THE LAW WAS A SHADOW

The New Testament speaks of the Old Testament system as a shadow of what we find revealed in the New Testament. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Heb. 10:1). The good things to come of which the law was a shadow was the death of Christ, as the context shows (Heb. 10:2-9).

One cannot read these statements in Hebrews 10 without being made to realize that every animal sacrifice of the Old Testament was a “sermon” about Jesus. The law pointed to Christ in several ways. Paul reveals that the Old Testament law was a tutor to lead men to Christ (Gal. 3:24). The word “tutor” described one in a family or household who was the guardian responsible for the welfare of the children. The law, in other words, was given the responsibility to lead us to Christ.

The only thing a perfect law can do for imperfect people is to show them how badly they have transgressed it and how much they need a Savior. So the law pointed to Christ. As the Holy Spirit reveals, “For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things..” (Heb. 10:1), and that the contents of the Old Covenant “are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:17).

Christ came to fulfill the law (Matt. 5:17). For him to be able to do such a thing as fulfill God’s law, the law had to have pointed to him. The writings of the Old Testament made constant reference to his death (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 53:4–12; Dan. 9:24-26; Zech. 9:11; 13:1). He fulfilled the law by being the only one to keep it perfectly, by fulfilling the promises and prophecies contained within it, and by fulfilling the types of the Old Testament which pointed to him. But it was by his death that all of these other things came together so that nothing the law required remains to be fulfilled.

God had no pleasure in the death of animals. He was seeking the sacrifice of an obedient human life, and he received it in Jesus. Animal sacrifices could never take away sins, they could only serve as a reminder of how bad sin is. Only Christ could take away sins—and he did this through his death on the cross. This is the message of the 10th chapter of Hebrews.

Dewayne Dunaway