Sacrifice and offering You have not desired

Hebrews 10:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? ³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But a body You have prepared for Me;
⁶ In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.
⁷ “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
(In the scroll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Your will, O God.’”

⁸ After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹ then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,”

He then says, ¹⁷ “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

In Psalm 51:10-17 the psalmist says:   Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.       In today’s text, speaking of Jesus,  it says:  “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.’”      It was God who prescribed and ordained the sacrifices and offerings for sin. They were established by Him. Why then would scripture say that God is not pleased with, does not desire sacrifice?    Perhaps we can gain some understanding when we look at Samuel’s words to Saul after he had disobeyed God’s word by himself offering a sacrifice, rather than having Samuel offer it:   1 Samuel 15:22-23:  “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”    The sacrifices were not prescribed by God to please Him. They were to atone for the disobedience and rebellion of people against God’s word and His will. So obeying God would result in there being no necessity for sacrifice. The psalmist says:  sustain me with a willing spirit.   In today’s text it says:   “I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.’”       Jesus came to do the will of God. Prior to Him, no one was able to live in complete obedience to the will of God.

Philippians 2:5-8 says:  Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.   It was not a simple thing for Jesus to endure the pain and suffering of the cross. He was fully in a human body. He felt pain as we do. He had a mind like we do, with emotions and thoughts. In Luke 22:42, Jesus knowing what He was soon to suffer, the scourging and persecution, the pain of crucifixion, said: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”    Jesus was obedient to God, even to the point of His own death for our sins. It didn’t please God for Jesus to die on the cross. God would have preferred the obedience of people rather than the sacrifice of His Son. Yet because of love God did send His Son. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.    Because of love, Jesus was obedient even to death on the cross. We then, who were unable to be obedient to God, should at least love Him in response to His love for us. That’s what 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.

In John 14:15-21 Jesus says:   “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”     From the beginning, from Adam and Eve, in the garden, up until this time, the spirit of man has been and is opposed to the will of God. But if we love Jesus, because He first loved us and was obedient when we could not be, we will keep His commandments. The spirit of man is opposed to the will of God, but Jesus says:  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”     The Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit abides in us. God’s Spirit cannot be opposed to the will or the word of God. That is the willing Spirit the psalmist spoke of. It is the Holy Spirit who sustains us.

Today’s text ends saying:  And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”       This covenant, to remember our sins no more, is the covenant established through the obedience of Christ. It is a covenant established on the basis of love and obedience. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Because of love, Jesus died for us in obedience to God. Because of love, through the indwelling, abiding Spirit of God we can be obedient to the will and the word  of Jesus and the Father. God says:    “their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”      There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:1-2)

May the psalmist’s declaration be our prayer:    Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight…Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom… Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.  Amen.