Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come-- In the volume of the book it is written of Me-- To do Your will, O God.’” 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), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:05-10, NKJV).
A 1000 years before Christ, King David penned Psalm 40 in prophetic anticipation of the coming incarnation of Messiah.
That alone is an astounding thought, with even Christ's foreordained humanity (My ears You have opened, being a Hebraism for a body You have prepared for Me) detailed in exquisite succinctness.
But beyond that, there is the repeated declaration that sacrifice and offering were not the real desires of God, but were the prerequisite pictures of His ultimate desire: redemption for fallen humanity.
All of history, everything of significance, funneled toward that magnificent goal, so that the pertinent details of the actions and lives of the major redemptive players were laid out beforehand and recorded in divinely inspired Scripture for our learning and edification; all this to confirm the existence, sovereignty and care of God.
The Psalm cited in the above passages from Hebrews draws the reader's attention back to the foundation of the Old Testament before launching us forward into its glorious fulfillment in the New. Christ, and everything about Him, were contained in the volume of the book - which can variously be interpreted to be the Old Testament itself, as well as the Book of God's Redemptive Plan, the Book of God's Holy Prophets, the Book of Life, and the Book of God's Will.
And it is this last Book of God's Will that is perhaps the most comprehensive and powerful, for it is by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Of all the truths of the Bible, this is one of the most astonishing. Our sanctification, that day-by-day process by which He conforms us into the image of His Son, is God's ultimate desire for His Creation. It is brought about at the unimaginable price of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, God's Beloved Son.
And the effectiveness of that fulfillment is once for all - one offering for all who believe for all time and eternity.
Christ, our incomparable Savior, set aside everything to do Your will, O God - out of His perfect love for and obedience to the Father.
Their unfathomable relationship within the Godhead formed the foundation for our salvation.
That which foreshadowed the death of Christ, the centuries of bloody animal sacrifice under the Law, was merely the precursor, the setup, for what was to come. Christ's advent took away the first hopeless system of works-based redemption, as it was always intended to do, so that the second way of life could be inaugurated through faith in His death and resurrection.
Never think that any part of Jesus' life was accidental or tragic, in the sense of it taking an unexpected turn. All of it, every second of it, fulfilled the plan written before the foundation of the world.
Why do we think, then, that any aspect of our lives is tragic or accidental under God's care? If we are His children by faith, we are coheirs with Christ, and are of far more value than we can conceive. This is true not because of what we are, but because of who He is.
That being the case, do not waste one moment of doubt in response to life's inevitable losses and pains. Yes, we will walk through the Valley of the Shadow of death. Yes, our days in this world will likely have periods of agony and grief. Yes, enemies will be arrayed against us, and may sometimes even appear to be victorious, but what of it?
The same occurred in Christ's life.
If we take the short-sighted view, the self-centered view, this will only add to the misery.
But if we can keep steadfast in our hearts and minds the fact, reiterated again and again in Scripture, that it is by that will that we move and live and have our being, and by which, through faith, we will receive an eternal inheritance, then we will be able to say, as our brother Paul did so long ago:
...I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18, NKJV).
Know and remember that whatever the circumstances, our God is for us.
