Christmas in Hebrews

Tucked away in the heart of an "Easter" kind of message about sacrifices and salvation comes this little Christmas gem:

"Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings your were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am–it is written about me in the scroll–I have come to do your will, O God'" –Hebrews 10:5-7, NIV.

The writer imagines the heavenly conversation; Jesus assuring his Father that their wills were in perfect harmony, that he was about to take on a baby's soft and vulnerable skin to set aside the old system of continual and ineffectual sacrifices in favour of what is described just a few words later as: "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" –Hebrews 10:10, NIV.

God prepared the body of that child. Jesus put aside the rights and privileges of the Son of God and willingly clothed himself in that weak and dependent baby's skin for our sakes. The cost of our salvation is not only calculated at the cross; it is also calculated at the cradle.

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