Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: (4)”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 Hebrews is unknown. It was written to Jewish Christians who were in danger of reverting to their Jewish religion to escape persecution and warned not to do it. The point of our verses today is believers in Christ receive what those under the law could not receive; total forgiveness. All of the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ and because of Christ’s once for all sacrifice of Himself, believers in Christ have perfect standing with God. The faithful receive a complete, final, once for all pardon from all our sins – past, present and future. We are positioned in Christ as children of God.

Christ’s obedience to God’s will sets aside the Old Testament sacrifices. Our verses put emphasis on God preparing a body for Jesus to be offered as the eternal, suitable and never to be repeated sacrifice for sins. The dispensation of Old Testament sacrifices in the law were but a memorial of sin. Jesus came into this world to do God’s eternal will – the Father sent Him but the Son came. He took on Him our nature and by His own will He was made flesh. Only the Son of God could undertake the work of our redemption; only as man could He accomplish it. The will of man has no part in this. The work of justification is wholly of God.

Believers belong to God forever. It is settled and permanent as the peace which was made with God in Christ. On Christmas Day we celebrate – with overwhelming gratitude – that Jesus came into this world to save us from our sins. This season has become a commercial holiday that distracts us from this great truth. C.s.Lewis commented on this cultural aberration by saying that for many, by the time Christmas arrives families are in no mood for making merry but instead “look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.”