A body you have prepared for me

In Hebrews 10:5-7 we read

'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 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'

Jesus was the Word of God who was with God in the begining and who was God. He had to come to the earth to redeem us from the dominion of Satan and of Sin by becoming a sacrifice for sin.  For this purpose, a body was prepared for Him and we read in John 1:14 that 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us'.  The body was prepared for Him so He could offer it as a sacrifice for the redemption of humanity instead of animal sacrifices and offerings which had to be offered year after year. The same is true of each one of us - we existed in God before the foundations of the earth and were only sent into the world to fulfil a specific purpose which God had before pre-ordained.  

We see this truth eplained in Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5 how that God knew us before we were formed in our mothers' womb and our days are recorded in His book even before they ever came to be. In the New Testament, Gal 1:15 says the same about Paul and Eph 2:10 also talks about God pre-ordaning certain paths that we should walk in here on earth. 

It is clear that God has a clearly defined purpose for each human being but it is also true that God has a purpose for each family (cf Abraham's lineage), each community, each City and each nation on the face of the earth.  This purpose of His is written in His books and is accessible to us.  Just like Jesus located what is written about Himself in the scroll (Luke 4:21), each one of us need to find out what is written in the scroll about us, embrace it and give oneself to God for it to be fulfilled having the same attitude as Jesus when he declared in John 4:34, 'my food is to do the will of the father and to finish it'.

It is also clear from John 10:10 that Satan also has his agenda for our lives which is directly opposite the plans of God hence the need to be focussed and clear minded about the father's purpose for our lives, families, church, City and Nation. It is not uncommon for us to feel inadequate to fulfill the plan of God for our life - Moses felt inadequate (Ex 4:13), Gideon felt inadequate (Judges 6:15) and so did Jeremiah (Jer 1:6). However, God does not ask us to fulfill His purpose with our own ability - infact, He calls us to do things that are humanly impossible so that we can depend on Him totally.

We therefore need to completely depend on God and let Him continue to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). The Lord's purpose for our lives must become our food and drink in order to fulfill/finish our race.

Let's offer our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God and let His fire fall upon us so we can run our race with passion and finish our course!

Dr Abidemi Nwator