast bored for Me.

a. This alludes to an ancient custom: A mans ear was bored, then he was a servant forever. Exo 21:5-6.

b. It was in this spirit that Christ submitted.

Evidently the author quoted thought, and not verbatim, says Milligan. It seems the quotation was from the Septuagint-the Greek. Changes in words are sometimes necessary in translation into other languages for illustration.

a. The verse in Mat 7:10, Will he give him a serpent? if translated into Hindu would not be the meaning that Jesus portrays, because of local Indian custom.

Heb 10:6 –in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst no pleasure

This is an echo of the former verse. Burnt offerings are discussed in Lev 1:1-17.

a. This offering is so named because it was consumed upon the altar.

b. Milligan says this was the offering instituted immediately after the fall.

The sin offering is discussed in Lev 4:1 to Lev 5:13.

a. This was an important part of the sacrifices in that it had special reference to sin.

b. It is first mentioned in Exo 29:14.

Heb 10:7 –then said I, Lo I am come

The New Testament says that Jesus came.

a. John said so: Joh 1:11 : He came unto His own.

b. Jesus said so: Joh 6:38; Joh 6:41, Mat 20:28.

An interesting study is made when we examine the scriptures where Jesus said, I come, come, etc.

Heb 10:7 –in the roll of the book it is written of me

Also translated volume or chapter, and the word book refers to the Old Testament. The psalmist doesnt say where, but note Jesus own words in Luk 24:44. See Gen 3:15; Gen 22:17; Gen 49:10; Deu 18:18; also Old Testament prophecies. Roll refers to the scroll type of preservation of manuscripts.

Heb 10:7 –to do Thy will, O God

Others tried, but only Christ could actually do the will of God. Luk 24:44 : All will be fulfilled concerning Christ, In Gethsemane Christ prayed to do Gods will.

Joh 4:23-34 : I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work. The devil made a supreme effort to turn Jesus from the will of God as he tempted Him after Jesus baptism.

a. Fortunately for the world the devil failed.

b. Only as we do the will of God will the obedience of Christ avail in our life.

Heb 10:8 –saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein (the which are offered according to the law)

Here he names all the sacrifices to indicate the inability of all of them. Four classes are named, with the amazing statement that God had no pleasure in any of those offered according to law.

Neither hadst pleasure therein is suggestive.

a. Of course, if done in hypocrisy God would not be pleased.

1. David realized the futility of the old sacrifices. See Psa 51:16 : For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering.

2. The prophets cried out against the Jews for unsatisfactory sacrifices. See Amo 5:21-24.

b. Here he refers no doubt to those that are done correctly, but still there is no pleasure in them, for they are offered according to law.

Heb 10:9 –then hath He said, Lo I am come to do thy will

While this expression is found in Heb 10:9, it is really a conclusion to Heb 10:8. Since God has no pleasure in the old sacrifices, Christ came to make a sacrifice that would please God. Christ made it plain that He was doing the Fathers will Joh 4:34; Joh 5:30.

Heb 10:9 –He taketh away the first

The whole arrangement under which these sacrifices were made is taken away. The whole plan is now removed; not just the scaffolding, but all. This checks with Heb 7:18-19 where we learn the foregoing commandment is disannulled. It is taken away through the sacrifice of Jesus.

a. He fulfilled Mat 5:17, so it could be taken away.

b. It was nailed to the cross. Col 2:14.

Heb 10:9 –that He may establish the second

The new covenant is the second, The second is discussed in the next verse.

Wise is the person that lives under the covenant that is established.

a. We cannot expect salvation upon something that God does not recognize.

b. This is the rock upon which we are to establish our lives, Milligan says the first was not the will of God, but the second is His will.

Heb 10:10 –by which will

a. This sounds a little dangerous.

b. Gal 3:24 shows that God had a purpose in the law.

If the law had value, then it must have been Gods will.

a. Of course, certain marriage laws were added, because of their hardness of heart, Mar 10:4, but the law was of God.

b. The law was His will for that dispensation.

Heb 10:10 –we have been sanctified

Observe Newell, page 339, for a foolish point.

a. He says the character of the object is not changed, but its relation to God is changed.

b. Sanctified here does not refer to our consecration or action of the Holy Spirit within us. He quotes the following:

1Th 5:23 : And the God of peace Himself sanctify you. 2Th 2:13 : Unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit. 1Pe 1:2.

Surely we are changed when we are sanctified by the new will, for we have a new birth, a new will.

Heb 10:10 –through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

See what happens by reading Heb 10:14. Perfection is the word. The word sanctified is not the whole truth, for we are perfected.

a. This must refer to the absoluteness of the effect of Christs work on the cross in respect to cleansing and saving from sin.

b. The offering, of course, does not make us live perfectly. 1Jn 1:10.

Heb 10:10 –once for all

The old sacrifices were numerous, various and repeated often, and brought no perfection. Christs sacrifice was offered once and sanctifies unto perfection.

Study Questions

1736. Does this verse answer the question concerning the remission of sins under the old covenant?

1737. The Jew had the impossible, but the Christian has the possible. Is this true?

1738. What did atonement mean if it did not mean cleansing from sin?

1739. Could we use the word appeasement for atonement?

1740. Who is speaking in Heb 10:5?

1741. Can this Psalm refer to Christ when Heb 10:12 speaks of iniquities?

1742. Observe different translations. Do all translations say He, or do some say Christ as though it appears this way in the original? What does one of the new versions say?

1743. Where did Christ say it? Is there any New Testament verse in the four gospels where it is recorded?

1744. Could Christ quote only a part of a verse and apply it to Himself?

1745. What is meant by wouldest not?

1746. What is meant by the body Thou didst prepare for Me?

1747. Is this New Testament doctrine?

1748. Quote some verses that show that Christ had a body.

1749. Can you read this in the Psalm?

1750. How may we explain the difference?

1751. Does the author quote thought or verbatim?

1752. What is meant by ear boring? See Exo 21:5-6.

1753. What does whole burnt offering refer to? Cf. Lev 1:11-17. Why is it thus called?

1754. Where was the sin offering made? Cf. Exo 29:14.

1755. What was the sin offering like? Lev 4:1 to Lev 5:13.

1756. Could the two offerings be the same? If not, what is the whole burnt offering for? Cf. Lev 1:13.

1757. What material was used? Cf. Exo 29:14.

1758. Where in the New Testament do we find the expression, I come? Cf. Joh 6:38; Joh 6:41; Mat 20:28.

1759. Does it make any difference whether we believe that Jesus came or not?

1760. What is meant by roll of the book? What would roll suggest in reference to the shape of Old Testament scriptures?

1761. Did Jesus ever refer to the Psalms as referring to Him? Cf. Luk 24:44.

1762. Could Jesus refer to God as O God?

1763. Is the expression to do Thy will significant? Did others try to do it? Did Christ succeed?

1764. Was it an easy thing for Jesus to do the will of God?

1765. How early did He announce that He intended to do it?

1766. Was age twelve the first? Cf. Joh 4:32; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:30.

1767. Did the devil ever try to keep Him from it?

1768. What was actually Gods will for Christ?

1769. What does the expression, saying above, refer to?

1770. How many classes of sacrifices are named here?

1771. This verse says that God had no pleasure in them. Does this refer to hypocritical sacrifices and offerings? Cf. Psa 51:16; Amo 5:21-24.

1772. Can we assume that good sacrifices performed correctly are referred to here?

1773. Does the expression according to the law verify it?

1774. What is the implication in Heb 10:9?

1775. Does it mean that He would make a sacrifice that would please God?

1776. What is taken away?

1777. Is it the sacrifices taken away or the whole law?

1778. Is this the same as Heb 7:18-19 says?

1779. Is this what Col 2:14 means?

1780. How could He take it away? Cf. Mat 5:17.

1781. What is the second thing referred to?

1782. What is meant by establish?

1783. Do you base your hope on something established or something taken away?

1784. How is the second established?

1785. What is established in this second covenant? How?

1786. By which will-does this refer to the will of the covenant or the will of God?

1787. Did God have purpose in the old? Cf. Gal 3:24.

1788. Was everything that the Jew observed as law the actual will of God? Cf. Mar 10:4.

1789. What is it that sanctifies?

1790. Does the sanctification refer to our character, or our state, or both?

1791. What part does Jesus have in this sanctification?

1792. Compare this word offering with the power of the offering in Heb 10:14.

1793. Does the expression once for all speak of a sacrifice in contrast to others?

1794. Is it for all people in this verse, or is it a statement of finality?

Commentary

Heb 10:11 –And every high priest indeed standeth day by day

In Exo 29:38-46 are found recorded the daily sacrifices. The wearisome, continuous, ineffectual sacrifices are contrasted here with the one effectual sacrifice.

