No More Shadows

I can remember a conversation I had with Mr. Van Woudenberg. We were sitting at his dining table, he in his chair by the phone me across from the picture window looking over the back yard. We were talking about faith, as we often did, and he asked, “Why do we keep only 9 of the Ten Commandments? Why isn’t the fourth commandment emphasised anymore?

I remember saying, “well, honestly, we don’t keep any of them very well, but there’s a reason why we don’t keep the fourth one in particular. We worship on Sunday, not Saturday, because of Christ, who fulfilled all things, rose from the dead on the first day of the week, a first fruit, a first day in the new beginning, the redemption of people. The fourth commandment was a shadow of what was to come, the true, total, perfect rest that we find only in Christ. The fourth commandment rest was pointing to Jesus.

How does the Law function in a Christian life? What does it mean when the confession says that the ceremonies and symbols of the law have ended with the coming of Christ? What does it mean when it says that the truth and the substance of these things remain for us in Jesus Christ?

Whenever the law is discussed, controversies concerning obedience to the law have come up. This was true when the confession was written. DeBres wrote the Belgic confession as a response to reports coming out of the Council of Trent. The Roman Catholic church called the council of Trent was in order to respond to the Protestant movement. It became clear that Rome was actively defending OT derived doctrines such as, the sacrificing priesthood, which they tailored after the Mosaic covenant.

The Belgic Confession directly challenges Rome, confessing that Christ fulfilled the ceremonial aspects of the covenant God made with his people under Moses. We confess that Christ has completely fulfilled, finally, the sacrifices required by God, therefore a sacrificing priesthood is redundant. More than that, they deny the satisfaction of Christ’s sacrifice, suggesting that they can, perform the duties that Christ did, in a way that actually wins something for the people. Scripture clearly teaches that Christ is the one and only mediator, or high priest, every Christian can go directly to him, and so no other mediator, or priest, is needed.

This idea of a human, priestly mediator persists today, obviously among those with a Roman Catholic background. People, on occasion, will ask me to put in a good word with God for them. I can’t help but think, every time I hear that phrase spoken, “What? Are you kidding me? I’m a sinner, probably worse than you are! I don’t have any more access to God than you do! Don’t wait for me, pray yourself!”

But they can hardly think of doing that. They’re stuck in the pattern they learned. They are still following the OT way of doing things; priest offers the prayers for the people. You gotta go to confession, you gotta ask him to pray.

Not only that, the idea that some people are somehow holier, or that a priest or pastor can sacrifice something in addition to Christ mocks and undermines his sacrifice. His sacrifice was once and for all, end of story, no man or woman can offer anything in addition to what Christ offered. As Isaiah says, all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.

So, in light of all that, what does the Christian do with the law? Christians have come up with two ways of looking at it. We’re going to get into some technical language here, but I tell you the truth, whether people are aware of the terms or not, they will do one or the other.

The first way of looking at it people call the antinomian question. Antinomian means anti-“against,” nomos-“law,” anti-law, antinomian. The question goes like this, “if Jesus has perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the law through his perfect obedience, if we are justified by his obedience, if are unable to add any obedience to Christ, why are we still bound to the Law? The antinomian person will answer, “we are not obligated to obey the Ten Commandments, the law has no place any longer in the Christian life.” These people will argue for all kinds of supposedly permissible things, totally ignoring Paul’s rebuttal of it in Romans 6 where he asks, “Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may abound? By no means, you’ve died to sin, how can you live in it any longer.” So it seems behind antinomianism is a desire to justify sin.

Let us be clear on one thing, though, in this discussion of the Law, we’re speaking about obedience to God’s commandments, not rules made up by men. While it is good to give up our Christian freedom for brothers and sisters in Christ who are bound things scripture doesn’t forbid. We must not bind ourselves under those who are self-righteous or Pharisees. Antinomianism does neither, it flaunts so-called freedom, and rejects all self-righteousness and Phariseeism.

Paul says in Galatians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” This is why the HC puts the explanation of the Ten Commandments in the gratitude section. The Ten Commandments are fruit of the justifying faith received from Christ.

But in every church, every denomination there are so-called ‘blue laws.’ These are like house rules, unwritten expectations a church has and uses to judge people. Amongst some Baptist, Alliance and Pentecostal churches, there is the expectation that members will not drink, will not smoke or will not dance. Amongst reformed churches like ours, there is the expectation that members will not shop on Sundays, eat at restaurants on Sundays, and so on. Such ‘blue laws’ must be opposed. They do not actually help, as we heard in Colossians this morning, such laws have the appearance of wisdom, but they actually do nothing to restrain sensual indulgence. Only the gospel does that.

