The Law a Shadow – The Kingdom Curriculum II (2)

The Law a Shadow

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. Hebrews 10:1

Throughout the period of the Old Testament, the Law of God cast a shadow toward the future. It was not the substance of what was to come, but it outlined it, pointed to it, and gave some sense of what the substance would look like fully fleshed. The Law encoded a spiritual, moral, social, and cultural system that stood to make Israel the wisest and most esteemed nation of all the earth (Deut. 4.6-8). But because Israel did not have the proper heart for walking in obedience to God’s Law, the true form of the Law consistently eluded her, and she lived only in the shadow of its majestic greatness.

This was especially true of the cultic laws of Israel – all those statutes and precepts which related to the work of the priests and Levites in maintaining the people in a right relationship with God. The fact that the offerings and sacrifices had to be performed over and over indicated that they had no power to remove sin but only to cover it for a season (Heb. 10.2-4). But even these shadows, involving sacrifices of blood and pronouncements of cleanness and forgiveness seemed to portend a more complete offering, a final cultic law to come.

This is what Jesus fulfilled, becoming Himself both Priest and Sacrifice to atone for the sins of all who believe in Him (Heb. 10.5-9). In His own body Jesus Christ fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law – precluding our needing to keep the commandments unto salvation – and bore the full wrath of the Law against wretched sinners such as we – thus preventing our being barred by inveterate disobedience to the commandment from salvation. He abolished the shadow of the Law in the True Form of His own life and body. All who believe “into” Him – the Apostle John’s favorite way of designating saving faith – enter into the perfection of righteousness and the complete satisfaction of all judgment, the true form, and not just the shadow.

By believing into Jesus Christ we enter into the righteousness of God which Jesus embodied – the righteousness of the Law (Matt. 5.17). Where Jesus walks they will walk who abide in Him, and in whom His Spirit – the Giver of the new heart – abides, wills, and works for obedience to the Law of God (Ezek. 36.26, 27; Phil. 2.12, 13). They who believe in Jesus live no longer in the shadow of the Law, grasping after a substance they can never achieve. But they must not live in ignorance of it, either. Rather, they must walk with the True Form of the Law wherever He may direct and carry them (1 Jn. 2.1-6).

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.