Heb 10:11 –ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices the which can never take away sins

This idea is expressed often, so evidently we are to understand that no sin was taken away by the Old Testament sacrifices.

a. However, it was essential that they be done.

b. For us, confession of faith, repentance, baptism, and belief are essential, although actually it is the blood of Christ that cleanses.

c. If they had failed to act in good faith, they could not have the blood of Christ applied, just as we today cannot if we fail to act upon the steps of salvation.

For them it was a sacrifice that could never take away sin. With Christ it is a sacrifice that can ever take away sin.

Heb 10:12 –but He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever

One sacrifice forever effectual was done by Christ. Forever goes with one sacrifice, not sat down. Christ is to leave heaven to receive those that wait for Him. Heb 9:28.

Heb 10:12 –sat down at the right hand of God

The priest had to hasten out of the Holy of Holies, for it was a place where he had no free access. He could never feel at home there. Christ sits down with God in the glory of His work accomplished.

Heb 10:13 –henceforth expecting

This is Christ waiting for the fulfillment of a promise.

Milligan says He is calmly and patiently waiting, but surely Christ must be greatly sorrowed at the slow progress of His church with its indifference, coldness, and stinginess.

Heb 10:13 –till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet

Psa 110:1 is referred to here. His sacrificial work is over, but the last enemy, death, is to be destroyed. 1Co 15:25-26. See also Rev 20:11-14.

Heb 10:14 –for by one offering He hath perfected forever

It does not mean that the believer is perfected immediately into a full-grown person in Christ. The sacrifice does take away all sin so that the person stands perfectly cleansed before God and a new creature in Christ. Rom 6:1-4. It is perfection in standing, not actual perfection, which makes one faultless and sinless in life. One sacrifice forever perfects forever; therefore Christ does not have to stand and daily repeat His sacrifices.

Heb 10:14 –them that are sanctified

Who are the sanctified?

a. His brethren, in verse Heb 2:11, must be the answer.

b. Those baptized into Christ. Gal 3:27.

c. Those who walk in a newness of life. Rom 6:4; Col 2:12; Col 3:1; 2Pe 1:3.

Does this mean that we are perfected, and therefore have no danger of falling?

a. We must abide in Christ as a branch.

b. We must not shrink back. Heb 10:39.

Study Questions

1795. Describe the day-by-day sacrifices of the priest. Exo 29:38-46.

1796. What is the authors purpose in mentioning it?

1797. Why did they do it if it couldnt cleanse?

1798. Can we say that it is a contrast of never and ever?

1799. Contrast the number of sacrifices under the old with the new.

1800. How soon did Jesus sit down?

1801. Where is He seated?

1802. What does this signify?

1803. Is Jesus seated forever, or is it a sacrifice forever?

1804. What word could express the thought expecting?

1805. What work is yet to be done?

1806. What Psalm is quoted?

1807. Enemies are named. What or who are they?

1808. What is the last enemy according to 1Co 15:26?

1809. What enemies are named in Rev 19:11-12?

1810. Is the Christian perfected forever?

1811. Does the verse teach that all who are sanctified have no sin? Cf. 1Jn 1:10.

1812. Is it perfection in standing that he is describing?

1813. Who is included in the words, them that are sanctified?

1814. Could it be those of Heb 2:11? Cf. Gal 3:27; Col 2:12.

1815. What does the word sanctify mean?

1816. Is it a condition over which we have no control?

1817. If believers cannot fall, why does he close the chapter warning against shrinking back? Cf. Heb 10:39.

Commentary

Heb 10:15 –And the Holy Spirit also beareth witness to us; for after He hath said

Paul calls attention to Jer 31:33-34. This is given to show that God planned that through one offering, the obedient may have absolute forgiveness.

Heb 10:16 –This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: and I will put My laws on their heart and upon their mind also will I write them

These words are quoted from Jeremiah and are found in Hebrews, chapters 8, 10, 12 as directed inspiration of the Holy Spirit to Hebrew believers. How wonderful that Gods laws may be found within the heart of man !

Heb 10:17 –and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more

Remember no more is a contrast to remembrance year by year. Man remembers, but God forgets when He forgives.

Heb 10:17 –now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin

We need no other offering. Joh 14:6; Act 4:12; In none other is there salvation.

When sin is forgiven under the new covenant, there just isnt any other sacrifice necessary.

Study Questions

1818. Beginning with Heb 10:15 and ending with Heb 10:18, what evidence does he use to establish and confirm the finality of Gods sacrifice?

1819. What prophet confirms it?

1820. What writing material is contrasted here?

1821. Does it imply that the new covenant would not be written except in the heart and mind?

1822. In what other chapters does he quote from Jeremiah?

1823. What is the difference between sin and iniquities?

1824. Can sin be defined as breaking divine will?

1825. Is iniquity that which lacks justice, hence is unrighteous, etc.?

1826. How thorough is Gods ability to forget?

1827. Is no more a contrast to anything inferior in the old?

1828. Why do we not need sacrifices according to this verse?

1829. Define remission.

1830. How does Act 4:12 apply here?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The provision that God made to supply the defect and insufficiency of legal sacrifices, as unto the expiation of sin, peace of conscience with himself, and the sanctification of the souls of the worshippers, is declared in this context; for the words contain the blessed undertaking of our Lord Jesus Christ to do, fulfill, perform, and suffer, all things required in the will, and by the wisdom, holiness, righteousness, and authority of God, unto the complete salvation of the church, with the reasons of the efficacy of what he so did and suffered unto that end. And we must consider both the words themselves, so far especially as they consist in a quotation out of the Old Testament, and the validity of his inferences from the testimony which he chooseth to insist on unto this purpose.

Heb 10:5-10. , , , . , ( ) , , . , , ( ) , , , , .

Some few differences may be observed in the ancient and best translations.

. Vulg. Lat., ideo quapropter. Syr., , for this, for this cause.

, hostiam et oblationem, sacrificium, victimam. The Syriac renders the words in the plural number, sacrifices and offerings.

, aptasti, adaptasti mihi, praeparasti, perfecisti. A body hast thou prepared; that is, fitted for me, wherein I may do thy will.Syr., , but thou hast clothed me with a body; very significantly, as unto the thing intended, which is the incarnation of the Son of God. The Ethiopic renders this verse somewhat strangely: And when he entered into the world, he saith, Sacrifices and offerings! would not; thy body he hath purified unto me; making them, as I suppose, the words of the Father.

. Vulg., non tibi placuerant; reading the preceding words in the nominative case, altering the person and number of the verb Syr., , thou didst not require, non approbasti; that is, they were not well pleasing, nor accepted with God, as unto the end of the expiation of sin.

. Ecce adsum, venio.

, . The Syriac omitteth the last word, which yet is emphatical in the discourse.

. Vulg., tunc dixi, then I said; that is, , for he said for the apostle doth not speak these words, but repeats the words of the psalmist.

The reading of the words out of the Hebrew by the apostle shall be considered in our passage.[4]

[4] EXPOSITION. Five views have been taken in regard to the difference between the Hebrew original and the LXX. rendering, as given in verse 5. 1. Even before the days of Kennicott some resolved the difficulty on the hypothesis of a corruption of the Hebrew text. Kennicott conjectured that was a corruption for , Then a body thou hast given. Since , however, is an adverb of time, it cannot be taken in the sense of therefore. Pierce adopts the emendation so far, but leaves the verb as it stands. Pye Smith inclines to this view, and holds that . signifies to prepare. 2. Bleek supposes a corruption in the LXX., , instead of , or originally. 3. Rosenmuller, with Owen, a synecdoche, Thou hast opened mine ears; given a capacity to hear, and therefore to obey thy commands.4. Michaelis, Storr, Kuinoel, Hengstenberg, and Stuart, paraphrase it somewhat thus, Thou hast opened, i.e., spoken closely and effectually into mine ears; I have ears to hear, and I understand the secret meaning of the laws concerning sacrifices. I know that that requires not oxen and goats, but a BETTER SACRIFICE; and for that purpose I present myself.5. Olshausen and Ebrard adhere to the explanation derived from the boring of the servants ear, Exo 21:6. All agree that the meaning is substantially conveyed by the LXX. ED.

