The shadow of the law

The shadow of the law

Heb 10:1 ¶ For the law 'having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things...

Everyone knows what a shadow is. Paul uses the word very intentionally. Light represents the holiness of God. The light shines on the law revealing that God alone is God, and his justice is divinely correct. As light shines on a thing, the thing casts a darkened shadow. This darkness is seen as the love of God covering us with grace, or from our perspective, we are in sin and not being destroyed; this is his grace.

Paul is telling us that though the law reveals God's holiness, there is a hidden revelation of his grace within it. The message of grace is attached to the law. It is not the law. It accompanies it.

The law says: Don't murder ^[1]. But Christ fulfills the law by killing without violating the law. He said he laid down his own life. Don't think the fact that the Jewish leaders railroaded him, or the Romans nailing him to the cross were the cause of his death. He GAVE his life for us. ^[2]

The law says: Don't steal. But Paul and Peter, speaking of the shadow of the law said that he would come as a thief in the night. ^{[3] [4]}

In writing to the Hebrew (above), Paul says that the law has a shadow of the good things coming. Paul was explaining that when the law was given, the message of grace hidden in the law was given at the same time, but could not be understood until after the cross. At the time it was given, the 'good things coming' was speaking of Christ. The shadow speaks of the grace of God through the cross. ^[5]

1. ↑ Ex 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
2. ↑ Joh 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd. Joh 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
3. ↑ 1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
4. ↑ 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
5. ↑ There may be over 30 euphemisms for the 'kingdom of heaven' in Hebrews.