Hebrews 10:5-10: Lo, I Come to Do Thy Will, O God
2023-04-15
This section supports the previous statement that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Paul used Psalm 40:6-8 as support for this. We will look at the Hebrews passage first and then the Psalm 40 in context.
Hebrews 10:5
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world...” refers to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, or His first coming. He came on a very specific mission, and He states what it is here.
“Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not...” Bluntly, God did not want sacrifice and offering. He did not desire it. Part of it is that Jesus did not need any sacrifice for Himself; He is eternally sinless. But Jesus could not bring those sacrifices under the Law because, as we saw earlier, they do not offer any real forgiveness for sins or provide any change to the human condition. God did not desire more of the same from Christ. He was to offer something entirely different.
“...but a body hast thou prepared me...” Jesus was the sacrifice. This is a reference to Jesus’ literal incarnation. A Spirit cannot be a sacrifice. Jesus had to assume human flesh to be that sacrifice. By implication, this is what God really wanted: a sacrifice that would actually effect forgiveness of sins and a change in the human condition.
This phrase is stated in Psalm 40:6 as “mine ears hast thou opened.” We’ll look at that shortly.
Hebrews 10:6-7
“In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure...” Here, we have a reiteration of Hebrews 10:5. They did not permanently please God.
“Then said I, Lo, I come... to do thy will, O God” There is a parallelism here between verses 5 and 6-7. The old sacrificial system was not sufficient, but Christ came to do what was sufficient. It was God’s will for Jesus Christ to enter the human experience and be the sacrifice that nothing else could be. He did what no person could do. It was the will of God to put an end to sin forever. It could only be done with the blood of Christ.
“...in the volume of the book it is written of me...” This parenthetical statement talks about a certain book that records this work of Christ. In history, being that this is quoting David in the book of Psalms, we would think it would be the Law or some early prophets, which is true. However, this is the whole Bible. The written Word and Jesus as the Word are one in the same. The story of the incarnate Word is told in the written Word. To know His eternally written story is to know the incarnate Word. You cannot divide them. Jesus Christ is foreshadowed and prefigured throughout the entire Old Testament and is explicitly described in the New Testament.
Hebrews 10:8-9
The sacrifice, offering, burnt offering, and sacrifices for sin are the four components of the Hebrews 10:5b and Hebrews 10:6. These are all components found in the Old Testament Law, in which God neither desired nor was pleased. It was after this that Jesus said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” The purpose of Paul using this passage was to demonstrate by the Old Testament that the Law was insufficient to please God and appease His wrath against sin. Jesus came after the Law to do what it could not do. The book of the Law itself testifies of the Savior’s coming by both being a shadow of heavenly things and overtly stating the coming of a virgin-born Savior to defeat Satan, the prophet like Moses, and a Star that would defeat the Lord’s enemies. God the Father had desire for what Jesus offered and had pleasure in what Jesus did.
Let us consider the original context of the passage: Psalm 40. We will consider the first 10 verses.
Psalm 40:1-2
Here, we see that human author of this psalm is David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). Our Lord and Savior’s life parallels much of David’s life, and we see that here in this psalm. We will focus more on this fulfillment.
The Lord cried out to God in His agony on the cross. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The people slew Him, and He went down into the horrible pit, the center of the earth, and the Father brought Him back again. He gave Him all power over all things.
Psalm 40:3-5
Here, we see that the new song is praise. The risen Christ caused others to fear and trust in God and turn from all else. The same person who trusts in Him will be blessed. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). This is a miraculous work of God in His people.
Psalm 40:6-8
These are our verses of interest. A key difference is this: “mine ears hast thou opened” (Psalm 40:6) versus “but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5). Elsewhere, the concept of opening ears is enabling one to be able to hear, and by extension, opening understanding.
Elihu uses this concept this way. “Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction” (Job 33:16). The young man also uses it to describe deliverance. “He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression” (Job 36:15).
Isaiah uses it so that open ears hear, but do not necessarily understand. “Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not” (Isaiah 42:20).
When Jesus healed a deaf man, Mark said that his ears were opened. “And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain” (Mark 7:35).
Peter uses it to show how open ears listen and respond. “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter 3:12).
When applying this passage to Jesus Christ, we all know that Jesus is God. He did not need His understanding opened. The fact that He had a body is inferred from the passage; His rising from the pit in Psalm 40:2 makes this clear. The best way to interpret this was that Jesus knew from the beginning that He came to earth to die and to rise again. It was the whole purpose of His coming to earth. The Father told Him this was His mission, and He did it. Jesus listened, He understood, and He responded. Clearly from this passage Jesus came to replace the endless sacrifices that God was not satisfied with.
Psalm 40:9-10
Jesus’ resurrection is proclaimed to all publicly worldwide. This is reminiscent of the praise portion of Psalm 22: “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (Psalms 22:22).
We now return to Hebrews 10:10.
Hebrews 10:10
Now that the Law’s sacrifices were taken away in favor of Christ’s once for all sacrifice, we are “sanctified... once for all.” This is past tense. We are sanctified by Jesus’ sacrifice in the past one time, not to be sanctified again.
Let us consider theological jargon a little bit:
Justification: We are judicially declared righteous by what Jesus has done for us. We are saved from the penalty of our sin. “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39).
Sanctification: We are in the process of being set apart, being made holy, in this life, in our experience. We are being saved from the power of our sin. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).
Glorification: We are made sinless in experience, which will not happen until the resurrection. We will be saved from the presence of our sin. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
You might say that we use these terms as our past, present, and future in the Christian life.
These speak of our experience. However, the way we use the theological terms in systematic theology is limited as to how the Bible uses them. As for our position in Christ, they are all past tense.
Justification: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
Sanctification: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Glorification: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
If the word is used as if it is left undone, the verse speaks of our experience. If the word is used as if it were completed, the verse speaks of our position in Christ. Sanctification and glorification are not finished in our experience, but because of the source of our life in Christ, the new man is complete, and needs no improvement.
Therefore, in our position in Christ, we are sanctified in our position in Christ, once for all, as Hebrews 10:10 says.