OVERVIEW. The heart of the book of “Hebrews” is chapters 9 and 10 as the author describes the awesome work of Jesus, our High Priest, as He brings His blood into the heavenly holy of holies. This article examines Hebrews 10:3-7. A second article will look at 10:8-10.

The central doctrinal teaching of the book of “Hebrews” is the description of Jesus Christ’s work of atonement as our great High Priest, and that description reaches its climax in Hebrews 9:11-10:18. In this passage, the author of the book tells us in detail what God has done in Jesus’ incarnation to bring about the propitiation of the sins of His people. In two articles, we will examine 10:3-10 to understand how Psalm 40 also relates to this same theme.

The passage begins (10:3-4) with yet another illustration of how the priesthood and the sacrificial system under the old covenant failed to accomplish any cleansing or atonement from sin by virtue of the fact that the blood of sacrificial animals was itself impotent.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The author has already alluded to this flaw in the sacrifices under the Law in 9:23 when he taught that “the heavenly things” were not cleansed with the blood of animals but were necessarily cleansed with “better sacrifices,” which speaks of the blood of Christ. 

But we know that the impotent blood of bulls and goats offered on the annual day of atonement was never intended to take away sins. Rather, the sacrifices of the day of atonement were intended to be a reminder of sins (10:3). The sacrifices of Yom Kippur were made every year to remind the people that, although they obediently offered the sacrifices required by the Law, their sin remained. Their obedience to the Law’s demands did not atone for their sin, but instead the annual ordinance reminded them that an atonement which finally quenched the wrath of God and fully cleansed God’s people from their sins was yet future. Under the Law, the people were required to offer the blood of bulls and goats, but one day there would be “better sacrifices than these” (9:23) which would finally and fully atone.

What follows in 10:5-10 is a breathtaking explanation of how the words of David in Psalm 40, written a thousand years before the death of Christ on the cross, depict the necessity both of the Incarnation and of the cross, and show Christ’s perfect submission to the will of the Father by becoming the final and perfect sacrifice for sins.

Hebrews 10:5-10 (NASB 1995) is given in its entirety below.

⁵ Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But a body You have prepared for Me;
⁶ In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.
⁷ “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
(In the scroll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Your will, O God.’”

⁸ 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), ⁹ then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

COMMENTARY. The Holy Spirit guides the author of Hebrews to this passage from Psalm 40 as he is making this precise point in his own argument. That is, by understanding the words of David in Psalm 40:6-7, we will see that, long ago, the weakness of the sacrifices offered under the Law had been declared and that the need for Someone to receive a physical body and then to do the will of God was likewise long ago announced.

In Hebrews 10:5-7, the author quotes from Psalm 40:6-8 where David gives a veiled prophecy about the necessity of the Incarnation. First, the psalmist declares that “sacrifice and offering You have not desired” (10:5) and “in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure” (10:6). These phrases speak of the weakness of the offerings of the Levitical priests under the Law, that these are not sufficient to atone for sin, they do not please God, and they do not satisfy His wrath against sin. The propitiation of sin must be accomplished with “better sacrifices than these” (Heb. 9:23).

But second, notice he also says, “But a body You have prepared for Me” (10:5). (Capitalization is mine.) This “body” is the flesh and blood physical body of the Lord Jesus, a body that was prepared for Him by God and that contained the blood that would atone for sin. Part of the necessity of the Incarnation was to provide the blood that the Messiah would sprinkle on the heavenly mercy seat (Hebrews 9:14, 23-26). So, a body was prepared for Jesus.

Third, the psalmist goes on to speak of someone who will come (“Behold, I come”) to accomplish the will of God (10:7). Again, this foreshadows the Lord Jesus in His incarnation as He perfectly submitted to the Father’s will (Philippians 2:5-8; John 17:4; Isaiah 53) to willingly offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin and “to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

SUMMARY. So, in Psalm 40 David tells of the failure of the sacrifices offered under the Law and also prophesies that a physical body is needed with better sacrificial blood to be sprinkled on the heavenly mercy seat. To fulfill this prophecy, Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, took on flesh in His Incarnation in order to become our great High Priest. He is the one who enters into the heavenly tabernacle to atone for all the sins of His people by sprinkling His own blood on the mercy seat in the heavenly holy of holies. Since Jesus’ own blood now stains the heavenly mercy seat, God’s wrath against the sins of His people has been forever quenched (propitiated) and wrath has been replaced by mercy.