Heb 10:5-10. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared [fitted for] me: in burnt-offerings and [sacrifices] for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God; [that I should do thy will.] Above when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and [offerings] for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure [therein,] which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified,, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all.]

A blessed and divine context this is, summarily representing unto us the love, grace, and wisdom of the Father; the love, obedience, and suffering of the Son; the federal agreement between the Father and the Son as unto the work of the redemption and salvation of the church; with the blessed harmony between the Old and New Testament in the declaration of these things. The divine authority and wisdom that evidence themselves herein are ineffable, and do cast contempt on all those by whom this epistle hath been called in question; as sundry other passages in it do in a peculiar manner. And it is our duty to inquire with diligence into the mind of the Holy Spirit herein.

As unto the general nature of the arguing of the apostle, it consists in two parts:

First, The introduction of a pregnant testimony out of the Old Testament unto his purpose, Heb 10:5-8, and part of the 9th.

Secondly, Inferences from that testimony, asserting and confirming all that he had pleaded for.

In the testimony he produceth we may consider,

1. The manner of its introduction, respecting the reason of what is asserted; Wherefore.

2. Who it was by whom the words insisted on were spoken; He saith.

3. When he spake them; When he came into the world.

4. The things spoken by him in general; which consist in a double antithesis:

(1.) Between the legal sacrifices and the obedience of Christ in his body, Heb 10:5;

(2.) Between Gods acceptance of the one and the other, with their efficacy unto the end treated of, which must be particularly spoken unto.

FIRST, The introduction of this testimony is by the word wherefore, for which cause, for which end. It doth not give an account why the words following were spoken, but why the things themselves were so ordered and disposed. And we are directed in this word unto the due consideration of what is designed to be proved: and this is, that there was such an insufficiency in all legal sacrifices, as unto the expiation of sin, that God would remove them and take them out of the way, to introduce that which was better, to do that which the law could not do. Wherefore,saith the apostle, because it was so with the law, things are thus disposed of in the wisdom and counsel of God as is declared in this testimony.

SECONDLY, Who spake the words contained in the testimony: He saith. The words may have a three-fold respect:

1. As they were given out by inspiration, and are recorded in the Scripture. So they were the words of the Holy Ghost, as the apostle expressly affirms of the like words, Heb 10:15-16, of this chapter.

2. As they were used by the penman of the psalm, who speaks by inspiration. So they were the words of David, by whom the psalm was composed. But although David spoke or wrote these words, yet is not he himself the person spoken of, nor can any passage in the whole context be applied unto him, as we shall see in particular afterwards. Or if they may be said to be spoken of him, it was only as he bare the person of another, or was a type of Christ. For although God himself doth frequently prefer moral obedience before the sacrifices of the law, when they were hypocritically performed, and trusted unto as a righteousness, unto the neglect of diligence in moral duties; yet David did not, would not, ought not, in his own name and person, to reject the worship of God, and present himself with his obedience in the room thereof, especially as unto the end of sacrifices in the expiation of sin. Wherefore,

3. The words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: When he cometh into the world, he saith. And it is a vain inquiry, when in particular he spake these words; unto whom or where any mention is made of them in the story of him. It is no way needful that they should be literally or verbally pronounced by him. But the Holy Ghost useth these words in his name, as his, because they declare, express, and represent his mind, design, and resolution, in His coming into the world; which is the sole end and use of words. On the consideration of the insufficiency of legal sacrifices (the only appearing means unto that purpose) for the expiation of sin and the making of reconciliation with God, that all mankind might not eternally perish under the guilt of sin, the Lord Christ represents his readiness and willingness to undertake that work, with the frame of his heart and mind therein.

The ascription of these words unto the Lord Christ on the reason mentioned, gives us a prospect into,

1. The love of his undertaking for us, when all other ways of our recovery failed, and were disallowed as insufficient;

2. Into the foundation of his undertaking for us, which was the declaration of the will of God concerning the insufficiency of these sacrifices;

3. Into his readiness to undertake the work of redemption, notwithstanding the difficulties that lay in the way of it, and what he was to undergo in the stead of the legal sacrifices.

Obs. 1. We have the solemn word of Christ, in the declaration he made of his readiness and willingness to undertake the work of the expiation of sin, proposed unto our faith, and engaged as a sure anchor of our souls.

THIRDLY, The season of his speaking these words in the manner declared, was on his coming into the world: Wherefore, coming (or when he cometh) into the world, he saith. , veniens, or venturus; when he was to enter into the world, when the design of his future coming into the world was declared. So is, he that is to come, Mat 11:3; and , Joh 4:25. That, therefore, may be the sense of the words: upon the first prediction of the future coming of the Son of God into the world, the design, mind, and will wherewith he came, was declared.

Refer the words unto some actual coming of the person spoken of into the world, and various interpretations are given of them. When he came in sacrifices, typically, say some. But this seems not to be a word accompanying the first institution of sacrifices; namely, Sacrifices thou wouldest not have. His coming into the world, was his appearance and public showing of himself unto the world, in the beginning of his ministry, as David came out of the wilderness and caves to show himself unto the people as king of Israel, saith Grotius. But the respect unto David herein is frivolous; nor are those words used with respect unto the kingly office of Christ, but merely as unto the offering himself in sacrifice to God.

The Socinians contend earnestly, that this his coming into the world is his entrance into heaven after his resurrection. And they embrace this uncouth interpretation of the words to give countenance unto their pernicious error, that Christ offered not himself in sacrifice to God in his death, or whilst he was in this world. For his sacrifice they suppose to be metaphorically only so called, consisting in the representation of himself unto God in heaven, after his obedience and suffering. Wherefore they say, that by the world which he came into, the world to come, mentioned Heb 2:5, is intended. But there is nothing sound, nothing probable or specious in this wresting of the words and sense of the Scripture. For,

1. The words in the places compared are not the same. This is only; those are , and are not absolutely to be taken in the same sense, though the same things may be intended in various respects.

2. is the habitable part of the earth, and can on no pretense be applied unto heaven.

3. I have fully proved on that place, that the apostle in that expression intendeth only the days and times of the Messiah, or of the gospel, commonly called ,among the Jews, , the world to come; that new heaven and earth wherein righteousness should dwell But they add, that itself is used for heaven, Rom 4:13, , that he should be the heir of the world; that is, of heaven, the world above.But this imagination is vain also. For Abrahams being heir of the world is no more but his being the father of many nations; nor was there ever any other promise which the apostle should refer unto of his being heir of the world, but only that of his being the father of many nations, not of the Jews on]y, but of the Gentiles also; as the apostle explains it, Rom 4:8-12. Respect also may be had unto the promised Seed proceeding from him, who was to be the heir of all things.

That which they intend by his coming into the world, is what himself constantly calleth his leaving of the world, and going out of it. See Joh 13:1; Joh 16:28; Joh 17:11; Joh 17:13 : I leave the world; I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. This, therefore, cannot be his coming into the world. And this imagination is contrary, as unto the express words, so to the open design of the apostle; for as he declares his coming into the world to be the season wherein a body was fitted for him, so that which he had to do herein was what he had to do in this world, before his departure out of it, verse 12. Wherefore this figment is contrary unto common sense, the meaning of the words, the design of the place, and other express testimonies of Scripture; and is of no use, but to be an instance how men of corrupt minds can wrest the Scripture for their ends, unto their own destruction.

The general sense of the best expositors, ancient and modern, is, that by the coming of Christ into the world his incarnation is intended. See Joh 1:11; Joh 3:16-17; Joh 3:19; Joh 6:14; Joh 9:4; Joh 9:39; Joh 11:27; Joh 12:46; Joh 16:28. The same with his coming in the flesh, his being made flesh, his being manifest in the flesh; for therein and thereby he came into the world.

Neither is there any weight in the objection of the Socinians unto this exposition of the words; namely, that the Lord Christ at his first coming in the flesh, and in his infancy, could not do the will of God, nor could these words be used of him. For,

1. His coming into the world, in the act of the assumption of our nature, was in obedience unto, and for the fulfilling of the word of God. For God sent him into the world, Joh 3:16. And he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him, Joh 6:38.

2. His doing the will of God is not confined unto any one single act or duty, but extends itself unto all the degrees and whole progress of what he did and suffered in compliance with the will of God, the foundation of the whole being laid in his incarnation.

