Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:  Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.  (6) In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.  (7) Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come – In the volume of the book it is written of Me – To do Your will, O God.”  (8) Previously saying “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), (9) then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”  He takes away the first that He may establish the second.  (10) By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown. The letter was written to Jewish Christians who had left the Jewish sacrificial system and embraced the gospel – Because of hardship and persecution as Christian believers, some were in danger of backsliding. The author writes to show the superiority of Christ in all matters and to warn the readers of eternal danger should they revert to the Jewish system.

Our verses today were written to show that Christian faithful found what those under the Law (the Jewish system) could not find – total forgiveness. The Law provided only a shadow of things to come – it called for  repeated sacrifices which would never be perfect.  The author quotes Psalm 40 and repeats significant points already made to prove his point – this repetition  reflects the ineffectiveness of the Levitical sacrifice and also serves as a reminder that past sins were not removed.

We read in these verses of the incarnation of the Son Of God and His obedience to Gods will.  Jesus Christ was ordained by God before time to do His priestly work of perfect sacrifice – acceptable to God – to atone for sin once and for all.  Christ’s obedience to Gods will at the cross set aside the Old Testament sacrificial system and made the faithful right in standing before God.

We are about to celebrate the incarnation of God as man – the ordained time of the sacrifice of Gods only Son for our salvation – a sacrifice of infinite value.  Merry Christmas indeed.