as the factor to enact God’s New Testament economy, Christ replaced all the sacrifices with Himself

Christ is the Factor to Enact God’s New Testament Economy – He came as God incarnated in the flesh to replace all the offerings and sacrifices with Himself.

Psalm 40 is being explained and interpreted by the apostle Paul in Hebrews 10, and we can clearly see that God’s will is to replace all the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings with Christ! Christ is the unique replacement and the unique sacrifice! Psa. 40:6-8 says,

You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; You have prepared ears for Me; You do not require burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said, Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written concerning Me. I delight in doing Your will, O My God; indeed Your law is within My inward parts.

Christ replaces the Old Testament sacrifices

In the Old Testament God had an economy – the old testament economy of God – in which God’s people had to offer all kinds of sacrifices to God in order to be acceptable to God. But in the verses in Psalm 40 above we clearly see that there was a prophecy – a time will come when God will no longer delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings, but there will be a Person who comes to do God’s will! When Christ came, He replaced all the Old Testament sacrifices.

When the Lord Jesus came, the New Testament Economy of God began – and the first thing in God’s New Testament Economy is that Christ replaces all the sacrifices and offerings with Himself! Christ is the real sacrifice and the living sacrifice – He offered Himself on the cross as the reality of all the offerings.

Now in God’s New Testament Economy we no longer need to offer animal sacrifices – Christ is the reality of the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering.

Christ did God’s will in His incarnation

According to the context here, what does it mean when the Lord Jesus says, I delight in doing Your will? This will is not God’s will for the little decisions in our daily life, nor is it the will for the big events or decisions in our life.

No, this is God’s will that Christ would replace anything of the Old Testament ordinances, the law, the commandments, and the sacrifices, and would establish a new covenant between His people and Himself. This is what the Lord Jesus did: He fulfilled all the Old Testament types and replaced them with Himself.

We need to give up anything of the old covenant, anything of the Old Testament economy of God, and hang on to Christ! According to Psalm 40 (as a prophecy) and Hebrews 10 (as the proper interpretation) we can clearly see that God rejects and dismisses anything of the old covenant and has a new covenant, the New Testament, wherein Christ is everything.

Christ is the real law, Christ is the sacrifices, Christ is any ordinance, and Christ is the way for us to contact God and be one with God! Hear Him! Love Him! Enjoy Him! He enacted the New Testament economy of God – now we have only Christ as everything!

Now in Christ we are new!

Praise the Lord – everything of the old is gone, now everything is new! God is new, Christ is new, and we are the new creation! In His incarnation and His death Christ replaced everything of the old – including the old creation – with Himself, the new and living One! In Psalm 2, Psalm 8, Psalm 16, Psalm 22-24 we can see what kind of Christ we have in His incarnation – He came to carry out God’s will and His commission to terminate the old and bring in the new creation. We were included in the old creation terminated and germinated by Him! In Christ we are no longer old – we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

[sharing inspired from the life-study of Psalms and the life-study of Hebrews (both by brother Witness Lee) as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (1). Picture: a lake in Scotland. Intro: Christ is the factor to enact God’s NT Economy]

Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy You as the reality of all the offerings. You are the One who does God’s will to replace the old testament and the sacrifices, the law, and the ordinances – with Yourself! Lord, we praise You – in Christ we are a new creation! Now everything of the old is gone – behold, they have become new! We also want to forsake anything of the old, Lord, and enjoy You as the new and living One!