But as these words were not verbally and literally spoken by him, being only a real declaration of his design and intention; so this expression of his coming into the world is not to be confined unto any one single act or duty, so as to exclude all others from being concerned therein. It hath respect unto all the solemn acts of the susception and discharge of his mediatory office for the salvation of the church. But if any shall rather judge that in this expression some single season and act of Christ is intended, it can be no other but his incarnation, and his coming into the world thereby; for this was the foundation of all that he did afterwards, and that whereby he was fitted for his whole work of mediation, as is immediately declared. And we may observe,

Obs. 2. The Lord Christ had an infinite prospect of all that he yeas to do and suffer in the world, in the discharge of his office and undertaking. He declared from the beginning his willingness unto the whole of it. And an eternal evidence it is of his love, as also of the justice of God in laying all our sins on him, seeing it was done by his own will and consent.

FOURTHLY, The fourth thing in the words is, what he said. The substance of it is laid down, Heb 10:5. Unto which the further explication is added, Heb 10:6-7; and the application of it unto the intention of the apostle in those that follow. The words are recorded, Psa 40:6-8, being indited by the Holy Ghost in the name of Christ, as declarative of his will.

Of the first thing proposed there are two parts:

First, What concerneth the sacrifices of the law.

Secondly, What concerneth himself.

1. The expression of the subject spoken of, that is, ; which the apostle renders by , sacrifice and offering. In the next verse, the one of them, namely , is distributed into ; which the apostle renders by , burnt- offerings, or whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin. It is evident that the Holy Ghost in this variety of expressions compriseth all the sacrifices of the law that had respect unto the expiation of sin. And as unto all of them, their order, especial nature, and use, I have treated at large in my exercitations before the first volume of this Exposition (Exerc. 24), whither the reader is referred.

2. Of these sacrifices it is affirmed, that God would them not, Heb 10:5; and that he had no pleasure in them, Heb 10:6. The first in the original is which the apostle renders by , thou wouldest not. We render it in the psalm, thou didst not desire. is to will, but always with desire, complacency, and delight. Psa 51:8, Behold, , thou desirest, thou wilt, or art delighted with truth in the hidden part. Verse 18, , thou wouldest not, thou desirest not sacrifice. Gen 34:19, He had delight in Jacobs daughter. Psa 147:10. So , the noun, is delight, Psa 1:2. The LXX. render it generally by , and , to will; as also the noun by . And they are of the same signification, to will freely, voluntarily, and with delight. But this sense the apostle doth transfer unto the other word, which he renders by , verse 6. In the psalm it is , thou hast not required. is to rest in, to approve, to delight in, to be pleased with. So is it always used in the New Testament, whether spoken of God or men. See Mat 3:17; Mat 12:18; Mat 17:5; Luk 3:22; Luk 12:32; Rom 15:26-27; 1Co 1:21; 1Co 10:5; 2Co 5:8; Col 1:19, etc. Wherefore if we shall grant that the words used by the apostle be not exact versions of those used in the psalmist, as they are applied the one unto the other, yet it is evident that in both of them the full and exact meaning of both those used by the psalmist is declared; which is sufficient unto his purpose.

All the difficulty in the words may be reduced unto these two inquiries:

(1.) In what sense it is affirmed that God would not have those sacrifices, that he had no pleasure in them, that he rested not in them.

(2.) How was this made known, so as that it might be declared, as it is in this place.

(1.) As unto the first of these we may observe,

[1.] That this is not spoken of the will of God as unto the institution and appointment of these sacrifices; for the apostle affirms that they were offered according unto the law, verse 8; namely, which God gave unto the people. God says, indeed, by the prophet unto the people, that he spake not unto their fathers, nor commanded them in the day that he brought them out. of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices, Jer 7:22. But he speaks not absolutely as unto the things themselves, but unto their manner of the observance of them.

[2.] It is not with respect unto the obedience of the people in their attendance unto them during the economy of the law; for God both required it strictly of them and approved of it in them, when duly performed. The whole law and prophets bear testimony hereunto. And it was the great injunction which he left with the people, when he ceased to grant any more immediate revelations of his will unto the church, Mal 4:4. And the Lord Christ himself under the Judaical church did observe them.

[3.] God doth frequently reject or disallow them in the people, as they were attended unto and performed by them. But this he did only in the case of their gross hypocrisy, and the two great evils wherewith it was accompanied. The first was, that they did not only prefer the outward observation of them before internal moral obedience, but trusted unto them unto the total neglect of that obedience. See Isa 1:12-17. And theother was, that they put their trust in them for righteousness and acceptance with God; about which he deals, Jeremiah 7. Yet neither was this the case under consideration in the psalm; for there is no respect had unto any miscarriages of the people about these sacrifices, but unto the sacrifices themselves.

Wherefore some say that the words are prophetical, and declare what the will of God would be after the coming of Christ in the flesh, and the offering of his sacrifice once for all. Then God would no more require them nor accept them. But yet neither is this suited unto the mind of the Holy Ghost. For,

[1.] The apostle doth not prove by this testimony that they were to cease, but that they could not take away sin whilst they were in force.

[2.] The reason given by the Lord Christ of his undertaking, is their insufficiency during their continuance according to the law.

[3.] This revelation of the will of God made unto the church was actually true when it was made and given, or it was suited to lead them into a great mistake.

The mind of the Holy Ghost is plain enough, both in the testimony itself and in the improvement of it by the apostle. For the legal sacrifices are spoken of only with respect unto that end which the Lord Christ undertook to accomplish by his mediation. And this was the perfect, real expiation of sin, and the justification, sanctification, and eternal salvation of the church, with that perfect state of spiritual worship which was-ordained for it in this world. All these things these sacrifices were appointed to prefigure and represent. But the nature and design of this prefiguration being dark and obscure, and the things signified being utterly hid from them, as unto their especial nature and the manner of their efficacy, many in all ages of the church expected them from these sacrifices; and they had a great appearance of being divinely ordained unto that end and purpose. Wherefore this is that, and that alone, with respect whereunto they are here rejected. God never appointed them unto this end, he never took pleasure in them with reference hereunto; they were insufficient, in the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God, unto any such purpose. Wherefore the sense of God concerning them as unto this end, is, that they were not appointed, not approved, not accepted for it.

(2.) It may be inquired, how this mind and will of God concerning the refusal of these sacrifices unto this end might be known, so as that it should be here spoken of, as of a truth unquestionable in the church. For the words, Thou wouldest not, Thou tookest no pleasure, do not express a mere internal act of the divine will, but a declaration also of what is not well-pleasing unto God. How then was this declaration made? how came it to be known? I answer,

[1.] The words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, considered as to be incarnate for the redemption of the church. As such, he was always in the bosom of the Father, participant of his counsels, especially of those which concerned the church, the children of men, Pro 8:22-24, etc. He was therefore always acquainted with all the thoughts and counsels of God concerning the ways and means of the expiation of sin, and so declared what he knew.

[2.] As unto the penman of the psalm, the words were dictated unto him by immediate revelation: which if nothing had been spoken of it or intimated before, had been sufficient for the declaration of the will of God therein; for all revelations of that nature have a beginning when they were first made. But,

[3.] In, by, and together with the institution of all these legal sacrifices, God had from the beginning intimated unto the church that they were not the absolute, ultimate way for the expiation of sin, that he designed or would approve of. And this he did partly in the nature of the sacrifices themselves, which were no way competent or suited in themselves unto this end, it being impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin; partly in giving various intimations first, and then express declaration of his will, that they were only prescribed for a season, and that a time would come when their observance should utterly cease, which the apostle proves, chapters 7 and 8; and partly by evidencing that they were all but types and figures of good things to come, as we have at large declared. By these, and sundry other ways of the like kind, God had, in the institution and command of these sacrifices themselves, sufficiently manifested that he did neither design them, nor require them, nor approve of them, as unto this end of the expiation of sin. Wherefore there is in the words no new revelation absolutely, but only a more express declaration of that will and counsel of God which he had by various ways given intimation of before. And we may observe,

Obs. 3. No sacrifices of the law, not all of them together, were a means for the expiation of sin, suited unto the glory of God or necessities of the souls of men. From the first appointment of sacrifices, immediately after the entrance of sin and the giving of the promise, the observation of them in one kind or another spread itself over the whole earth. The Gentiles retained them by tradition, helped on by some conviction on a guilty conscience that by some way or other atonement must be made for sin. On the Jews they were imposed by law. There are no footsteps of light or testimony that those of the former sort, namely, the Gentiles, did ever retain any sense of the true reason and end of their original institution, and the practice of mankind thereon; which was only the confirmation of the first promise by a prefiguration of the means and way of its accomplishment. The church of Israel being carnal also, had very much lost the understanding and knowledge hereof. Hence both sorts looked for the real expiation of sin, the pardon of it, and the taking away of its punishment, by the offering of those sacrifices. As for the Gentiles, God suffered them to walk in their own ways, and winked at the time of their ignorance. But as unto the Jews, he had before variously intimated his mind concerning them, and at length by the mouth of David, in the person of Christ, absolutely declared their insufficiency, with his disapprobation of them, as unto the end which they in their minds applied them unto.

