- CHAPTER 12: Jesus, Fulfillment of the Shadow

IMAGINE WITH ME a capable housewife and cook preparing her dining room for guests. She has set the cloth-covered table with her best china and silverware, positioning everything precisely. She adds a centerpiece of cut flowers—a delicate floral complement to the food we suppose will soon becoming.
But instead of the platter of savory beef and the dishes of steaming mashed potatoes and other vegetables that we had anticipated, she brings a single loaf of bread into the dining room. This she upends on the buffet, placing a strong light behind it so that the loaf of bread casts its own distinct shadow over the table service beyond it. We would have further reason to question the woman’s sanity if at that point she called family and guests to the table, announcing cheerily, “The shadow of the bread is ready. You may come!”
Before I attempt a spiritual application of that unlikely scenario, consider how the writer to the Hebrews portrays the vast difference between the Old Testament “shadow” in the law and the reality of God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord:
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?…
Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.…
When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:1-2, Hebrews 10:9-10, Hebrews 10:12)
The inspired writer is plainly repetitious in his effort to fully contrast the Old Testament rituals, or shadows, with the perfections of grace, mercy and love found in the radiant, eternal person of Jesus, the Christ. This is a serious, sobering passage of Scripture, for it deals with the hope and the glory of the human race.
Shadow versus reality
The Old Testament economy, the law of Moses, the priesthood of imperfect men and the offering of sacrifices for sin—all of these were appointed of God for a time. They represented as a shadow the better things, the reality to come.
The Old Testament rituals contained the meaningful shadow of the promised Messiah-Redeemer. The writer is telling us that the true Light of God had fallen across the person of Jesus, the eternal Son. The shadow cast by that light and that Person was the temporary economy of the Old Testament.
We know very well the impossibility of trying to survive on a shadow. It cannot be done. The shadow has been cast by the light, but it has no being or substance of its own. If you are in need of nourishment, the shadow of a loaf of bread is of no avail. It will provide no food. You will continue to be hungry. You will say, “I have had enough of shadow. Bring me the actual loaf of bread so I may eat and be satisfied!”
So in those Old Testament times, the shadow of good things to come was not enough. Men and women with whom God was dealing had to live by looking forward in faith to the better promise, the better hope, the reality to come. This is the glory and joy of the letter to the Hebrews. Jesus has come to be Savior and Messiah and Lord. God’s Reality has come! The shadow has been fulfilled. The radiance of God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ has made the shadow of no effect.
When we find repetition in the pages of our Bibles as we do in these early chapters of Hebrews, we know there is a purpose behind it. As Christian believers, we have learned to trust the divine wisdom and the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit knows that we do not quickly apprehend divine truth. We must read or hear it more than once. God’s method of instruction is “Do and do, do and do, / rule on rule, rule on rule; / a little here, a little there” (Isaiah 28:10)—until we have received and learned and benefited.
In this process of learning, God has some problems with us. One problem is that we get bored. Thankfully, God is faithful and persistent. He is not disposed to let us go. He keeps telling us to go on learning, to go on believing, to go on rejoicing in His Word. He is God and we can trust Him as He leads us and reveals His will to us.
Now, on God’s side I speak with reverence but with plainness when I say that God became tired of those Old Testament rituals and sacrifices. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats can purge away sin. God says as much through the prophet Isaiah:
The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to meet with me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts? (Isaiah 1:11-12)
Our hearts must be in tune with God
In effect, Isaiah was saying to the people of Israel, “God grows weary of your sacrifices and offerings when your hearts and minds are not in tune with Him!” Probably if we are sufficiently thoughtful and concerned, this same message would cause us to reassess a popular notion among us. We presume we are impressing high heaven by attending churches in large numbers. Surely God is still asking, “Who told you to do this? When you come before Me, who has required this of you? Bring no more vain oblations!”
