The Expository Files

 

Will the Shadow Do?



“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near,” (Heb. 10:1, ESV).

Not long after the first covenant was taken away (Heb. 10:9), there were some who were tempted to go back to it, with its’ priesthood and sacrifices. Jews who came out of that old system and into Christ were under pressure to leave Christ and go back.

But that law they wanted to go back to was only a shadow. It was only a faint preliminary outline of the good things which came with Jesus Christ: Access to God through Him by the activity of one’s faith.
So the message was coming across: “You are being tempted to go back to that which is only a shadow!”

This statement in Hebrews 10:1 really ought to help people today the Old Testament. Everybody understands what a shadow is - It only reflects the substance, the real thing.

Some very simple observations can be made:

1] The shadow is inferior to the object.

 2] The shadow depends upon the object.

3] The shadow is only temporary, the object is permanent.

Men, when you buy a truck, will you settle for a picture of the truck? Or what if the salesman asks you to drive the shadow home! Now we’ve hit that great button of understanding: a man and his truck. You want the truck, not the shadow.

I want Christ, not the foreshadow of animal sacrifices. Read Heb. 10:1-4.

By Warren E. Berkley
The Front Page
From Expository Files 16.3; March 2009

 

 

 

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