In Hebrews 10:5-10 we see that Christ is the unique sacrifice and offering. In the Old Testament there are various kinds of sacrifices and offerings. A sacrifice dealt with sin and sins, whereas an offering was a gift to God for His pleasure. All the sacrifices and offerings in the Old Testament are types of Christ as the unique sacrifice and offering in the New Testament. Through Christ as the offerings, we and God, God and we, have a mutual enjoyment, the fellowship of co-enjoyment (Deut. 12:7).
According to the book of Hebrews, Christ, the ascended God-man, is our High Priest. In the Old Testament the duty of the high priest was to offer something to God, either a sacrifice or a gift, not only to make propitiation but also to please God. As sinners with a sinful nature and sinful deeds, we had a problem with God, and God had a problem with us. There was no peace between us and God. Something had to be done to appease the situation between us and God. Christ appeased this situation by making propitiation for us. Moreover, Christ did something to make God happy. God wanted to be happy with us, but our sins made Him unhappy. Before we were saved, God loved us, but He was not happy with us. Therefore, Christ offered Himself not only as a sacrifice for sin but also as a gift to please God and thereby make Him happy.
Christ as the unique sacrifice and offering in the New Testament was prophesied in the Old Testament. The New Testament is related to the Old Testament. This relationship is indicated by a portion of Hebrews 10:7: “In the roll of the book it is written concerning Me.” The “roll of the book” in this verse refers to the Old Testament. This indicates that the Old Testament gives us a full record of Christ, either by plain words or by types (Luke 24:27, 44, 46; John 5:39, 46). For example, Isaiah 53 predicted that Christ would come to be the sacrifice for sin, that is, to replace and terminate the Levitical sacrifices (vv. 6, 11-12).
In keeping with this, Psalm 40:6-8 says, “You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; / You have prepared ears for Me; / You do not require burnt offering and sin offering. / Then I said, / Behold, I have come; / In the scroll of the book / It is written concerning Me. / I delight in doing Your will, O My God.” The word in verses 6 through 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. This is to terminate God’s Old Testament economy and to initiate God’s New Testament economy, in which Christ replaces all the offerings as well as all things, all matters, and all persons (cf. Matt. 17:4-8; Col. 2:16-17; 3:10-11).
In the prophecy in Psalm 40:6-8, 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.
A sacrifice is for sin and sins before God, and an offering is for fellowship with God. These two things were the elements upon which the old covenant was established, and the old covenant was the centrality and universality of God’s economy in the Old Testament. God’s not delighting in and not requiring sacrifice and offering points to the termination of His economy in the Old Testament. This is the importance and the greatness of this prophecy.
Psalm 40:6 says, “You have prepared ears for Me.” This was quoted by the apostle Paul in Hebrews 10:5 as “a body You have prepared for Me.” The boring of the slave’s ears indicates that the master required the slave’s obedience (Exo. 21:6). It signifies that God required obedience of Christ, who in His humanity was God’s slave (Phil. 2:7). This obedience, spoken of by Paul in Philippians 2:8, was for Him to do the will of God by being the sacrifice and the offering in His crucifixion in the flesh, the body (Col. 1:22; Heb. 10:7-10). Based on this, Paul interpreted the boring of the ears as the preparing of a body, in which Christ offered Himself to God as the sacrifice and the offering to replace the sacrifice and the offering of animals in the Old Testament.
Psalm 40:7 says, “Behold, I have come,” indicating Christ’s first coming through His incarnation for the establishment of the new testament by Himself as the enacting sacrifice and offering. Verse 7 also says, “In the scroll of the book / It is written concerning Me.” This indicates that Christ was prophesied in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and that Christ will do God’s will for the accomplishment of God’s New Testament economy according to the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him.