«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Heb. 10:5 Therefore, coming into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”

　　9-10 He then has said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

　　God’s will is first to have a Body for Christ….The second aspect of God’s will is to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings so that we may enjoy Him as our all in all (Heb. 10:5-10)….The sacrifices and the offerings meant everything to [the Old Testament saints]. However, Christ came to do God’s will by replacing all the sacrifices and offerings in order that He could be everything to us. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” p. 275)

　　Hebrews 10:1-12 indicates that Christ is the fulfillment of all the offerings. He came to do the will of God (vv. 7, 9), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 462)

　　The word in Psalm 40:6-8 is actually the word of Christ, as quoted by Paul in Hebrews 10:5-7. The prophecy in Psalm 40:6-8 is one of the greatest revelations concerning the all-inclusive Christ in the commission that God committed to Christ in His first coming through incarnation, which was to put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and to establish Himself, in His body, as the sacrifice of the new covenant.

　　In this prophecy Christ comes through His incarnation to terminate God’s old economy and initiate God’s new economy, His New Testament economy, by replacing the animal sacrifices and establishing Himself as the unique sacrifice of the new covenant. As such a sacrifice, Christ is the factor that enacts God’s New Testament economy (Matt. 26:28) that He may be its centrality and universality for the producing and building up of the church as His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Hence, Christ has changed the age for the consummating of God’s new creation out of God’s old creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). His changing of the age is greater than the creation of the universe mentioned in Genesis 1. (Psa. 40:6, footnote 1)

　　In the Old Testament there are five main categories of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Hebrews 10:5 says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.” God prepared a body for Christ so that He could offer Himself to God to replace all the offerings. This was God’s will, which Christ came to do. Now the sacrifices and offerings are no longer needed because they have been replaced by Christ. Christ today is all the offerings, and He is all the sacrifices.

　　Christ took away and replaced all the Old Testament types, and He established Himself to be “the second” [Heb. 10:9]. As “the second,” Christ is everything. Christ’s replacing of all the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings, taking away the Old Testament types and establishing Himself as everything to us, was God’s great will. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of Christ’s body once for all, to enjoy and partake of Him as our everything (v. 10). What is the will of God today? It is simply for us to enjoy Christ. To live a life according to God’s heart and will is to have Christ as everything to us and to live by Christ. God’s great will is for us to be a part of the Body, enjoying Christ as everything. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” pp. 275-277)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 459-462