A BODY PREPARED

Psalm 40. 6-8 is quoted in the N.T. in Hebrews 10. 5-7, and by careful examination it will be seen that one phrase changes. The Holy Spirit who inspired the Word is free, of course, to requote in another form without changing the accuracy of the original statement. This is internal evidence for the inspiration of the Scriptures, and here one passage explains the other.

Psalm 40. 6b states, “mine ears hast thou opened”, while Hebrews 10. 5b states, “a body hast thou prepared me”. Both of these statements have an important common link discovered in the context: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will”. The common link is obedience. The custom of boring a servant’s ears was a mark of perpetual servitude and willingness to obey; for the servant loved his master and would not go free. In the case of the Lord Jesus Christ, His obedience to His Father’s will is seen in His incarnation and the body that was prepared for Him. Hence Simeon could say in Luke 2. 30, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. ‘

The Purpose. Christ is the antitype of all the O.T. offerings and sacrifices. They were not willing to die, but Christ, in obedience to His Father’s will, was willing to die. Romans 8. 3 states, “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. Note that it is the likeness of sinful flesh, and note also how sin was condemned— not in the soul, or mind, but in the flesh—the weakest part of the human frame.

The Preparation. And so Christ was born into this world, or as Galatians 4. 4 puts it, “made of a woman”. This may seem an obvious statement because every man came of a woman. But Christ is unique, and this statement had to be made, because Christ is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, and yet “made of a woman”; cf. Luke 1. 30-35. The Song of Solomon could well describe Christ’s unique beauty, “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand … he is altogether lovely”, Song 5. 10, 16.

The Person. “I delight to do thy will”—He did the will of His Father, and fulfilled the O.T. Scriptures.