Obs. 4. Our utmost diligence, with the most sedulous improvement of the light and wisdom of faith, is necessary in our search into and inquiry after the mind and will of God, in the revelation he makes of them. The apostle in this epistle proves by all sorts of arguments, taken from the scriptures of the Old Testament, from many other things that God had done and spoken, and from the nature of these institutions themselves, as here also by the express words of the Holy Ghost, that these sacrifices of the law, which were of Gods own appointment, were never designed nor approved by him as the way and means of the eternal expiation of sin. And he doth not deal herein with these Hebrews on his apostolical authority, and by new evangelical revelation, as he did with the church of the Gentiles; but pleads the undeniable truth of what he asserts from those direct records and testimonies which themselves owned and embraced. Howbeit, although the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, were read unto them and among them continually, as they are unto this day, they neither understood nor do yet understand the things that are so plainly revealed in them. And as the great reason hereof is the veil of blindness and darkness that is on their minds, 2Co 3:13-14; so in all their search into the Scripture they are indeed supinely slothful and negligent. For they cleave alone unto the outward husk or shell of the letter, utterly despising the mysteries of truth contained therein. And so it is at present with the most of men, whose search into the mind of God, especially as unto what concerns his worship, keeps them in ignorance and contempt of it all their days.

Obs. 5. The constant use of sacrifices to signify those things which they could not effect or really exhibit unto the worshippers, was a great part of the bondage that the church was kept in under the old testament. And hereon, as those who were carnal bowed down their backs unto the burden, and their necks unto the yoke, so those who had received the Spirit of adoption, did continually pant and groan after the coming of him in and by whom all was to be fulfilled. So was the law their schoolmaster unto Christ.

Obs. 6. God may in his wisdom appoint and accept of ordinances and duties unto one end, which he will refuse and reject when they are applied unto another. So he doth plainly in these words those sacrifices which in other places he most strictly enjoins. How express, how multiplied are his commands for good works, and our abounding in them! yet when they are made the matter of our righteousness before him, they are as unto that end, namely, of our justification, rejected and disapproved.

Secondly, The first part of verse 5 declares the will of God concerning the sacrifices of the law. The latter contains the supply that God in his wisdom and grace made of the defect and insufficiency of these sacrifices. And this is not any thing that should help, assist, or make them effectual, but somewhat brought in, in opposition unto them, and for their removal. This he expresseth in the last clause of this verse: But a body hast thou prepared me. The adversative , but, declares that the way designed of God for this end was of another nature than those sacrifices were. But yet this way must be such as should not render those sacrifices utterly useless from their first institution; which would reflect on the wisdom of God by whom they were appointed. For if God did never approve of them, never delight in them, unto what end were they ordained? Wherefore, although the real way of the expiation of sin be in itself of another nature than those sacrifices were, yet was it such as those sacrifices were meet to prefigure and represent unto the faith of the church. The church was taught by them that without a sacrifice there could be no atonement made for sin; wherefore the way of our deliverance must be by a sacrifice. It is so,saith the Lord Christ; and therefore the first thing God did in the preparation of this new way, was the preparation of a body for me, which was to be offered in sacrifice.And in the antithesis, intimated in this adversative conjunction, respect is had unto the will of God. As sacrifices were that which he would not unto this end, so this preparation of the body of Christ was that which he would, which he delighted in and was well pleased withal. So the whole of the work of Christ and the effects of it are expressly referred unto this will of God, Heb 10:9-10.

And we must first speak unto the apostles rendering of these words out of the psalmist. They are in the original, , mine ears hast thou digged, bored, prepared. All sorts of critical writers and expositors have so labored in the resolution of this difficulty, that there is little to be added unto the industry of some, and it were endless to confute the mistakes of others. I shall therefore only speak briefly unto it, so as to manifest the oneness of the sense in both places. And some things must be premised thereunto:

1. That the reading of the words in the psalm is incorrupt, and they are the precise words of the Holy Ghost. Though of late years sundry persons have used an unwarrantable boldness in feigning various lections in the Hebrew text, yet none of any judgment has attempted to conjecture at any word that might be thought to be used in the room of any one of them. And as for those which some have thought the LXX. might possibly mistake, that signify a body, as , which sometimes signifies a body in the Chaldee dialect, or , there is in neither of them any the least analogy unto , so that they are ridiculously suggested.

2. It doth not seem probable unto me that the LXX. did ever translate these words as they are now extant in all the copies of that translation, . For,

(1.) It is not a translation of the original words, but an interpretation and exposition of the sense and meaning of them; which was no part of their design. (2.) If they made this exposition, they did so either by chance, as it were, or from a right understanding of the mystery contained in them. That they should be cast upon it by a mere conjecture, is altogether improbable; and that they understood the mystery couched in that metaphorical expression (without which no account can be given of the version of the words) will not be granted by them who know any thing of those translators or their translation.

(3.) There was of old a different reading in that translation. For instead of , a body, some copies have , the ears; which the Vulgar Latin follows: an evidence that a change had been made in that translation, to comply with the words used by the apostle.

8. The words, therefore, in this place are the words whereby the apostle expressed the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those used in the psalmist, or that which was intended in them. He did not take them from the translation of the LXX., but used them himself, to express the sense of the Hebrew text. For although we should not adhere precisely unto the opinion that all the quotations out of the Old Testament in the-New, which agree in words with the present translation of the LXX., were by the scribes of that translation transferred out of the New Testament into it, which yet is far more probable than the contrary opinion, that the words of the translation are made use of in the New Testament, even when they differ from the original, yet sundry things herein are certain and acknowledged; as,

(1.) That the penmen of the New Testament do not oblige themselves unto that translation, but in many places do precisely render the words of the original text, where that translation differs from it.

(2.) That they do oftentimes express the sense of the testimony which they quote in words of their own, neither agreeing with that translation nor exactly answering the original Hebrew.

(3.) That sundry passages have been unquestionably taken out of the New Testament, and inserted into that translation; which I have elsewhere proved by undeniable instances. And I no way doubt but it hath so fallen out in this place, where no account can be given of the translation of the LXX. as the words now are in it. Wherefore, 4. This is certain, that the sense intended by the psalmist and that expressed by the apostle are the same, or unto the same purpose. And their agreement is both plain and evident. That which is spoken of is an act of God the Father towards the Son. The end of it is, that the Son might be fit and meet to do the will of God in the way of obedience. So it is expressed in the text, Mine ears hast thou bored, or, A body hast thou prepared me …… Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. This is the sole end why God so acted towards him. What this was, is so expressed in the psalmist, Mine ears hast thou bored, with a double figure:

(1.) A metaphor from the ear, wherewith we hear the commands we are to obey. Obedience being our compliance with the outward commands of God, and the ear being the only means of our receiving those commands, there is nothing more frequent in the Scripture than to express obedience by hearing and hearkening, as is known. Wherefore the ascription of ears unto the Lord Christ by an act of God, is the preparation of such a state and nature for him as wherein he should be meet to yield obedience unto him.

(2.) By a synecdoche, wherein the part is put for the whole. In his divine nature alone it was impossible that the Lord Christ should come to do the will of God in the way whereby he was to do it. Wherefore God prepared another nature for him, which is expressed synecdochically, by the ears for the whole body; and that significantly, because as it is impossible that any one should have ears of any use but by virtue of his having a body, so the ears are that part of the body by which alone instruction unto obedience, the thing aimed at, is received. This is that which is directly expressed of Isa 50:4-5, He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious; or, I was obedient.And so it is all one in what sense you take the word ; whether in the more common and usual, to dig or bore, or in that whereunto it is sometimes applied, to fit and perfect. For I do not judge there is any allusion in the expression unto the law of boring the ear of the servant that refused to make use of his liberty at the year of release. Nor is the word used in that case , but , Exo 21:6. But it respects the framing of the organ of hearing, which is as it were bored; and the internal sense, in readiness unto obedience, is expressed by the framing of the outward instrument of hearing, that we may learn to obey thereby. Wherefore this is, and no other can be, the sense of the words in the psalmist, namely, that God the Father did so order things towards Jesus Christ, that he should have a nature wherein he might be free and able to yield obedience unto the will of God; with an intimation of the quality of it, in having ears to hear, which belong only unto a body.

