Sacrifice Acceptable To God

Hebrews 10:1-10
Animal Sacrifices Insufficient
1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Christ’s Death Fulfills God’s Will
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The Jewish Law is not a full picture of the real things. It is only a shadow. It is only a faint outline of the good things to come. The same sacrifices are offered continually, year after year.

How can the Law, then, by means of these sacrifices make perfect the people who come to God?

If the people worshiping God had really been purified from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop.

As it is, however, the sacrifices serve year after year to remind people of their sins. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins.

For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, He said to God: “You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but You have prepared a body for Me, You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, ‘Here I am, to do Your will, O God, just as it is written of Me in the Book of the Law.’”

Jesus said, “You neither want nor are You pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins.”

He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the Law.

Then He said, “Here I am, O God, to do Your will.”

So, God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of His own body once and for all.

Like the people of God in Israel, many Christians are doing the same things day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. How often have we bring offerings and sacrifices to God that we think and deem to be sacrificially and religiously correct? How often have we bring things and services that are not acceptable to God?

Psalm 51:16-17
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

God does not need any more dead sacrifices. He requires living sacrifices! People who are not proud and arrogant but are humble before God. They will know what is good and acceptable before God. They will do what the Lord requires them to do. They will do what is right and just to other people. They will be loving and kind to others. They will live humbly before God. Always trusting and obeying God.

Romans 12:1-2
Living Sacrifices to God
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Because of what God has done for us, we need to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. This is the true worship that we should offer. It is acceptable to God.

True worship is not about singing praises and making music to the Lord. It is a life lived faithfully and dedicated gratefully to serve God and others with love, joy and peace. Like Jesus, He came in love to serve God and others, and to do His perfect will!

We should not behave like the people of the world, using our own ways and methods to offer sacrifices to God. We should not conform ourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform us inwardly by a complete change of our minds.

Then we will be able to know the will of God. What is good? What is acceptable and pleasing to Him? What is the perfect will of God?

May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May we seek to do His will, and not our will. And may we seek to do what is acceptable to Him.

Written on 29 September 2025