Hebrews 10:5-10, “I have come to do your will, O God!”
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent, the theme of which is love, and the scripture lesson comes from Hebrews 10:5-10. These short passages allow us to think, reflect on, and learn about our triune God’s love.
The first thing we want to focus on is who Jesus is. Was Jesus created or pre-existed? Is Jesus God or a human who was a clump of clay who had to figure out who he was in terms of his identity? The answer is in our text. Verses 5 to 7 in our text are quoted from Psalm 40: 6-8, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; With burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.” With the mouth of David, Christ spoke about Himself, that He was not created but came into the world. “I have come to do your will, my God!” Jesus came into the world with a clear sense of who he was and what he came to do. He was pre-existed, not created at some point. In other words, Jesus was and is God who came of his own will to do His Father’s will.
Second, our Bible is about Jesus Christ, the plan of God’s salvation for the fallen humanity. Vs. 7, “It is written about me in the scroll.” The scroll here means the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The tree of life in Genesis is Christ; the lamb’s blood in Exodus signifies the blood of Jesus; the whole Levitical sacrificial system serves as the type of Christ’s sacrifice, and so on. The Old Testament is the blueprint of God’s salvation plan, and the New Testament is the fulfillment of God’s plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
At this point, we might question why Jesus came to earth, why God planned salvation through Jesus Christ, and why God has gone through all the trouble to the extent of shedding the blood of the incarnate God.
Do we know why? Because God is love. Out of love, God created us to share what He has: His Kingdom, His Goodness, and all that He is and has. All that of God that God wants to share with us is the supreme good, which is beyond our imagination and comprehension. God knew humans would fall, yet God risked creating humans with the plan of salvation. In other words, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was determined before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). Can we imagine the extent of the good that God wants to share with humans even if it takes sacrificing the Incarnate God Himself? That is why I pray daily to open my eyes to see the depth of His love and goodness.
Next, let us reflect on Christ’s love for us. God’s plan of salvation is fulfilled because of His submission to God’s will to save us. It took Christ’s willing obedience to the Father’s will, the plan of the incarnation, and the sacrifice on the cross by which humans can be sanctified.
Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, came down from Heaven, being incarnated; God became human by wearing a human body. Do we know what that means? He emptied Himself being God and became a lowly human in an earthly suit. Because we sinned, and no one or nothing can cancel or do away with human sins, Jesus had to be the atoning sacrifice as a sinless and impeccable sacrifice to God, who demands death from sinful humans. Because the first atonement system of animal sacrifice spelled out in the Book of Leviticus was an imperfect and incomplete atonement system, Jesus, God the Son, had to be incarnated to be the sinless and impeccable atonement sacrifice once and for all. Because no one but only God is sinless, Jesus had to come down. To do that, Jesus had to lower himself to the lowest from the highest Heaven, emptying Himself from being God and becoming human. Can we comprehend His sacrifice, His love? His Love is perfect love, unlike ours.
Many of you know we had unhoused people attending our church three or four months ago. They were alcoholics. At first, I didn’t know that they lied to me when I asked them whether they had drinking problems. When I found out that they were alcoholics, I still had to take care of them as a shepherd takes care of their sheep because they came to our church. I don’t think pastors have a choice when deciding who their sheep are. Whoever comes to the church that God has entrusted to one’s care becomes their sheep. Because they attended our church, I had to take care of them. I tried to meet their material needs with other people’s help and their spiritual needs. I had them come to church regularly for prayers and reading the scripture. I talked, listened to them, and tried to find their jobs, including housing. When I realized that they could not get their housing on their own with their eviction and felony records, I was willing to buy a house for them, provided that they would make the house payment. As long as they tried to help themselves, I was willing to go beyond and above. To make a long story short, I failed to be their shepherd; I gave up on them. I told them I would buy a house for them on the condition that they would quit drinking and proved that they did. Not surprisingly, they failed, and I failed. People said I had done more than I could for them, but I know I failed them. In dealing with them, I had no patience with them. In my eyes, they were pathetic, not having the will to help themselves. I yelled and screamed at them at times. Because I was so frustrated with them, finding myself at a dead end, not knowing what to do with them, I could not help but cast a despising look at them, disgusted. If it only takes their wish to quit drinking, there aren’t many alcoholics out there struggling. It takes strong willpower, which most alcoholics do not have. Yet I still demanded them to quit drinking without being patient so that I could help them, something that could not be done easily or quickly within a short period. They are now in a homeless shelter in Springfield. Hopefully, they can get structured help with counseling, job training, financial management, and other things.
Do you see the difference between human love and God’s love? We demand that people meet our standards or requirements to have our love. But God’s love meets where we are and delivers us from our doom. God saw that we cannot help ourselves; we have no good in us to do good or the will to do good. We are absolutely helpless when it comes to helping ourselves. That was why God came down to shed blood to cover us up with His blood, atoning for our sins. How amazing and awesome His love for us is! God has standards and requirements for us, but He saw our helpless condition to help ourselves. That is why He did it for us, dying and paying for our sins. Do we see the difference between God’s love and ours?
However, that doesn’t mean that we can remain in our sins. The blood of the Lamb covering us up provides the escape from death, from Egypt. With the blood of Jesus, we were delivered from death and are on the way to sanctification, to Christian perfection. Many people misunderstand the concept of “Just as I am, God accepts me!” They think God accepts them endlessly regardless of what and who they are. God indeed meets us where we are and covers us with the blood, delivering us from death. But after that, Jesus said, “Sin no more!” God demands us to be holy as God is holy, to be Christlike. That is what sanctification is all about. God saw our helpless condition to rescue ourselves; that was why God came down to where we were and covered us up with His blood. We are no longer helpless because Christ’s blood covers us; we can be victorious with God’s help.
Lastly, love takes obedience to do God’s will. Many people think love is a feeling, an erotic feeling. However, the feeling of infatuation will not last more than three months. People break their committed relationship, saying that they are not happy. If they know God, they can never say that. The love God approves is commitment, sacrifice, and obedience to do God’s will. Out of love, God sent His Son to this earth. Out of love, His Son Jesus Christ obeyed to be incarnated and sacrificed to fulfill God’s love. Sometimes, love demands us to do what we do not want. Remember Jesus’ prayer? “Father, remove this cup from me!” Jesus obeyed God’s will to be loving, denying Himself.
We who are loved with this unconditional love are to know that we are God-sent little Jesus to those around us to love the unlovable. We are little Jesus to our spouses, children, and people. We are to meet where they are practicing patience, forgiveness, and self-denial to fulfill God’s love through us. In this Advent season, I pray that we think about Christ’s love, which compels us to lower ourselves, emptying ourselves so that we can stay where God asks us to be and spread Christ’s love around us! Amen!
