Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Heb. 10. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Micah was one of many prophets who predicted the birth of Jesus, the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God. He became man – at His conception. This was by the power of God the Holy Spirit.
- After His birth, His growing up years, and perhaps a few years of intense study, Jesus began His public ministry. He did a number of things – He taught, He did miracles, He healed people, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and even raised some people from the dead.
- This is for the most part what the Gospel records consist of. But they all come to the most important thing, that which is described in our text – “WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO.” That is, all of the Gospel accounts ultimately come to the great cosmic “sacrifice,” the one made by God Himself, the one accomplished by Jesus, His own self-sacrifice, in accord with God’s will.
- But though He died, the Son of God rose again in victory over our great enemies, to give us the gift of eternal life. This is the cause of John the Baptist’s “leaping for joy” in his mother’s womb, this great gift of salvation and eternal life for God’s people – although how John came to such pre-natal faith in Jesus is quite a mystery.
- In our text, the author takes great care to compare and contrast what God has done for us in Christ, over and against the “sacrifices and offerings” of the Mosaic law. We will want to carefully note these distinctions so that we can fully ingest the marvelous blessings Jesus has brought to us. First:
I. Jesus Was Given A Body To Accomplish God’s Will – To Offer It Up As A Redeeming And Sanctifying Offering For Every Human Being
Text: “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 offering 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.”’ . . . . By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
Statement: This is “WHAT HE CAME FOR,” why He became a human being, why He received “a body” prepared for Him by God! This is what God willed for us – because of His great love for us. This is what Jesus willed to do for us – because of His great love for us. He and the Father both willed exactly the same thing – for us to be redeemed from all sin and guilt and “sanctified,” made holy.
Application: It is important for us to grasp that this is “the will of God.” Sometimes we think that God only provided us with “a way out,” that He kind of wants us to take advantage of, but that He leaves it up to us. In this way we minimize His love, His commitment to us, and His blessed, loving will for us. He brought His eternal Son into our physical and fleshly world, for the very purpose of His self-offering – which provides us with forgiveness, eternal life, and heavenly salvation! He wills for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Let this reality sink in – God’s will for you, and the depth of His commitment to bless you!
Transition: And in all of this a shift and change has taken place. The old “sacrifices and offerings” are “passé” now, abolished, for:
II. In His Offering Christ Abolishes The First Set Of Offerings [Which Are Law-Based] And Establishes God’s Second, Primary, And Final Will
Text: “When He said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifice 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.”
A. We Are Sanctified – Made Perfectly Holy – Because God Has “Justified” Us By Faith
Heb. 10:14-18 “For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then He adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
Eph. 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
1 John 1:7 “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
B. We Are Being Sanctified – Made Holy – By The Spirit Working In Us Through The Gospel, The Good News Of God’s Great Love
1 Jn. 4:19 “We love because He first loved us.”
2 Cor. 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit.”
Statement: This “second will” is actually God’s first consequent reaction to mankind’s fall into sin. It is this Jesus Who in His self-sacrifice has taken away our sin, guilt, and damnation, and Who in His resurrection has provided us with deliverance from death and the gift of eternal life, Who has in this manner crushed the devil’s head for us and from our salvation, just as God promised Adam and Eve.
The “first will” mentioned in out text, came several centuries later, at the time of the exodus, and was given to people to help them remember God’s promises of a great Savior. Instead, this worship and sacrificial system, devolved into a purely “law oriented” system of thinking about God, one which rejected the most important “will of God,” His will to save us by the “once for all offering of the body of Jesus Christ,” His own beloved Son. Having run out of its potential usefulness, by its fulfillment in Christ, this whole sacrificial system is “null and void,” abolished fully and completely by Christ.
Application: This is “WHAT CHRIST CAME FOR” – thanks and praise be to God. He has fulfilled all of the prophetic promises, providing us with full and complete salvation! We are perfect in the sight of God – He forgives our sins and remembers our transgressions no more.” He is also “perfecting” us, renewing His image within us, so that we more and more love as He loved us. It is remarkable and beautiful – it is the will of God which Christ came to accomplish!
Conclusion: It is wonderful to read all of the other beautiful and stupendous things that Jesus did during His short time here on earth. But the principle purpose of Christmas, of the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God, is most blessed and beautiful indeed! Be sure to focus on this “will of God” which gives us everything, and lasts forever.
Then we too will “leap for joy” at the presence of Jesus – Who is with us always, even to the end of the earth.” Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.