OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WILL. Hebrews 10:5-7 In Old Testament times, believers obeyed God's command by offering an animal without blemish or fine pure flour. These symbolic acts looked forward to Christ's perfect sacrifice, which He would make when He "offered Himself without spot to God." Those sacrifices of old pointed to what Christ would do to take away sins forever. God, in grace, considered their willingness to obey Him by bringing the sacrifices He specified. Based on that, He forgave them when they showed their faith in Him.
The scripture quotations show that God desires obedience and a sincere heart, pleased with the one who offers. We didn't meet that standard, but our Lord Jesus did through His love for the Father and His obedience to His will. Two things were needed to satisfy God’s requirement for sins to be forgiven: a sinless body and an obedient person who would follow God's will. His obedience to the Father was one of the reasons His sacrifice was better than those of the Old Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who could provide these.
The offerings that were repeated did not remove the distance between a sinner and God because they had to be repeated year after year. They provided atonement, a temporary covering. When our Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself, the demands of the law were fully met, and the price of our sins was paid in full. The statement that God does not remember our sins is a legal term meaning that the whole matter of sin separating man from God has been settled. It doesn’t mean God won’t remember what caused the wounds in Jesus's hands, feet, and side. It does mean that the death of the sinner who has trusted Christ as Lord and Savior has taken place, and there is nothing else to be brought up about our past life of sin. The whole matter of punishment for sin has ended.
The question is, how can Hebrew believers understand they should stop sacrificing animals? To a religious Jew, it might seem like they are disobeying God's word. So, the writer of Hebrews makes his point by quoting David's words in Psalms 40:6-8. This was also God’s latest word on the matter, and it was quoted by Christ, the Messiah, when He came into the world as a man. His voice was heard; He understood God's heart on this issue. He knew why sacrifices had been offered for centuries. He knew animals didn’t realize what their death meant. When the Promised Messiah arrived, everything changed.
Animal sacrifices never permanently satisfied God; they only temporarily covered sin. In our place, Christ did satisfy God because He was the perfect, sinless sacrifice of the same kind as sinners. He met every claim God has against sinners. He understood how God feels about sin and its severity. When He offered Himself, He offered His sinless body on our behalf, and that was all the justice of God required. Now, we all were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and we are “holy and without blemish before Him in love” – not based on law!