The law flows from the gratitude toward all that God has done for us. It is like a little child who, after getting something he really wanted, willingly mows the lawn, or chops wood, or cleans his room. He’s happy, willing and excited to do it, because of the joy in his heart.

The other issue is how the Mosaic covenant relates to the two covenants that came before it, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The question, or issue is, does the law relate more to the covenant of grace, or to the covenant of works, which God established with Adam and is therefore grounded on God’s own perfect personal obedience?

Reformed theologians have answered this question by distinguishing between the whole Mosaic teaching, and the Ten commandments contained within. The Mosaic teaching, they say, is the law in the broad sense, the types and shadows of the priesthood, animal sacrifices, feast days, the temple etc. these relate to the covenant of grace. The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, are works based, they a summary or repetition of the original covenant of works given to Adam.

In this way, we can see that the Mosaic covenant as a whole is gracious in its administration. In, or through it, God was actively teaching about the coming forgiveness in Christ. We see that Christ is not only the priest who offers the sacrifice on behalf of the people; he is himself also the sacrifice itself.

The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, have no provision for forgiveness of sin, since they promise blessing for obedience, curses for disobedience. This exactly relates to the covenant of works. So then, we can understand that the Mosaic covenant as a whole pointed to and was fulfilled by Christ. Those things were the shadows, the ceremonies and the symbols pointing to Jesus. The Law also points to Christ, where we see that he perfectly obeyed it.

More specifically, article 25 summarises the New Testament truth that Christ fulfilled all the types and shadows of the Mosaic covenant. The types and shadows fall into the following four categories: 1. Holy persons(high priest, priests, Levites, etc. 2. Holy places (tabernacle, temple, etc.) 3. Holy things (vows, tithes, sacrifices, altars, utensils, etc.) 4. Holy Seasons (Passover, Old Testament Pentecost, feast of tabernacles, trumpets, day of atonement, jubilee, etc.). Those things pointed to Christ, and his coming fulfilled them, thus Christians don’t need to observe them. They are of the old way of doing things, which ceased with Christ’s coming.

We know this is true from many places in the New Testament, such as when the temple curtain tore in two, from top to bottom at the exact moment when Christ died on the cross. With the veil removed, God’s blessing on the sacrificial system was gone, because Christ’s one and only sacrifice replaced it.

Hebrews 10 reinforces this fact: “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? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood

of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Hebrews 9 underscores the temporary nature of the OT sacrifices, “the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.”

As we heard this morning in Colossians, “these are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col. 2.17). The purpose of the OT Mosaic covenant has been served, the ceremonies and the symbols are not to be used by God’s new covenant people. If we were to require such things, we’d be suggesting that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient to remove the guilt of our sins. But we know, from scripture and from previous examinations of the Belgic Confession, that Christ’s sacrifice was perfectly sufficient.

So, if Christ fulfilled the ceremonies and the shadows, what about the substance of the law, the summary contained in the Ten Commandments? What about the covenant of works? Is it gone too, as the antinomians hope? In other words, what remains and what has passed away? Article 25 says, “Yet their truth and substance remain for us in Jesus Christ, in whom they have been fulfilled. In the meantime we still use the testimonies taken from the law and the prophets, both to confirm in us the doctrine of the gospel and to order our life in all honour, according to God’s will and to his glory.”

In this last phrase, we see how the law, the covenant of works functions in the Christian life. It regulates our lives with full integrity for the glory of God, according to his will.

The law, summarised by the Ten Commandments, shows us God’s character. It reveals his glory. The law teaches us sin, yes, but for the Christian, it also teaches the way of righteous living. Not that living the law makes us righteous, rather that striving to live righteous lives results in lawful living.

Now that Christ has come, this is the result for us. Each of us who have placed our trust in him is perfectly holy. All of us are saints. In Christ, every Christian is also a priest, therefore, why would a priest need to see a priest, or ask another priest to pray for him? All are priests, all have the same access to God. As priests, we don’t offer dead animals as sacrifices, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. In Christ, God sees us not as sinners, but as saints, law-keepers, not law-breakers.

The substance of the law remains. The substance is found in Christ, who lived for us, died for us, who forgives us and clothes us with his righteousness, so that we may obey the good works, works which he prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2.10). Indeed, to bring up Colossians again, where Paul says he labours, struggling with all his (Christ’s) energy, which so powerfully works in me (Col. 1.29).

Since the substance of the Law remains in Christ, we, in gratitude, strive to keep obedience to the moral law. Not forgetting that we’re no longer bound to ceremonies or symbols which served to point to Christ, and when he came were abolished. These types and shadows are gone, they are fulfilled in Christ. Amen.