God is bored with interminably repeated sacrifices and offerings that have no meaning. He had initiated those rituals and sacrifices in Israel, but only as temporary measures for the covering of sin until the Messiah-Redeemer should come. When Israel no longer had a commitment in worship and no sense of the importance of forgiveness and obedience, God said, “I cannot stand the empty motions you go through. I hate your rituals and feasts. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of them.”
Ultimately, there came the word from the eternal Son, repeated in Hebrews 10:5 :
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, `Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’“
This can be none other than Jesus, the eternal Son, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. He has come to carry out God’s gracious plan of redemption. Thus it is that by that will of God “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
What have we done with this message?
Have we really accepted this word from God Himself?
I am of the opinion that much in our Christian ritual and liturgy does not come to grips with its basic meaning. I have listened to the great musical renditions of Bach, Beethoven, Handel and others. The music written for use in services such as the mass is sublime and the language beautiful. But I cannot escape the feeling that something is missing. The prayers and the appeals are there—”Lord, have mercy!” “Christ, have mercy!” They are voiced again and again.
Could it be that this prayer, this appeal to God for mercy, is but the shadow of the truth? Do these prayers never approach to the reality of saving faith and confident assurance in God’s promise and provision? There must come a time when petition becomes reality and we shout, “It is done! The great transaction is done! I am my Lord’s, and He is mine!”
There has to be a time and a place when we rejoice in faith that we are forgiven, that we have been born again, that God has accomplished His plan. Right there we drive a stake and say, “Thank you, Lord! I am forgiven. I am cleansed. I am pardoned. I am a new person, born from above. Now put me to work. I am ready to witness.”
I confess that I am sad indeed for those multitudes in the great framework of Sunday Christianity who know nothing beyond their plaintive and continuing efforts to be forgiven and to find mercy. They must come to the time when it is done, when they can stretch their hands toward heaven and say in triumphant faith “It is finished!”
Substance, not shadow
This is the contrast between law and grace. In Old Testament times, every priest ministered daily, offering the same sacrifices that could not take away sin. Then came the revelation of the new covenant and the eternal, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the assurance of complete forgiveness:
When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.…
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. (Hebrews 10:12-14, Hebrews 10:19-22)
Where could we find a more gracious picture of the privileges that belong to the believing, trusting children of God? Notice that we have been provided a consecrated way into the very presence of God! What a contrast to the Old Testament picture of our first parents when they had sinned and failed in the Garden of Eden. God had to say to them, “Get up and get out! “As they left that beautiful estate and God’s presence, God placed “cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).
It was the beginning of trials and sorrows for the human race, represented then by Adam and Eve. They could never return. And it has been my feeling that the whole race has harbored a yearning to go back to God’s presence, to return to Eden. I do not mean that everyone in the race wants to be a Christian. Too many are satisfied with the world, the flesh and the devil. But when you come to really know men and women, you often will find a wistful yearning, a longing probably not identified, to know what it meant for Adam and Eve to be able to dwell contentedly in the presence of their God and Creator.
In it all we see the blinding effect of sin. Men and women do not really want to be good. They do not want to submit to the will of God. Yet the longing for that Presence still is there.
But no one, unaided, has found a way back. Men and women everywhere have tried. It is said that in India there are enough gods for each person to have his or her own. Where is the tribe or nation without some god to worship or appease? But the search for a way back has been an empty disappointment.
And then Jesus came to live among mankind. The inspired record has Him saying, `”I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). After His death and resurrection, He opened a new and consecrated way back into the presence of God. He blazed the trail as our divine Mediator. Through faith in Him, all who yearn to may enter again the very presence of God.
And there in that Presence, Jesus is our great High Priest and Mediator. Because He wears our human nature, He welcomes us, His brothers and sisters, to share His position in the heavenlies.
Jesus took our guilt, but …
In this context we should consider our justification and our acceptance by the living, holy God. In our Christian faith we understand that God laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. Theologians sometimes call this the “transfer of guilt,” and believe what the Bible says about it.
