Hebrews 10:9

Moreover, the prophets indicate in the fullest manner that God stood in no need of their slavish obedience, but that it was upon their own account that He enjoined certain observances in the law. And again, that God needed not their oblation, but [merely demanded it], on account of man himself who offers it, the Lord taught distinctly, as I have pointed out.

Paul himself explains the words of David. You will ask: what then? Were not the sacrifices according to the law in accordance with God's will? Indeed, they were in accordance with God's will, but the designation of will is twofold. One desires something preferentially above …

Christ spoke, "while coming into the world," not "after he had entered it." But manifestly he was already entering it when he promised David and maintained that he would seat one from the fruit of his loins on his throne until the age would come. …

Therefore, after saying this he continues: Then said I, namely, when You fitted to me a body for my passion, or when they did not please you, Lo, I have come, either to the incarnation or to the passion. To what end? To do your …

Then said he - in that very instant he subjoined. Lo, I come to do Thy will - To offer a more acceptable sacrifice; and by this very act he taketh away the legal, that he may establish the evangelical, dispensation.

Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God,....

In establishing the second, that is, his own priesthood and the everlasting gospel, the most pure and perfect dispensation of the covenant of grace; this is the great design upon which the heart of God was set from all eternity.

Then said he--"At that time (namely, when speaking by David's mouth in the fortieth Psalm) He hath said." The rejection of the legal sacrifices involves, as its concomitant, the voluntary offer of Jesus to make the self-sacrifice with which God is well pleased (for, indeed, it was God's own "will" that He came to do in offering it: so that this sacrifice could not but be well pleasing to God).

THE way of God with men is to go from good to better and from better to best. In the creation, "the evening and the morning were the first day." "And the evening and the morning were the second day." And so on to the sixth day. God often gives us darkness before He gives us light and He gives us some measure of light in the rising sun before He gives us the full glory of noontide. And this, I suppose, is not because God needs any such rule for Himself.

THE way of God with men is to go from good to better and from better to best. In the creation, "the evening and the morning were the first day." "And the evening and the morning were the second day." And so on to the sixth day. God often gives us darkness before He gives us light and He gives us some measure of light in the rising sun before He gives us the full glory of noontide. And this, I suppose, is not because God needs any such rule for Himself. He can give the best, first, if He so chooses, but I imagine that this arrangement is necessary because of our infirmity. It would never do for weak eyes to have the full light of the sun pouring down upon them. Often, when men are faint, and nearly dying of hunger, they would be killed outright if strong meat were at once set before them—they must be gently fed as they are able to bear it. So God, knowing the feebleness of His creatures and especially the feebleness of His sinful creatures, is pleased to bestow His mercies with great wisdom and prudence. Little by little, first a very little, it may be, and then rather more, and then still more, and then much more, and then most of all until He does exceedingly abound in mercy towards us according to the riches of His Grace. It often happens that the lesser blessing is a sort of preparatory school before the greater favor. The Law of Moses acted as an education for men to prepare them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The types and shadows of the twilight of the tabernacle and temple services helped men, by-and-by, to appreciate the substance when the True Light began to shine among the sons of men. We have need to be continually educated and trained for that which lies before us. We are not fit to enter even Heaven, itself, until we have learned something of the heavenly things here below.

He taketh away the first - The offerings, sacrifices, burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin, which were prescribed by the law. That he may establish the second - The offering of the body of Jesus once for all. It will make little odds in the meaning if we say, he taketh away the first covenant, that he may establish the second covenant; he takes away the first dispensation, that he may establish the second; he takes away the law, that he may establish the Gospel. In all these cases the sense is nearly the same: I prefer the first.