In contrast to it,
the Apostle designates the substance as "the very image of the objects."
Instead of repeating the indefinite expression "good things to come," he
speaks of them as "objects,"[198] individually distinct, substantial,
true. The image[199] of a thing is the full manifestation of its inmost
essence, in the same sense in which St. Paul says that the Son of God's
love, in Whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, is
the image of the invisible God.[200] Indeed, it is extremely
questionable whether our author too does not refer allusively to the
same truth. For, in the verses that follow, he contrasts with the
sacrifices of the former covenant the coming of Jesus Christ into the
world to accomplish the work which they had failed to do.[201] When the
blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, inasmuch as it was an
unreal atonement, God prepared a body for His own eternal Son. The Son
responded to the Divine summons and, in accordance with the prophecies
of Scripture concerning Him, came from heaven to earth to give Himself
as the sufficient sacrifice for sin. The contrast, as heretofore, is
between the vanity of animal sacrifices and the greatness of the Son,
Who offered Himself. His assumption of humanity had for its ultimate end
to enable the Son to do the will of God. The gracious purpose of God is
to forgive sin, and this was accomplished by the infinite humiliation of
the infinite Son. God's will was to sanctify us; that is, to remove our
guilt.[202] We have actually been thus sanctified through the one
offering of the body of Jesus Christ. The sacrifices of the Law are
taken out of the way in order to establish the sacrifice of the
Son.[203]

It will be observed that the Apostle is not contrasting sacrifice and
obedience. His meaning is not precisely the same as the prophet
Samuel's: that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than
the fat of rams."[204] It is perfectly true that the sacrifice of the
Son involved obedience,--a conscious, deliberate, willing obedience,
which the beasts to be slain in sacrifice could not offer. The idea
pervades these verses, as an atmosphere. But it is not the idea
expressed. The dominant thoughts of the passage are the greatness of the
Person Who obeyed and the greatness of the sacrifice from which His
obedience did not shrink. The Son is here represented as existing and
acting apart from His human nature.[205] He comes into the world,