Once for All, the Plan All Along

This month on the blog we’re looking at Hebrews 10, which teaches us about the completeness of Christ’s sacrifice. Today we’re looking at verses 5-7 which reminds us that Christ was God’s plan all along.

“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

Foreshadowing

My favorite thing about a well-crafted story is following a character’s journey from humble beginning to glorious happily ever after. There comes a moment when everything starts coming together and you realize it’s wrapping up exactly the way it is supposed to. The ending was foreshadowed, hinted at, from the start. Not obviously spelled out, spoiling the story, but gently suggesting that the author does have and indeed has always had a plan.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” John 5:39

Verse five tells us that God’s plan to save humanity and restore us to relationship with him was set from the start. We see this in the story of the Fall (Genesis 3), when God is cursing Adam, Eve, and the serpent for their disobedience. He makes a prophetic proclamation, promising future redemption.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15

Since the time God clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins, covering their sin and shame with a sacrifice, we have had the Law showing us the great divide between us and our holy God.

The Law

But the Law was never meant to save us. As Ali reminded us in last week’s post,

“Hebrews 10:1 shows us that the Old Testament Law was a shadow of the good things to come. It was a guardian that taught people how to live in the presence of a holy God until Christ came and gave His life once for all.”

In today’s verses, the author of Hebrews has Jesus quoting Psalm 40:6-8 as the reason He had to come. The blood of goats and bulls was only ever meant to cover sin. A perfect body was needed to wipe sin away completely.

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” 1 Peter 1:10-11

In Finding the Love of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, Elyse Fitzpatrick writes about how to read the Law as a love letter from Jesus. It’s not easy to see the gospel message in the rules about how and when to kill animals. But it’s there. The purpose of the Law, she says, is to teach and guide and ultimately show us how desperately we need to be rescued. It sets up the gospel and needs to be read and understood alongside the good news of the gospel, that Jesus came to do God’s will which was to save and sanctify us.

“The law and the gospel are partners in bringing us closer to him. He promises that he’s done everything for us, and we respond by desiring and seeking after him.” (Finding the Love of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, Elyse Fitzpatrick)

There is nothing we could do to, no way to be good enough on our own. The Law proves this. Only His perfect sacrifice could do the job. That was the plan, all along.