Hebrews: A Body is Prepared to do God’s Will
Hebrews 10:5-10; Psalm 40:6-8; Matthew 21:12-13 - God wants our devotion, not our rituals and busy work.
“Therefore, when He comes into the world, He 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.’ ”
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), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews 10:5-10 NASB1995
First, an apology - for some reason, the last devotional repeated the prayer twice and left off the lesson that I put at the top. I’m blaming Substack, because this happened after I read through it one last time the night before.
The author of Hebrews makes another reference to prophecy, this time quoting the Septuagint (early Greek) version of Psalm 40, a Psalm of David. Here is the NASB version translated from Hebrew:
“Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.””
Psalms 40:6-8 NASB1995
God has not desired more animal sacrifices; He would far prefer obedience! David has clearly seen the coming of Christ, written in the scroll of the book. I think this commentary from Enduring Word describes this passage really well:
a. He said: This quotation is taken from the Septuagint version of Psalm 40:6-8 (the Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament that was the most commonly used Bible in the first century). It shows that prophetically Jesus declared the insufficient character of Old Covenant sacrifice and declared His willingness to offer a perfect sacrifice under the New Covenant.
i. “The text of the LXX is followed in the main which differs from the Hebrew chiefly in having sōma (body) rather than ōtia (ears).” (Robertson)
b. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire: More animal sacrifices, made under the law, would not please God. Repeatedly in the Old Testament God expressed His desire for obedience rather than sacrifice.
i. Sacrifice and offering… burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin: “It is probable that the four terms which the psalmist uses for sacrifice are intended to cover all the main types of offering prescribed in the Levitical ritual.” (Bruce)
c. But a body You have prepared for Me: Instead, what pleased God could only come through Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. In the incarnation the body of Jesus was perfectly prepared and suited to live as fully man and fully God.
i. “There is no question that the author is convinced about the reality of the pre-existence of Christ.” (Guthrie)
ii. “His incarnation itself is viewed as an act of submission to God’s will and, as such, an anticipation of His supreme submission to that will in death.” (Bruce)
d. Behold, I have come… to do Your will, O God: Jesus’ submission to God the Father’s will had its ultimate fulfillment in His obedience to the cross. This desire to do God’s will was shown in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-44) and fulfilled at the cross.
i. “To do thy will, O God is the aim of the perfect man. It has only partially been fulfilled by even the most pious of men, except by Jesus. What was seen as the most desirable aim by the psalmist, becomes an expression of fact on the lips of Jesus.” (Guthrie)
e. Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God: The sacrifice of Jesus was determined before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). Yet it was still an act of His will to submit to the incarnation and the cross at the appointed time; by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
i. Our sanctification – our being set apart to God – is founded on the will of Jesus, not our own will. It is founded on the offering of Jesus, not on our own offering or sacrifices for God.
f. Once for all: These are the important words of this passage, and the writer to the Hebrews repeats the theme over and over again: once for all.
i. “The one sacrifice does the work that the many failed to do. One wonders how priests who claim that the ‘mass’ is the sacrifice of Christ’s body repeated explain this verse.” (Robertson)
ii. “The heavenly high priest has indeed a continual ministry to discharge on His people’s behalf at the Father’s right hand; but that is the ministry of intercession on the basis of the sacrifice presented and accepted once and for all, it is not the constant or repeated offering of His sacrifice. This last misconception has no doubt been fostered in the Western Church by a defective Vulgate rendering which springs from a well-known inadequacy of the Latin verb.” (Bruce)
Once again, we see that wonderful phrase, “once for all”. We are justified through repentance and belief and sanctified through His sacrifice. That one sacrifice did the work that many acts of sacrifice failed to do.
So did God require sacrifices or did He not? Precept Austin has a good answer to this question:
But in the OT God ask[ed] for Israel to bring sacrifices, and now He changes His mind and says He doesn’t desire them. Which is true?” Both are true!
1. God Commanded Sacrifices (External Obedience) Under the Mosaic Law, God did require sacrifices (Lev 1–7). They served as visible, instructive pictures of sin, substitution, and atonement. These sacrifices taught Israel about the seriousness of sin and the need for a substitute — a life for a life (Lev 17:11). 🩸 They were divinely ordained symbols — not ends in themselves. “The sacrifices were shadows pointing forward to the reality in Christ” (Heb 10:1).
God desires sincerity, not ceremony.
2. God Did Not Desire Sacrifices (Internal Reality) - We see the OT repeatedly warning Israel that sacrifices as an external formality without internal change were not pleasing to God (Isa 1:11–13; Amos 5:21–24). God never delighted in the outward act of sacrifice alone. What He truly desired was obedience, faith, and repentance expressed through the sacrifice. God desired obedience from a heart motivated by love not legalism. “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6) “You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.” (Psalm 51:16–17) These verses reveal that sacrifices were acceptable only when they reflected a heart of trust and submission to God. When the ritual became mechanical or hypocritical, it became offensive to Him.
The motions of religion mean nothing without the devotion of the heart.
Rituals can be good and they help believers align to God’s will and word, but they certainly run the risk of becoming mechanical or hypocritical, as noted in this commentary. I grew up in a Lutheran church and we attended a Lutheran church for 13 years after we came back to belief. I can honestly say that there were many more Sundays than not when the liturgy, creeds and rote repetition in the service made absolutely no impression on me. I could see that happening with others, too.
