Shadow, Repeated Sacrifice, and the Body Prepared to Do God’s Will

The law’s sacrificial system is called a shadow of the coming good things rather than their final image. Repetition demonstrates that the worshipers’ conscience was not brought to the intended final state; animal blood could not accomplish what Christ’s offering does. Hebrews then places Psalm 40:6–8 on Christ’s lips. A major textual feature matters: the Greek Psalter reads “a body you prepared for me,” where the Hebrew tradition behind many English Old Testaments speaks of opened or dug ears. Hebrews follows the Greek form and develops its “body” language directly: by God’s will believers are sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ’s body once for all.