God prepared a body for Christ to come to do God’s will to be God’s unique sacrifice on the cross

The verses in Psa. 40:6-8 are very crucial – they are one of the greatest prophecies concerning Christ and His work on earth. In Hebrews 10:8-9 Paul partially quotes these verses and offers the interpretation and application of these verses to the person and work of Christ,

Saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not desire nor delight in” (which are offered according to the law), He then has said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

Christ takes away the first and establishes the second

What is “the first” and what is “the second” in this verse? The first here refers to the first covenant, the old covenant, with all its sacrifices and offerings; the second refers to the second covenant, the new covenant, with Christ as the unique sacrifice. Even in the time of the disciples, most Jews worshipped God according to His revelation in the Old Testament, which was the Word of God at that time. Therefore, there was the need for a CHANGE from the old to the new covenant!

God commissioned Christ in His incarnation to come and put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and to establish Himself – His own body – as the unique sacrifice of the new covenant! This is what the Lord Jesus did – He came to terminate God’s Old Testament economy and to initiate God’s New Testament economy! Today we don’t need to offer sacrifices – we can offer Christ as the Unique Sacrifice acceptable to God!

You have prepared ears for Me

Psalm 40:6 says, “You have prepared ears for Me”, and this was quoted in Hebrews 10:5 as, “a body You have prepared for Me”. Christ came as God’s slave, having His ears prepared by God to listen to God – He had His ears bore as a slave (Exo. 21:6), He was obedient to God even unto death. First of all, God prepared a body for Christ, so that Christ would come and carry out God’s commission to die on the cross and replace the old covenant with the new covenant in His blood.

Christ was obedient to God even unto death, and that the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). Christ did the will of God as prophesied in the Old Testament and as God Himself wanted – He became a man, lived a perfect human life, died an all-inclusive and all-terminating death on the cross, and He resurrected to be the life-giving Spirit. In His death especially Christ terminated the old testament economy of God and established God’s New Testament economy where Christ is everything: He is the sacrifices, He is the offerings, He is the unique way for us to contact and enjoy God!

In the scroll of the book it is written concerning Me

Christ was prophesied in the Scriptures – in the Old Testament – and He came to do God’s will for the accomplishing of His New Testament economy, according to all that was prophesied concerning Him! You can truly see that God is the One who inspired those who wrote the Bible – Christ fulfilled the prophecies written concerning Him more than 1500 years earlier! It wasn’t that He tried His best to remember the prophecy and fulfill it; rather, in His living, His death, and His resurrection, Christ simply fulfilled all the prophecies concerning Him!

In the scroll of the book – in the Old Testament – it was written concerning Christ; in the Gospels and in the New Testament, Christ came and accomplished all the prophecies about His first coming! In Luke 24:24-27 He told His disciples on the way to Emmaus that all the things written concerning Him in the law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled! We need the Lord to open our mind – just as He did with His disciples – that we may understand the Scriptures and appreciate Him more!

[sharing inspired from the life-study of the Psalms and the life-study of Hebrews (by brother Witness Lee), as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (1);.Picture: somewhere in Scotland after the rain. Intro: Behold, I have come to do Your will]

Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for Your incarnation and Your death on the cross for us. Thank You for being the unique replacement for anything else – You are the unique sacrifice for bringing us to God and making us one with God! Lord, how we appreciate Your perfect obedience of the Father’s will! You were obedient unto death – and that the death of the cross…. O, Lord, we come to God the Father through You!