This sense the apostle expresseth in more plain terms now, after the accomplishment of what before was only declared in prophecy; and thereby the veil which was upon divine revelations under the old testament is taken away.

There is therefore nothing remaining but that we give an exposition of these words of the apostle, as they contain the sense of the Holy Ghost in the psalm. And two things we must inquire into:

1. What is meant by this body.

2. How God prepared it.

1. A body is here a synecdochical expression of the human nature of Christ. So is the flesh taken, where he is said to be made flesh; and the flesh and blood whereof he was partaker. For the general end of his having this body was, that he might therein and thereby yield obedience, or do the will of God; and the especial end of it was, that he might have somewhat to offer in sacrifice unto God. But neither of these can be confined unto his body alone. For it is the soul, the other essential part of human nature, that is the principle of obedience. Nor was the body of Christ alone offered in sacrifice unto God. He made his soul an offering for sin, Isa 53:10; which was typified by the life that was in the blood of the sacrifice. Wherefore it is said that he offered himself unto God, Heb 9:14, Eph 5:2; that is, his whole entire human nature, soul and body, in their substance, in all their faculties and powers. But the apostle both here and verse 10 mentions only the body itself, for the reasons ensuing:

(1.) To manifest that this offering of Christ was to be by death, as was that of the sacrifices of old; and this the body alone was subject unto.

(2.) Because, as the covenant was to be confirmed by this offering, it was to be by blood, which is contained in the body alone, and the separation of it from the body carries the life along with it.

(3.) To testify that his sacrifice was visible and substantial; not an outward appearance of things, as some have fancied, but such as truly answered the real bloody sacrifices of the law.

(4.) To show the alliance and cognation between him that sanctifieth by his offering, and them that are sanctified thereby: or that because the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also took part of the same, that he might taste of death for them. For these and the like reasons doth the apostle mention the human nature of Christ under the name of a body only, as also to comply with the figurative expression of it in the psalm. And they do what lies in them to overthrow the principal foundation of the faith of the church, who would wrest these words unto a new ethereal body given him after his ascension, as do the Socinians.

2. Concerning this body, it is affirmed that God prepared it for him, Thou hast prepared for me: that is, God hath done it, even God the Father; for unto him are these words spoken, I come to do thy will, O God; a body hast thou prepared me. The coming of Christ, the Son of God, into the world, his coming in the flesh by the assuming of our nature, was the effect of the mutual counsel of the Father and the Son. The Father proposed to him what was his will, what was his design, what he would have done. This proposal is here repeated, as unto what was negative in it, which includes the opposite positive: Sacrifices and burnt-offerings thou wouldest not have; but that which he would, was the obedience of the Son unto his will. This proposal the Son closeth withal: Lo, saith he, I come. But all things being originally in the hand of the Father, the provision of things necessary unto the fulfilling of the will of God is left unto him. Among those the principal was, that the Son should have a body prepared for him, that so he might have somewhat of his own to offer.

Wherefore the preparation of it is in a peculiar manner assigned unto the Father: A body hast thou prepared me. And we may observe, that,

Obs. 7. The supreme contrivance of the salvation of the church is in a peculiar manner ascribed unto the person of the Father. His will, his grace, his wisdom, his good pleasure, the purpose that he purposed in himself, his love, his sending of his Son, are everywhere proposed as the eternal springs of all acts of power, grace and goodness, tending unto the salvation of the church. And therefore doth the Lord Christ on all occasions declare that he came to do his will, to seek his glory, to make known his name, that the praise of his grace might be exalted. And we through Christ do believe in God, even the Father, when we assign unto him the glory of all the holy properties of his nature, as acting originally in the contrivance and for the effecting of our salvation.

Obs. 8. The furniture of the Lord Christ (though he was the Son, and in his divine person the Lord of all) unto the discharge of his work of mediation was the peculiar act of the Father. He prepared him a body; he anointed him with the Spirit; it pleased him that all fullness should dwell in him. From him he received all grace, power, consolation. Although the human nature was the nature of the Son of God, not of the Father, (a body prepared for him, not for the Father,) yet was it the Father who prepared that nature, who filled it with grace, who strengthened, acted, and supported it in its whole course of obedience.

Obs. 9. Whatever God designs, appoints, and calls any unto, he will provide for them all that is needful unto the duties of obedience whereunto they are so appointed and called. As he prepared a body for Christ, so he will provide gifts, abilities, and faculties suitable unto their work, for those whom he calleth unto it. Others must provide as well as they can for themselves.

But we must yet inquire more particularly into the nature of this preparation of the body of Christ, here ascribed unto the Father. And it may he considered two ways:

(1.) In the designation and contrivance of it. So preparation is sometimes used for predestination, or the resolution for the effecting any thing that is future in its proper season, Isa 30:33; Mat 20:33; Rom 9:23; 1Co 2:9. In this sense of the word God had prepared a body for Christ; he had in the eternal counsel of his will determined that he should have it in the appointed time. So he was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for us, 1Pe 1:20.

(2.) In the actual effecting, ordering, and creating of it, that it might be fitted and suited unto the work that it was ordained unto.

In the former sense the body itself is alone the object of this preparation. A body hast thou prepared me; that is, designed for me.The latter sense compriseth the use of the body also; it is fitted for its work. This latter sense it is that is proper unto this place; only it is spoken of by the psalmist in a prophetical style, wherein things certainly future are expressed as already, performed. For the word signifies such a preparation as whereby it is made actually fit and meet for the end it is designed unto. And therefore it is variously rendered, to fit, to adapt, to perfect, to adorn, to make meet, with respect unto some especial end. Thou hast adapted a body unto my work; fitted and suited a human nature unto that I have to perform in it and by it.A body it must be; yet not every body, nay, not any body brought forth by carnal generation, according to the course of nature, could effect or was fit for the work designed unto it. But God prepared, provided such a body for Christ, as was fitted and adapted unto all that he had to do in it. And this especial manner of its preparation was an act of infinite wisdom and grace. Some instances thereof may be mentioned; as,

[1.] He prepared him such a body, such a human nature, as might be of the same nature with ours, for whom he was to accomplish his work therein. For it was necessary that it should be cognate and allied unto ours, that he might be meet to act on our behalf, and to suffer in our stead. He did not form him a body out of the dust of the earth, as he did that of Adam, whereby he could not have been of the same race of mankind with us; nor merely out of nothing, as he created the angels, whom he was not to save. See Heb 2:14-16, and the exposition thereon. He took our flesh and blood, proceeding from the loins of Abraham.

[2.] He so prepared it as that it should be no way subject unto that depravation and pollution that came on our whole nature by sin. This could not have been done had his body been prepared by carnal generation, the way and means of conveying the taint of original sin which befell our nature, unto all individual persons; for this would have rendered him every way unmeet for his whole work of mediation. See Luk 1:35; Heb 7:26.

[3.] He prepared him a body consisting of flesh and blood, which might be offered as a real substantial sacrifice, and wherein he might suffer for sin, in his offering to make atonement for it. Nor could the sacrifices of old, which were real, bloody, and substantial, prefigure that which should be only metaphorical and in appearance. The whole evidence of the wisdom of God in the institution of the sacrifices of the law depends on this, that Christ was to have a body consisting of flesh and blood, wherein he might answer all that was prefigured by them.

[4.] It was such a body as was animated with a living, rational soul. Had it been only a body, it might have suffered as did the beasts under the law, from which no act of obedience was required, only they were to suffer what was done unto them. But in the sacrifice of the body of Christ, that which was principally respected, and whereon the whole efficacy of it did depend, was his obedience unto God. For he was not to be offered by others, but he was to offer himself, in obedience unto the will of God, Heb 9:14; Eph 5:2. And the principles of all obedience lie alone in the powers and faculties of the rational soul.

[5.] This body and soul were obnoxious unto all the sorrows and sufferings which our nature is liable unto, and we had deserved, as they were penal, tending unto death. Hence was he meet to suffer in our stead the same things which we should have done. Had they been exempted by special privilege from what our nature is liable unto, the whole work of our redemption by his blood had been frustrated.

