From
Shadow To Substance
Pastor
Darrin Wright 3-23-08 and 3-30-08
Introduction
The tenth chapter of Hebrews
contrasts the imperfect sacrifices that were offered under the Old Covenant
with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
According to John Phillips, the writer “embraces the flickering shadows
of yesterday, the solid realities available in Christ today, and the blessed
outcome of it all tomorrow.”
In this passage we see
1 Corinthians 2:2 (NASB) – “For I determined to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
The writer of Hebrews helps us see
that we can do nothing to pay our sin debt; however, he reminds us that Jesus
paid it all, all to Him we owe.
I.
Past Shadows (vs.1-4)
1.
In the Old
Testament era, the Israelites only had shadows.
2.
They could
not bring access to God.
3.
Question: Why did God establish the old
covenant with its shadow ceremonies, its shadow rituals, and its shadow
sacrifices?
4.
Answer: It all reflected the reality
of which it was the shadow. It was to
remind the people of that the penalty of sin is death. It was also to make them expectant, by pointing
to the salvation that was to come.
5.
shadow – outline of an object; pale reflection; form
without substance; Your shadow is an outline of you, but it is not you. It is an indication there is a “you”
somewhere that has cast a shadow. The
sacrifices (Religion) offered only a faint shadow of the reality of
Christ.
6.
The shadow of
a key cannot unlock a door. The shadow
of a meal cannot feed a hungry person.
The shadow of
7.
of the
good things to come – Christ
is the fulfillment of the good things to come:
forgiveness, peace, a clear conscience, security, and access to God.
8.
not the
very form of things –
indicates an exact replica; a complete representation, or detailed
reproduction.
9.
The Old System
was a shadow, Christ is the actual substance.
10.
Before
Christ, no one could get closer to the good things of God than the shadows of
them.
1.
The Old
Testament sacrifices were repetitive in nature.
2.
They could
not remove sin.
3.
the same
sacrifices …offer continually…year by year – The sacrificial system was a type or picture of
the work Jesus would accomplish on the cross.
This meant the system was temporary, and therefore could accomplish
nothing permanent. The very repetition
of the sacrifices day after day, and the Day of Atonement year after year let
the worshiper know that he still wasn’t dealing with the root of the problem,
his sin nature.
4.
Sin is man’s
greatest problem. No matter what kind of
religion a man has, if it cannot deal with sin, it is of no value.
5.
By nature we
are sinners; and by choice, we prove that our nature is sinful. It has well been said, “We are not sinners
because we sin. We sin because we are
sinners.”
6.
make
perfect – to bring to
completion, to bring to the intended end, all the old sacrifices and ceremonies
offered continually day after day and year after year could not do this.
7.
those who
draw near – the sacrifices
kept reminding the people that they were sinful, and that they were at the
mercy of God and could not enter into His presence. Far from erasing sin, the sacrifices only
called attention to it.
8.
consciousness of
sins – has to do with mans
innate awareness of wrong in his life and of his sense of guilt because of it. Conscience acts on our minds and hearts as
much as pain acts on our bodies. Both
are warning systems.
9.
Animal
sacrifices could never completely deal with human guilt. God did promise forgiveness to believing
worshipers (Lev.
10.
The Old
sacrifices could not provide the cleansing of sin, and as a result there was
still consciousness of sin.
1.
The
sacrifices were only external. Only the
blood of Christ cleanses the internal, our conscience.
2.
Each year the
people were reminded of their former indebtedness as well as their new
liabilities.
3.
Illustration: Suppose
you are in debt. You go to the bank and
borrow a certain amount of money to pay your debt. They ask, “Do you have anybody who will sign
the note with you?” It happens you have
a wealthy friend who is concerned for you and he says, “I’ll sign the note with
you. I’ll guarantee the repayment of the
debt.” It’s to come due in twelve
months. At the end of twelve months, not
only are you unable to pay the first debt, but you have also accumulated
additional debt. You need another note
tacked onto the original note. The
wealthy friend says, “I’ll stand good for that too.” Now you owe more. The next year the same thing happens. Somewhere down the line you finally realize
that there is nothing you can do to pay off your former debt and you are
accumulating new debt all the time. Then
comes the good news.