In many church circles today we are hearing about the “automatic” qualities attached to Christianity. A whole generation is being taught that a profession of faith in Christ brings automatic righteousness, automatic standing with God, automatic pardon and automatic eternal life. “Jesus has done everything that needs to be done,” goes the argument; “all you have to do is say you believe. Believe and be justified! Believe and be accepted as righteous!”
This idea of automatically transferring the sinner’s guilt to Christ is a little too pat to please my heart. The commonly held idea seems to be that I can be as vile as the inside of a green, mucky sewer, but if and when I believe, the Lord drops a mantle of judicial righteousness upon me and immediately I am accepted by God as perfectly pure. It is my conclusion that a holy God would have to contradict Himself to perform a transaction like that.
How does God justify a sinful person? He does so by taking the sinner’s nature into Christ, who is the perfect, righteous One. His righteousness, in turn, goes to the sinner. Some teachers will argue for the judicial impartation of righteousness alone. But when by faith the sinner’s nature is taken into the very nature of Christ, His righteousness becomes a part of the former sinner’s nature.
Let me say it another way. I doubt very much that there is any such thing in the mind of God as justification without regeneration—new God—life imparted to the sinner. It is regeneration that unites us to the nature of Jesus. Jesus being righteous imparts new God-life from His own nature to us, and God is satisfied.
In that sense, the idea of the transfer of guilt is accurate. But we carry the concept too far until it becomes a plainly mechanical thing, like a commercial transaction. There must be a vital, living commitment. Righteousness is imparted to the believing sinner who is united to Christ. It is not imparted to the sinner who simply stands outside and receives a judicial notification that he has been “made righteous.”
This adds some important light. As believers, we are accepted in the beloved Son. We can never be accepted out of the beloved Son.
God is our hiding place
Christian believers have another privilege. We have seen that we have a moral right to come to God—into His presence. We are accepted by Him because of Christ Jesus. But we also have the right to hide in God and be safe. That, too, is our privilege because Jesus, our great High Priest, perfectly represents us at God’s right hand. When we are united to Christ, no one can take this right and privilege away from us. We are safe! We are safe!
Someone was quoted as saying, “I do not want to hide from life. I want to face up to life every day.” Knowing the nature of humankind, I would call such talk bold and brave.
When the winter temperature is 50 degrees below zero, it is brave, bold talk to say, “I do not want to hide from the cold. I want to face it, whether I have the proper clothing or not!” When we face the abrasive storms of life, it is ridiculous to say, “I do not want a hiding place. I will face the storms.”
What we are hiding from is not life. We are hiding from a sinful world, from a sinister devil, from vicious temptation. We are hiding in the only place there is to hide—in God. It is our right and our privilege to know the perfect safety He has promised.
The trusting child of God is safe in Jesus Christ. When the lambs are safe in the fold, the wolf can growl and snarl outside, but he cannot get into the fold. When the child of God enters the Father’s house, the enemy of his or her soul can roar and threaten, but he cannot enter. Such a shelter is our high privilege!
Jesus is enough
In Old Testament terms—the shadow of reality—God promised He would cover the sin of His people. In the New Testament covenant, God declares He will put our sin away forever. This is a vastly different thing! “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin {that is, without a sin offering},but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28).
God chose eight and perhaps nine writers to provide us with the New Testament. These inspired Scriptures agree that the symbolic shadows in the Old Testament have given way to the new covenant of grace and pardon mediated through Jesus Christ, who died and rose again. We look back with gratitude and love to His atoning death at Calvary. We look forward in hope and expectancy to His second coming.
This all adds up to the fact that Jesus Christ is enough for all our needs. He is our great High Priest and Intercessor in heaven. He is the worthy Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. By His blood He has consecrated forever the way into God’s presence. He is our Man in glory.
Let us thankfully hide in Him and be safe!