(5) Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (6) In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (7) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me), to do thy will, O God. (8) Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; (9) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (10) By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (12) But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
It is hardly necessary for me to inform the Reader, that these words were spoken before, under the spirit of prophecy, by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the 40th Psalm (Psalms 40:1), and at least a thousand years before Christ's incarnation. So infinitely interested God the Holy Ghost was that the Church should always be on the lookout for the Lord Jesus Christ, that from the moment of the Fall, when it was promised, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's Head, and he the heal; every part of scripture, more or less, is engaged to celebrate the great event, and to admonish the Church with the expectation of his coming. Hence, we find the Prophets with one voice, and in the most lofty strain, speaking in raptures of the Lord's coming. The Patriarch Abraham saw the day of Christ afar off, rejoiced, and was glad. Jacob spake of the Shiloh. David lived, and died in the full assurance, that of his loins Christ should arise after the flesh. Isaiah, under the same divine teaching, cried out to the Church; Behold, your God will come and save you. Jeremiah, Micah, Zechariah, Malachi, yea, and all the Prophets. I stay not to quote passages from their inspired writings in proof, this would be almost endless.
But it is blessed to find the same preached in type and figure, as well as proclaimed in prophecy. Christ saith, a body hast thou prepared me; or, as the other scripture hath rendered the phrase, mine ears hast thou opened, or digged; Psalms 40:6, alluding to the servant in Israel, who, when offering to serve his master forever, had his ear bored at the door post; and for the love he bore his master, and his wife and children, thereby declared himself to be his servant forever, Exodus 21:5-6. What a sweet thought the whole furnisheth! Christ, as God-Man-Mediator, having betrothed himself to our nature, becomes the Surety, and Sponsor to Jehovah, for the redemption of his Wife and Children, the Church. Hence he cries, Lo! I come to do thy will, 0 God! Mine ears hast thou opened! Isaiah 1:5
I beg the Reader to pause over this blessed view, for it is blessed. Through all the Old Testament Scripture, we find the proclamation, Lo! I come. And we find the Church or the constant look out for Christ's coming. The Church is introduced as saying: It is the voice of my Beloved! behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, Song of Solomon 2:8; Zechariah 2:10-11. Hence, as the time drew nearer, we are told, that there were some who departed not from the temple night, nor day, waiting for the consolation of Israel: Luke 2:37; Luke 2:37. Yea, after Christ actually came, the message of John the Baptist is in proof, how universal the expectation of the Lord's people was, when the question of enquiry was worded so expressly to this individual Person: art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Matthew 11:3
But, Reader! in contemplating the Lord's coming, in the days of his flesh, for the accomplishment of redemption, let us not overlook the Lord's coming now, by the sweet influences of his Spirit, to make that redemption personally blessed to each soul. Jesus comes now in his word, and by his ordinances, providences, promises, manifestations; and in the many, numberless, nameless ways, by which he maketh himself known to his people, otherwise than he doth to the world. And, oh! what grace in him, what joy to them? And it must be so. For there is a mutual connection between Jesus and his people. His glory is their joy; their happiness, his pleasure. While he gives out grace, their souls are made blessed in him. And when they are everlastingly housed in his embraces in heaven; he sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. It would be always well for every regenerated child of God to have this in view, for it would give strength to his faith. When an exercised soul can say, My God, my, Savior will be glorified, when I am blessed in his salvation!
For the very delightful expressions, of the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and for the vast difference between the priests under the Law, standing daily to minister, and Christ forever sitting down on the right hand of God, having obtained eternal redemption for us; I refer to Hebrews 1:3, where the subject is already considered.