What Was on Jesus’ Mind at Christmas?

Hebrews 10:5-7 is a different kind of Christmas passage. It says:

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”

The writer to the Hebrews is quoting from Psalm 40:6-8, a Davidic psalm. Saul went through the motions in serving God. Not David. David knew that God required his heart to match the sacrifice being offered. David wanted his heart to match the sacrifices offered on his behalf. He wanted to offer his entire life to God.

According to Hebrews, this passage points to Jesus.

In Hebrews 10, we get a glimpse of what was going on in Jesus’ mind before he was born. When Jesus spoke these words, he was the transcendent, eternal second person of the Trinity. If we had been there, we would have had to cover our eyes like the angels from his glory. We couldn’t have grasped his greatness or his power.

But then he turned to his Father and said, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book”

And then that same holy God was reduced to a microscopic cell in a woman’s womb. He was entombed in darkness for nine months. He was born as a baby in a dirty cave, surrounded by animals. Why? So he could be our sacrifice. So he could abolish the Old Testament system of sacrifices and be our perfect sacrifice instead. He who was irreducible in his grandeur and glory was reduced to a babe. And every year we come back to the babe and worship him.

Jesus’ whole motive in coming to the world was to take on a body to obey God and offer the ultimate sacrifice to which the other sacrifices pointed.

I love this passage because it gives us insight into the mind of Jesus at the incarnation. I love it because it ties Christmas to our ultimate need. According to Hebrews, Jesus completed that work. There’s nothing left to do. The final sacrifice was been offered. Our salvation was accomplished. Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God. God no longer remembers our sinful deeds.

“There was fashioned by the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the blessed Virgin, a body fitted to embody the Son of God,” preached Spurgeon. “The whole body of Christ was prepared for him and for his great work.”

I’ve never heard a Christmas sermon preached from this passage, other than one I preached some 17 years ago. But not a Christmas goes by that I don’t think of this passage.

How amazing that Jesus came with this kind of obedience, commitment, and willingness to save us. It’s only one of many Christmas passages, but it’s a good one and worth thinking about for a very long time.