[6.] This body or human nature, thus prepared for Christ, was exposed unto all sorts of temptations from outward causes. But yet it was so sanctified by the perfection of grace, and fortified by the fullness of the Spirit dwelling therein, as that it was not possible it should be touched with the least taint or guilt of sin. And this also was absolutely necessary unto the work whereunto it was designed, 1Pe 2:22; Heb 7:26.

[7.] This body was liable unto death; which being the sentence and sanction of the law with respect unto the first and all following sins, (all and every one of them,) was to be undergone actually by him who was to be our deliverer, Heb 2:14-15. Had it not died, death would have borne rule over all unto eternity; but in the death thereof it was swallowed up in victory, 1Co 15:55-57.

[8.] As it was subject unto death, and died actually, so it was meet to be raised again from death. And herein consisted the great pledge and evidence that our dead bodies may be and shall be raised again unto a blessed immortality. So it became the foundation of all our faith, as unto things eternal, 1Co 15:17-23.

[9.] This body and soul being capable of a real separation, and being actually separated by death, though not for any long continuance, yet no less truly and really than they who have been dead a thousand years, a demonstration was given therein of an active subsistence of the soul in a state of separation from the body. As it was with the soul of Christ when he was dead, so shall it be with our souls in the same state. He was alive with God and unto God when his body was in the grave; and so shall our souls be.

[10.] This body was visibly taken up into heaven, and there resides; which, considering the ends thereof, is the great encouragement of faith, and the life of our hope.

These are but some of the many instances that may be given of the divine wisdom in so preparing a body for Christ as that it might be fitted and adapted unto the work which he had to do therein. And we may observe, that,

Obs. 10. Not only the love and grace of God in sending his Son are continually to be admired and glorified, but the acting of this infinite wisdom in fitting and preparing his human nature so as to render it every way meet unto the work which it was designed for, ought to be the especial object of our holy contemplation. But having treated hereof distinctly in a peculiar discourse unto that purpose, I shall not here again insist upon it.

The last thing observable in this verse is, that this preparation of the body of Christ is ascribed unto God, even the Father, unto whom he speaks these words, A body hast thou prepared me. As unto the operation in the production of the substance of it, and the forming its structure, it was the peculiar and immediate work of the Holy Ghost, Luk 1:35. This work I have at large elsewhere declared.[5] Wherefore it is an article of faith, that the formation of the human nature of Christ in the womb of the Virgin was the peculiar act of the Holy Ghost. The holy taking of this nature unto himself, the assumption of it to be his own nature by a subsistence in his person, the divine nature assuming the human in the person of the Son, was his own act alone. Yet was the preparation of this body the work of the Father in a peculiar manner; it was so in the infinitely wise, authoritative contrivance and ordering of it, his counsel and will therein being acted by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost. The Father prepared it in the authoritative disposition of all things; the Holy Ghost actually wrought it; and he himself assumed it. There was no distinction of time in these distinct actings of the holy persons of the Trinity in this matter, but only a disposition of order in their operation. For in the same instant of time, this body was prepared by the Father, wrought by the Holy Ghost, and assumed by himself to be his own. And the actings of the distinct persons being all the actings of the same divine nature, understanding, love, and power, they differ not fundamentally and radically, but only terminatively, with respect unto the work wrought and effected. And we may observe, that,

[5] On the Holy Spirit, miscellaneous works, vol. 3, b. 2, ch. 3,4. Ed.

Obs. 11. The ineffable but yet distinct operations of the Father, Son, and Spirit, in, about, and towards the human nature assumed by the Son, are, as an uncontrollable evidence of their distinct subsistence in the same individual divine essence, so a guidance unto faith as unto all their distinct actings towards us in the application of the work of redemption unto our souls. For their actings towards the members is in all things conform unto their actings towards the Head; and our faith is to be directed towards them according as they act their love and grace distinctly towards us.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

A Body Hast Thou Prepared Me

If the Son of God would be our Redeemer and Savior, it was necessary for him to become one with us one of us, God in our nature, Immanuel. — Therefore, in order to redeem and save his people, a body was prepared for him.

It was not necessary for the Lord of glory to redeem and save anyone. The Triune God is independent and self-sufficient. He does not need us! There is nothing man could do to cause God to save him. But, having purposed to be gracious, having purposed to save a people for the glory of his name, the only way it could be done was for God himself to take humanity into union with himself (Heb. 216-17).

“Wherefore” — Because there was no other way of atonement whereby God could be both a just God and a Savior, whereby he could both forgive our sins and satisfy his own holy law and justice, — “when he cometh into the world,” — At that precise moment in time when the Son of God entered into Mary’s virgin womb, as he was entering that holy thing prepared in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, — “he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,” — Because no sacrifice would do but the sacrifice of one who is both God and man in one glorious being, — “but” — because God found a way to save sinners in the person of his own dear Son, — “a body hast thou prepared me.” Because it pleased God, the great, glorious, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to make an external manifestation of his divine glory, a body was prepared for his Son in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, a body which our blessed Savior gladly took into indissolvable union with himself (1Ti 3:16).

This is, indeed, the great mystery of godliness — God was manifest in human flesh! As we consider this great mystery, the mystery of the incarnate God, let us do so with reverent, believing hearts. If Moses, when he stood before the burning bush, was required to take off his polluted shoes, how much more must we, as we stand before the incarnate God (of whom the burning bush was but a type), take off the polluted shoes of carnal curiosity, speculation, and reason! We must stand here, upon this holy ground, upon the bare feet of reverence and faith.

J. C. Philpot wrote, “The sacred humanity of the blessed Lord consists of a perfect human body and a perfect human soul, taken at one and the same instant in the womb of the virgin Mary, under the overshadowing operation and influence of the Holy Ghost.” That is precisely the meaning of the angel’s message to Mary. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luk 1:35).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

body

Cf Psa 40:6 the rule, applicable to all modifications of the modifications of the form of quotations in the N.T. from the O.T. writings, is that the divine Author of both Testaments is perfectly free, in using an earlier statement, to recast the mere literary form of it. the variant form will be found invariably to give the deeper meaning of the earlier statement.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

when: Heb 10:7, Heb 1:6, Mat 11:3, Luk 7:19,*Gr.

Sacrifice: Psa 40:6-8, Psa 50:8-23, Isa 1:11, Jer 6:20, Amo 5:21, Amo 5:22

but: Heb 10:10, Heb 2:14, Heb 8:3, Gen 3:15, Isa 7:14, Jer 31:22, Mat 1:20-23, Luk 1:35, Joh 1:14, Gal 4:4, 1Ti 3:16, 1Jo 4:2, 1Jo 4:3, 2Jo 1:7

hast thou prepared me: or, thou hast fitted me

Reciprocal: Exo 24:8 – Behold Lev 16:5 – General Psa 51:16 – delightest Isa 40:16 – nor Isa 50:5 – General Zec 13:7 – smite Mat 1:18 – of the Joh 6:51 – my flesh Joh 8:29 – for Joh 12:27 – but Joh 14:31 – that the Joh 15:10 – even Joh 16:10 – righteousness Joh 17:19 – I sanctify Heb 2:9 – Jesus Heb 5:8 – yet Heb 12:2 – endured

