3. (a) What did Jesus mean by the words, “Sacrifice and offering you did not want”? (b) What outstanding example did Jesus set for all who want to become his disciples?

³ Jesus was praying at the time of his baptism. (Luke 3:21) Evidently, from this point on in his life, he fulfilled the words of Psalm 40:6-8, as later indicated by the apostle Paul: “Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me.” (Hebrews 10:5) Thus Jesus showed his awareness that God “did not want” animal sacrifices to continue being offered at Jerusalem’s temple. Instead, he realized that God had prepared a perfect human body for him, Jesus, to offer as a sacrifice. This would remove any further need of animal sacrifices. Showing his heartfelt desire to submit to God’s will, Jesus continued praying: “Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7) What a magnificent example of courage and unselfish devotion Jesus set on that day for all who would later become his disciples!—Mark 8:34.

4. How did God show his approval of Jesus’ offering of himself?

⁴ Did God show approval of Jesus’ baptismal prayer? Let one of Jesus’ chosen apostles give us the answer: “After being baptized Jesus immediately came up from the water; and, look! the heavens were opened up, and he saw descending like a dove God’s spirit coming upon him. Look! Also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’”—Matthew 3:16, 17; Luke 3:21, 22.

5. What was pictured by the literal temple altar?

⁵ God’s acceptance of the presentation of Jesus’ body for sacrifice meant that, in a spiritual sense, an altar greater than that in Jerusalem’s temple had come to the fore. The literal altar where animals were presented for sacrifice foreshadowed that spiritual altar, which was in effect God’s “will” or arrangement for accepting Jesus’ human life as a sacrifice. (Hebrews 10:10) That is why the apostle Paul could write to fellow Christians: “We have an altar from which those who do sacred service at the tent [or, temple] have no authority to eat.” (Hebrews 13:10) In other words, true Christians benefit from a superior sin-atoning sacrifice, which most Jewish priests rejected.

Forty days later, Jesus ascended to heaven and entered the real “Holy of Holies,” “to appear before the person of God for us.”—Hebrews 9:24.

10. (a) What happened after Jesus presented the value of his sacrifice to his heavenly Father? (b) What did the anointing with holy spirit mean for Christ’s disciples?

¹⁰ Did God accept the value of Jesus’ shed blood as atonement for the sins of the world? Indeed he did. Proof of this came exactly 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, on the festival day of Pentecost. God’s holy spirit was poured out upon 120 disciples of Jesus gathered together in Jerusalem. (Acts 2:1, 4, 33)