The Will Of God
THE WILL OF GOD
HEBREWS 10:1-10
Animal sacrifices were a picture of God’s gracious purpose in providing a substitute, Jesus Christ, to die in our place.
There is a sense in which here we come to the heart of the whole matter. Some misinterpret it by a wrong insistence on the doing of the will of God. They point out that our author quotes Psalm 40:6-8 in bringing out the truth that God does not delight in animal sacrifices. Prophetically the Psalm goes on to speak about the Messiah as doing the will of God. Christ, then, the reasoning goes, has come, not like wild animals who have no say in their being offered, but as a man to make a perfect surrender of his will to God. The essence of his offering is the offering of a will completely submissive to that of the Father. In a day when many find sacrifice and substitution unacceptable, such a view of the Psalm, of the teaching of this letter and of the nature of the atonement, finds some support.
But it is not what the author is saying. It overlooks his express declaration that “by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). Christ does indeed do the will of God. But that will is not expressed in vague generalities. It is the offering of Christ’s body that is the will of God.
The author introduces the thought by repeating that the sacrifices of the old covenant are ineffective (10:4). The Law has only the shadow, not the substance. It offers the same sacrifices over and over again in silent testimony to the fact that they cannot really cleanse (10:1f.). They recall sin each year (the Day of Atonement sacrifices are clearly in mind). But it is quite impossible for them to take away sins.
10:4 is the definitive statement of the ineffectiveness of all animal sacrifices. Animals move on a different level from people. Their worth is infinitely less. They cannot possibly be accepted on behalf of people. It is this that makes the Psalm applicable. It categorically rejects animal sacrifices as the way, and puts the will of God in the supreme place. This means the abolition of the old way altogether and the substitution of something altogether new (10:9). The offering of the body of Christ is the one effective sacrifice. This brings about the sanctification of believers. And this passage finishes with the characteristic “once for all.” There is an air of finality about this sacrifice. It cannot be repeated. Nothing can be added to its perfection.