Your wealthy friend says, “I see you are not able to pay your debt. You’ve been accumulating more debt year after
year. I’m just going to pay it off in
full, so you will be totally out of debt.”
That’s what Jesus Christ did.
4.
All through
the Old Testament, there was only the repetition of the signing of promissory
notes. When Jesus paid the debt in full,
provision was made to get us out of debt.
If those Old Testament sacrifices had taken care of the sin problem,
they would have “ceased to be offered” (vs.2).
If sins had been cleansed by those sacrifices, the Jewish people
wouldn’t have had any more consciousness of sin.
5.
The yearly day of Atonement merely tormented their consciences: it reminded them that they had a deep seated
sin problem.
6.
To the Jews,
sins already committed were covered by the yearly sacrifice, but sins committed
after the sacrifice had to be remembered until the next Day of Atonement. In contrast, when Jesus died for our sins, He
not only covered our sins, He also cleansed our sins. He got down into the depths of our hearts. He made provision for the root problem of our
sin nature.
7.
Where sins
are not removed by the blood of Christ, their guilt and liability remain.
8.
These
sacrifices were instructive and illustrative, but ineffective. There was a desperate need for a better sacrifice.
9.
There was no
real relationship between a person’s sin and an animal sacrifice, it was only
symbolic. It was impossible for the
blood of an animal to bring forgiveness for a mans
moral offense against God. Only Jesus
Christ the perfect union of humanity and deity, could
satisfy God and purify man.
II. Powerful Savior (vs.5-9)
1.
A Prepared Body
(vs.5-6)
a.
Jesus was
going to be born in a body that was prepared by God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit.
b.
John 1:1 (NASB) – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.”
c.
John
d.
What tens of
thousands of animal sacrifices could not accomplish, Jesus accomplished with
one sacrifice forever.
e.
Christ said,
“Father, the Old Testament sacrifices have proven ineffective, so you have
prepared a body for me, that I might become a pleasing
sacrifice.”
f.
Kent Hughes – “The Father was not pleased with the Old Sacrifices…The fact was,
though God had instituted blood animal sacrifices (Ex. 24) he had never been
pleased with them and did not see them as ends.
He had established them as object lessons to instruct his people about
the sinfulness of their hearts, his hatred of sin, the fact that sin leads to
death, the need of an atonement, and his delight in those whose hearts were
clean and obedient, and faithful. But
there was nothing appealing to him in the sight of a dying animal. God had no pleasure in the moans and death
throes of lambs or bulls. What he did
find pleasure in was those who offered a sacrifice with a contrite heart,
obedient heart.”
g.
Christ is the
fulfillment of Old Testament sacrifices.
2.
A Prophetic Book (vs.7)
a.
In the roll of the book – Jesus’ whole life was controlled by the
“book”. The law, the psalms, and the
prophets foretold Christ’s coming. His
birth, His behavior, His death, His burial, and His resurrection, all were foretold.
b.
To do Thy Will – Jesus does what God desired from every
worshiper in the Old Covenant. God did
not want animal sacrifices. What he
wanted and still wants is obedience.
c.
Christ was
determined and eager to obey the Father.
d.
Hebrews 12:2 (NASB) – “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.”
1.
All of the Levitical offerings found in Leviticus 1-7 are identified
in verse 8.
2.
Jesus Christ
in obedience to God the Father replaces the Old System.
3.
He takes away the first in order to establish the
second – Through His death,
burial, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has taken away the first covenant (Old
Testament sacrifices) and established the second covenant (grace and salvation
through Christ).
4.
You cannot be
under two covenants.
III. Present Substance (vs.10-18)
1.
sanctified – refers to an enduring, continuous state
(perfect tense); salvation is complete, a done deal; to be set apart by God for
God; the force of the statement “You have been permanently made holy”.
2.
once for
all – once for all sin, once
for all time.
3.
