#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Lord Who Provides

Hebrews10:5–10

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;   in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,  as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ “When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),  then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.     

The author in this section is taking up the argument that the second or new covenant is superior and replaces the first or Mosaic covenant (though truth be told, the Abrahamic covenant is older). But Christ has come into the world. Jesus of Nazareth is that Christ and he is the Dabar YHWH, the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord that spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Word that spoke to Moses on the mountain, led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, who spoke by the prophets, a body was prepared for him in the womb of the Virgin prophesied by Isaiah, the Virgin Mary and he has joined us in our humanity.

He have joined us in our humanity because sacrifices and offerings the Lord has taken no pleasure and does not desire. The Word of God is the Son of God and the Son of Man, as prophesied by the prophet Daniel. He has come to do the will of the Father. That will we see manifested in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sanhedrin, Pilate’s and Herod’s courts and finally upon the tree of cross on Golgatha. Abraham prophesied, “on the mount of the Lord it will be provided.” Jesus is the Lamb of God who is caught in the thicket of fallen Israel and sacrificed upon the altar of the cross.

The sacrifices of the old covenant could not take away sins, so they were performed daily. They could only make us clean outwardly, i.e. ceremonially. But it was faith in the promised sacrifice, the blessed seed of Abraham, the seed of the woman, who is the Son of God in the flesh with which God is pleased. The Second Adam, Jesus, fulfills what the first Adam failed at, trusting God. Submitting his will to that of the Father, Jesus does for us what Adam did not do.

Now in offering his body, Jesus, the Son of Man, abolishes the first covenant, the Mosaic covenant and establishes a second covenant, the New Testament in his body and blood. Through the subjection of his will to the Father by his sacrifice on the cross we are made holy. Our sins have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. He has atoned for our iniquities and was made a propitiation for our trespasses. In the second covenant God forgives us our sins and remembers them no more. He puts his Law, the Holy Spirit in our hearts and makes our bodies his temple. We are declared holy and made holy by the offering of his body once and for all. As Paul says, Jesus is our sanctification. Now dwelling in our hearts through faith in Him, he gives us holy impulses. We have been freed from the bondage of sin to be bound to the love of God the Father.

Heavenly Father, you have made us holy by providing your Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of the Lord as a sacrifice. Grant us faith to live out this holiness in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen