In Hebrews 10:5-9, after quoting this prophecy concerning Christ in Psalm 40:6-8, Paul commented that Christ’s coming to do God’s will is to take away “the first that He may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9). The first in Paul’s comment refers to the sacrifices and offerings of the first covenant, the old covenant; the second refers to the sacrifice of the second covenant, the new covenant, which sacrifice is Christ.
As the unique sacrifice and offering, Christ took away all the sacrifices and offerings of the old testament and established Himself as the new testament sacrifice and offering. Christ is our sacrifice to deal with sin and sins, and He is our offering, our gift, presented to God for God’s satisfaction.
In the old dispensation God commanded His people to offer to Him sacrifices and offerings. But when Jesus came and lived on this earth, God no longer delighted in those Old Testament offerings. Instead, it was God’s will to replace them with Christ Himself. Christ came to be the real sacrifice and living offering, who offered Himself on the cross as the reality of all the offerings. He is the reality of the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering.
Actually, Christ came to replace all the Old Testament types. In other words, by Christ’s first coming, the entire old testament was terminated and replaced. Now our offering and sacrifice are Christ. Day and night we offer Christ to God as all kinds of offerings. Whenever we sin, we ask God to forgive us, taking Christ, God’s Son, as our sin offering and trespass offering. He is the real offering for our sin and transgressions. When we need peace toward God, we can take Christ as our peace offering. We can also take Him as our burnt offering and meal offering. Christ is everything to us because He fulfilled all the Old Testament types and has taken them away. Today He is the reality of all the types in the Old Testament.
Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight in doing Your will.” The will of God is to replace all the sacrifices and offerings in the Old Testament with Christ as the unique sacrifice and offering in the New Testament. This is the divine will ordained by God, revealed in the Old Testament prophecy. Hebrews 10:5-10 indicates that Christ is the reality of and the replacement for the Old Testament offerings. Verses 8 and 9 say, “‘Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not desire nor delight in’ (which are offered according to the law), He then has said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” The will of God here is to take away the first, the animal sacrifices of the old covenant, that the second, the sacrifice of Christ of the new testament, may be established. The new testament offerings are Christ Himself. Today God’s desire and pleasure are not in animal sacrifices; God’s desire and pleasure are altogether in one person—Christ.
God’s will is to have a Body as the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God and to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings that we may enjoy Him as our all in all. God’s will is to have a Body for Christ. If we would be a part of the Body of Christ, which is the enlargement and expression of Christ, we need to take Christ as our everything and enjoy Him. The Body of Christ comes out of our enjoyment of Christ. The Old Testament saints were centered around the sacrifices and the offerings, which meant everything to them. However, Christ came to do God’s will by replacing all the sacrifices and offerings in order that He could be everything to us. Now we can enjoy Christ as the reality, the body, of all the sacrifices and offerings. We daily need to practice taking and applying Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering, which will usher us into the enjoyment of Christ as the burnt offering and the meal offering, consummating in our enjoyment of Him as the peace offering plus the wave offering, heave offering, and drink offering.
The sin offering signifies that Christ was made sin for us that through His death on the cross, sin might be condemned (Lev. 4:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; 3:14). The trespass offering signifies that Christ bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven of our sinful conduct (Lev. 5:6; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; John 4:15-18). The burnt offering, which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction, as the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God (Lev. 1:3; Num. 28:2-3; John 7:16-18). The meal offering typifies Christ in His humanity and in His human living, which was proper, even, tender, fine, balanced, pure, and sinless (Lev. 2:1, 4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6). The peace offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between God and us by shedding His blood and dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God (Lev. 3:1; Eph. 2:14-15; John 12:1-3; 20:21; Rev. 21:2). The wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ in love (Lev. 7:30; 10:15). The heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation (Lev. 7:32; Exo. 29:27; Eph. 1:21). The drink offering signifies Christ as the enjoyment of the offerer, enabling the offerer to be filled with Christ as the heavenly wine and even to become the wine offered to God for His enjoyment and satisfaction (Exo. 29:40; Num. 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13).
The reality of all the offerings is Christ realized as the Spirit (John 1:17; 14:6, 17). This means that in our experience the Spirit is the reality of the offerings. If we do not have the Spirit in a subjective way, we will not have the reality of the offerings but only the doctrine regarding Christ as the offerings. In Himself Christ is the reality of the offerings, but He cannot be this reality to us apart from His being the life-giving Spirit. The more we pray concerning Christ as the offerings with the realization that He is the life-giving Spirit, the more we will enjoy Him as the offerings. The way to enjoy Christ is to contact Him and take Him in as the Spirit of reality.
We need to live a life according to God’s heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings. This is for the fulfillment of the great will of God, which is to have Christ as the replacement for all the offerings in the Old Testament in order that we may enjoy Him as everything in living and practicing the Body life for the building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; Heb. 10:7-10; Rom. 12:2).