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Heb 10:5. The two pronouns he and the one me refer to Christ, and the two pronouns thou stand for God. When Christ was ready to come into the world He knew it was to fulfill the promise made to Abraham (Gal 3:16-19), also that He was to make of himself a sacrifice to replace the animal sacrifices of the old law. Yes, Christ existed before he was born of the virgin (Joh 8:58), and hence when God made the promise to Abraham, He made it also to Christ. (See the passages in Galatians referred to above.) The coming of Christ into the world by way of the virgin birth was therefore voluntary on His part, in the spirit of obedience to his Father. He also knew that a spiritual body could not die, and hence that a fleshly body would be needed. That is why it was said that God had prepared a body for Him, to be produced within the fleshly body of the virgin and consisting of one that could be made to die.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 10:5. Wherefore, let me describe, says the writer, in O. T. language, the voluntary offering of Christ and His setting aside of the offerings of the lawwhen coming into the worldthe incarnate Messiah, to do the will of His Fatherhe saith, Sacrifice (victim) and offering (gift) thou desiredst not. This language and the language of Heb 10:6 has created difficulty. All these offerings were commanded, and were offered according to the Law (Heb 10:8). Why then did not God desire them? or find pleasure in them? When offered indeed in hypocrisy, to the neglect of moral obedience, or when trusted in for righteousness and acceptance, they were, as we know, rejected. But these reasons are not assigned here. The explanation, therefore, is to be sought elsewhere. It is of atonement for sin the writer is speaking. In sacrifice or mere suffering God cannot delight, and if it is spiritually powerless, insufficient to atone for sin, it is useless, and may even be worse than useless. In whole burnt-offerings (see Lev 1:16, Lev. 1:27), in sacrifices for sin of whatever kind (sin-offerings, Lev 4:3; Lev 4:20, etc.; trespass-offerings, Lev 5:15; peace-offerings, Leviticus 3; Lev 7:11-23), God had no pleasure, because none, no one, nor all combined, were an adequate propitiation. But when Christ came in the body which the Father had prepared, and to offer the sacrifice of Himself, the Father declared that in Him at every stage He was well pleased (Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5); and so because of His obedience unto death, He became Lord over all. The clause, a body hast Thou prepared for me, has created difficulty. The present Hebrew text is, My ears hast Thou opened or pierced. The rendering pierced is supposed to refer to the man who became a life-long servant under the circumstances described in Exo 21:6, etc.; but this view is not favoured by the plural form my ears, nor is the Hebrew word here used, the usual word for piercing. My ears hast Thou opened is therefore the better rendering, describing as it does hearty and devoted obedience, as in Isa 1:5. It is not easy to explain the change in the Septuagint. Perhaps the Greek text better represents to a Greek reader the general sense. Perhaps there has been confusion in copying Greek MSS., or possibly some later alteration of the Hebrew. Each theory has its advocates.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle having showed the weakness and insufficiency of the Levitical sacrifices in the former verses, he comes now to declare the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, and of his blessed undertaking, to do, fulfil, perform, and suffer all things required by the will and wisdom, by the holiness and righteousness of God, unto the complete salvation of the church. And this he doth by a quotation out of the Old Testament, Psa 40:6-8. Where Christ is brought in, as newly made man, speaking to his Father, in and after this manner:

“Forasmuch as thy wisdom did institute, and formerly appoint sacrifices, as types to prefigure the sacrifice of thy Son, but thou didst not intend their longer continuance, when he shold once be offered up; persuant to this holy will and pleasure of thine, I am now come into the world: Thou hast prepared me a body, and holy and innocent human nature, fit to be united to my glorious Godhead, in which nature I will suffer, and, by my sufferings, satisfy thy justice for sin; and, by the sufficiency of my sacrifice, put a period to all the Levitical sacrifces that did precede me, and prefigure me.”

Learn hence, 1. That in the fulness of God’s appointed time, Christ came into the world to accomplish that which the Levitical sacrfices did only prefigure, but could not effectuate.

2. That in order thereunto, Christ did assume the human nature, and offered in himself that nature willingly to his Father, as a sacrifice to atone divine displeasure.

3. That by this one sacrifice and oblation of Christ, which he performed in obedience to the will of God, all that believe in him are justified and saved, do obtain remission of sin, grace here, and glory hereafter; By which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Christ, the Better Sacrifice

Since Christ, the better sacrifice, was needed to cleanse man, He came into the world saying the words of Psa 49:6-8 . David recognized burnt offerings did not fulfill his needs. Milligan notes the exact quotation in the King James Version had the words, “ears hast thou digged out for me.” It means He was made a fit servant, as Exo 21:5-6 indicates. For Christ to be a fit servant, He had to have a body to offer as His sacrifice. Thus, our reading, “a body You have prepared for Me.” The great weakness of burnt offerings and sacrifices was that God had no pleasure in them. Milligan and Delitzsch agree David spoke “from the very soul of the Antitype,” that is Christ himself, when he said he came to do God’s will. The Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible, are the volume of the book which spoke of Christ.

God did not want sacrifices instead of obedience to His will ( 1Sa 15:22 ). So Christ came to do His will in sacrificing Himself. In contrast to the sacrifices of the old law, Christ could fulfill the will of God. It was for this cause that Christ did away with the old law and established the new. It is this second, or new, law which is the will of God. By it we are sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. This sacrifice completed the job of sanctification “once for all” ( Heb 10:5-10 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Heb 10:5-10. Wherefore As if he had said, Because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins, therefore Christ offered himself as a sacrifice to do it. When he cometh into the world That is, when the Messiah is described by David as making his entrance into the world; he saith He is represented by that inspired writer as saying, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not Accept for a sufficient expiation and full satisfaction for sin; but thou hast provided something of another nature for this purpose; thou hast given me a body Miraculously formed, and qualified to be an expiatory sacrifice for sin. The words, a body hast thou prepared me, are the translation of the LXX.; but in the Hebrew it is, Mine ears hast thou opened, or bored; an expression which signifies, I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as thy servant, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears. So that, though the words of the translation of the LXX., here used by the apostle, are not the same with those signified by the original Hebrew, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to which they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared, to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signified. How far the rest of the psalm is applicable to Christ, see the notes there. Then, &c. That is, when the way appointed for the expiation of sin was not perfectly available for that purpose; I said, Lo, I come To make expiation; in the volume of the book That is, according to what is foretold of me in Scripture, even in this very psalm; to do thy will, O God To suffer whatsoever thy justice shall require of me in order to the making of a complete atonement. Above when he said That is, when the psalmist pronounced those words in his name; Sacrifice, &c., thou wouldest not Or thou hast not chosen; then said he In that very instant he subjoined; Lo, I come to do thy will

By offering myself a sacrifice for sin. He taketh away the first, &c. That is, by this very act he taketh away the legal, that he may establish the evangelical, dispensation. By which will Namely, that he should become a sacrifice; we Believers under the gospel; are sanctified Are both delivered from the guilt of sin, and dedicated to God in heart and life; yea, are conformed to his image, and made truly holy; through the offering of the body of Christ Which, while it expiates our sins, procures for us the sanctifying Spirit of God, and lays us under an indispensable obligation to die to those sins, the guilt of which required such an expiation, and to live to him who made it. Here we learn it was by the express will of God that the sacrifice of Christ was appointed a propitiation for the sins of mankind; and it must ever be remembered, that the will of God is the true foundation on which any atonement of sin can be established. Wherefore, since the death of Christ is by God made the propitiation for mens sins, it rests on the foundation of his will, secure from all the objections raised against it, either by erring Christians or by obstinate infidels, on account of our not being able to explain the reasons which determined God to save sinners in that method, rather than in any other.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 5

When he cometh; when Christ cometh. The quotation extending from Hebrews 10:5-7, is from Hebrews 10:5-7; Psalms 40:6-8.–Wouldst not; didst not desire.–But a body, &c. The corresponding expression in the original is, “Mine ears hast thou opened.” It stands, however, as the writer has quoted it, in the Septuagint, a Greek version of the Old Testament, which was in common use in Paul’s day. The circumstance of the writer’s having followed in this, and in many other cases, the translation instead of the original, has given rise to much discussion.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

10:5 {2} Wherefore when he {b} cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a {c} body hast thou prepared me:

(2) A conclusion following those things that went before, and encompassing also the other sacrifices. Seeing that the sacrifices of the law could not do it, therefore Christ speaking of himself as of our High Priest manifested in the flesh, witnesses plainly that God rests not in the sacrifices, but in the obedience of his Son our High Priest, in whose obedience he offered up himself once to his Father for us.

(b) The Son of God is said to come into the world, when he was made man.

(c) It is word for word in the Hebrew text, “You have pierced my ears through” that is, “you have made me obedient and willing to hear”.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

This biblical writer liked to clinch his argument by appealing to Scripture.

"His argument up till now has been the negative one that the animal sacrifices of the old covenant were unavailing. Now he says positively that Christ’s sacrifice, which established the new covenant, was effectual. It really put away sin. And it was foreshadowed in the same passage from Jeremiah." [Note: Morris, p. 97.]

The passage he quoted first (Psa 40:6-8) expresses Messiah’s commitment to offer His body as a sacrifice to God (at His first advent) because animal sacrifices of all types were inadequate. God’s will was the perfection (i.e., thorough cleansing) of believers. Jesus was not some dumb animal that offered its life unthinkingly. He consciously and deliberately offered His life in obedience to God’s will.

"The psalmist’s words, ’Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God,’ sum up the whole tenor of our Lord’s life and ministry, and express the essence of that true sacrifice which God desires." [Note: Bruce, The Epistle . . ., p. 234.]

The "role of the book" is the written instruction (torah) of God. Throughout the Old Testament the prophets presented Messiah as committed to doing God’s will completely.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)