I don’t miss those liturgies, to be perfectly honest. And I don’t consider them to be the gateway to God, like some who believe that you are not really saved unless you participate in these endless confessional repetitions. I also can’t imagine how one can feel the presence of the Lord when listening to liturgies and rites in Latin, for example (who knows Latin these days?). God is not pleased when we stand there mouthing words when our minds are a million miles away, just like He wasn’t pleased when the sacrifices became mechanistic or even turned into big profit centers, relying on guilty consciences to pay more for their “perfect” sacrifice:
“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He *said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.””
Matthew 21:12-13 NASB1995
Two more commentaries are worth sharing. The first one is a list of the lessons from this passage, as delineated by Bruce Hurt in Precept Austin:
God commanded the offerings, but He never cherished them.
The Law required repetition; Love desired redemption.
What was lawful was not lasting.
Ritual obedience could not replace relational obedience.
God legislated sacrifices, yet longed for surrender.
The Father sought devotion, not mere duty.
The smoke of sacrifice rose, but God’s pleasure did not.
Legal forms without living faith failed to please Jehovah.
The altar satisfied the Law, but not the Lord.
The other commentary is from a sermon from Ray Stedman, quoted in Precept Austin:
.. none of his readers should miss this important point the writer takes pains to indicate clearly, in Hebrews 10:8, 9, 10, the meaning of the quote from Psalm 40. He acknowledges that though God authorized the animal sacrifices of the past, He did not delight in them. Then he stresses the fact that Christ deliberately set Himself to do the will of the Father, though He knew it would lead to pain and separation. Intimations of Gethsemane are certainly present in these words, though it was on the Cross that they were fully carried out. Here the writer also declares that the death of Jesus, by fulfilling the will of the Father, completely replaces the provision of animal deaths which had provided some degree of forgiveness before.
Finally, he announces the only possible conclusion: it is by the fulfillment of the will of God in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ (note the double name, only here in Hebrews) that we (all believers) have been made holy. The Greek expression for made holy indicates action with a lasting effect. We have been made holy by the death of Jesus, and we remain holy even though we struggle with daily weakness and sin. This should be borne in mind when we come to the statement in He 12:14 (see +), “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” It is a holiness obtained by faith, not by self-righteous effort, and it is not lost by momentary failure. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Ro 8:1+). (Hebrews 10:1-39 Let Us Go On!)
This is why I read and research commentary - I probably would not have noticed that this passage uses the name “Jesus Christ”. A quick search found that this IS used elsewhere in the New Testament, so I think Stedman meant to say that this is the only usage in Hebrews. It’s still worthwhile commentary.
What I’m finding fascinating about this journey through Hebrews is the fact that human beings really have a hard time accepting the sacrifice and grace of our Lord, once and for all. Instead, we tack on requirements like infant baptism with a certificate (I believe in baptism as a public statement of faith when you’re old enough to understand it), confirmation classes, endless liturgies and creeds, confessions to priests (instead of to God), and other works-based fearful reactions “just in case”. The audience for Hebrews wanted to go back to the elaborate and undesired sacrificial system - no wonder the author of Hebrews repeats his message over and over again.
Oh, and I lied (well, maybe I didn’t lie, but I did get ahead of myself). I DO have one more commentary to share, from Charles Spurgeon:
That is, the will of God as done by Christ: “By the which will “ — The will which Christ fulfilled in life and in death:
Once, and only once. How (the writer) loves to recall this fact!
Or, “once.” It can never be offered again. The presence of offering up the body and the blood of Christ in the mass is sheer profanity. It has been done once, and there is no need of a repetition. To suppose that it could be repeated, is to imply that it was incomplete on the first occasion; but it was not, for by it we are already sanctified.
Only one sacrifice was required. The key-word here is that little word “once.” Let it not only sound in your ears, but be written in your hearts. Jesus Christ died once, he brought his sacrifice once, he put away our sins once.
Oh, what a blessed doctrine this is, — that the one offering of Christ has done what the tens of thousands of offerings under the old law never could accomplish! All the work of man is but the spinning of a righteousness which is undone as quickly as it is spun; but Christ has finished the seamless and spotless robe of his righteousness which is to last for ever. By his one sacrifice he has ended all the fruitless labor of the ages; and, now, as many of us as have believer [believed] in him have all the benefits of his perfect work.
My next devotional examines Hebrews 10:11-18 - The finished work of Christ.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - The more I dig into Hebrews, the more blessed I feel, in understanding the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Credits and Citations:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
Precept Austin was accessed on 01/08/2026 to review commentary for Hebrews 10:5-10. Within the Precept Austin commentary: HEBREWS (IVP New Testament Commentary Series) by Ray C. Stedman. (c) 1992 by Ray C. Stedman
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. Within the Enduring Word commentary:
Robertson, Archibald T. Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume V (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1933)
Bruce, A.B. The Epistle to the Hebrews(Minneapolis, Minnesota: Klock & Klock Christian Publishers, 1980 reprint of 1899 edition)
Guthrie, Donald Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983)