Old Testament
believers were never freed from the presence and awareness of guilt, or from
the anxiety and tension that it brings.
4.
Romans 8:1 (NASB) – “Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus.”
5.
It is a
wonderful thing to be free from guilt and to recognize that our sins are continually being
forgiven by the grace of God through the death of Christ.
6.
Hebrews 9:13-14 (NASB) – “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the
cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?”
1.
These two
verses are a series of contrasts – the many priests with the one priest, the
continual standing of the old priests with the sitting down of the new, the
repeated offerings with the once for all offering, and the ineffective
sacrifices that only covered sin with the effective sacrifice that completely
removes sin.
2.
The ministry
of the priests in the Tabernacle and the
3.
The Levitical system had twenty four orders, in each of which
were hundreds of priests who took turns serving at the altar. This system did not lack of priests, but it
did lack of effectiveness. All of the
priests together could not make an effective sacrifice for sin.
4.
one sacrifice - Christ
was one priest, and His work was perfect and permanently effective.
5.
for sins
for all time – the one
sacrifice He made paid not only for all past sins and all present sins; it also
paid for all future sins.
6.
Truth
– Every sin I have committed or ever will commit is responsible for Jesus dying
on the cross.
7.
Under the Old
Covenant, the priests were busy all day long, from dawn to sunset, slaughtering
and sacrificing animals. There was no
rest for them. It is estimated that at
Passover alone as many as three hundred thousand lambs would be slain within a
week.
8.
sat down – every priest stands, Jesus sat down. “It is finished”
1.
The Old
sacrifices had no effect on Satan and his demons.
2.
At the cross
all the enemies of God gathered to inflict on Christ their worst, which was
death. But Jesus conquered death just as
He conquered the other enemies.
3.
“The bride is
being made ready; the world is ripening fast for judgment; and the Lord Jesus
is waiting, eagerly anticipating the day when He can call home His bride and
turn His attention to those who for so long have scorned Him and mismanaged His
world.”
4.
Christ turned
Satan’s worst into God’s best.
1.
perfected for
all time – positional
sanctification; already in God’s mind, we are as perfect as Christ.
2.
We are not
all we ought to be right now. But we
aren’t what we used to be. And we are
not all that we are going to be.
3.
We are in the
process (sanctification) of becoming more like Christ,
we are in the process of becoming all that God saved us to be (complete).
1.
The witness
of the Spirit is based on the work of the Son and is given through the words of
Scripture.
2.
The Holy
Spirit witnesses to us of the truth of our security in Christ and of our
perfect sanctification.
3.
Romans
4.
The Holy
Spirit takes the fact of the death of Jesus for our sins – the fact of the one
sacrifice – and makes it real to our hearts.
1.
These verses
describe a completed sacrifice and complete forgiveness.
2.
Salvation was
promised in the Old Testament, and provided in the New Testament.
3.
God is saying
“I’ll forgive and I’ll forget.”
4.
Forgiveness
is provided for those who trust in this one perfect sacrifice.
5.
2 Peter 3:9 (NASB) – “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as
some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish
but for all to come to repentance.”
Conclusion
Jimmy Draper – “If we want to know how to find God, his name
is Jesus Christ. If we want to know how
to find forgiveness of sin, it is in Jesus Christ. This man, this God-man, this divine – man,
this virgin-born man; God’s Son, became man’s son so that the children of men
might become children of God. He came
and dwelt among us, and the gospel is His story.”
Jimmy Draper – “God’s Son took upon Himself human flesh. As the God-man, he stands at the center of
history. He stands at the heart of all
hope. He reaches out with arms of love
to say to us that regardless of our sin and rebellion, God cares about us. If we will trust him, he will save us. The gospel message is the story of Jesus
Christ. He is the one of whom we
sing. He is the one about whom we
preach. He is the one we share. If we would find forgiveness if we would find
release, or life, or happiness, or purpose in our lives we will find it in
Jesus Christ. He can remove the
emptiness from our hearts.”
Illustration: Picture of
Gretchen and I, shadow or substance?