The Substance Behind the Shadow

Introduction

We live in a world where people do not like to set limits for themselves or feel restricted by limits that other people have previously set for them. In fact, we are taught from a young age to guard against limits - how many of us were told this before, “You can do anything you set your mind to”? Many of us have been told this before and it is a statement that prioritizes hard work and determination which are good things. But you and I have both faced things in life that we haven’t quite been able to do. Failure is real. Some of those limitations are based on age. My son, Gabriel can’t throw a football 30 yards. It’s not because he’s behind the curve or has a serious problem… it’s because he’s 2. He can’t take care of himself, make his food, do his laundry, and drive himself where he needs to go either… because he’s 2. In time, though, he will outgrow these limitations. One day we’ll be able to play catch outside. One day he’ll get dressed by himself and drive himself to school and church and Lindsey and I will cry and not know what to do with ourselves but we have 14 years to figure that one out! Honestly, though, most of the limitations we face in life we can overcome through growing up or by focusing intently on the task at hand. Through maturing or education or training.

There are other times, though, where our limitations are there for a reason and regardless of what we do, we will not be able to get past them ourselves. Quote Philippians 4:13 all you want and you will never be able to run a 2 minute mile or triple jump 100 feet or high jump 25 feet. You can’t do it. You can’t jump off the Empire State Building and flap your arms and fly like a bird. You can’t always be liked by people even if you’re the nicest person in the world. These things drive people crazy because we don’t like a world of limitations. Think about what the Bible tells us about our greatest limitation, though. You can try your hardest, do your very best, and work all day and night for years and you will not be able to overcome your sin. You can overcome relationship problems. You can overcome physical problems. You can overcome learning problems. You and I are powerless to overcome our sinful problem and that drives some people absolutely insane because they want to earn something. The fact of the matter is that you and I cannot earn our own way. We cannot earn our salvation. We are facing dire circumstances here… Something must be done to solve our sinful condition and the book of Hebrews has been addressing this solution chapter after chapter as this is what Jesus Christ exclusively does for us.

This morning we’re going to examine the first part of one of the greatest passages in our Bible’s: Hebrews 10:1-18. 567 days ago, this was the first passage that we studied together as we unpacked Hebrews 10 on October 17th, 2021 and that evening by the grace of God began our official ministry here in Salem and it’s been amazing to see all that God has done and is doing here. I love this text because of that connection, but most of all, I love this text because it’s God’s Word. This text will remind us of the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice as Jesus accomplishes everything necessary for our salvation with His once for all sacrifice on the cross. We’re going to read the whole passage together, but we’ll break this into 2 separate sermons. This morning we’ll look at the limitation that sin brings to our lives and the problems that sin causes between ourselves and God as well as ourselves and other people - the week after Mother’s Day we’ll look specifically at the end of this text at the hope that Jesus provides. Part 1, problem. Part 2, provision.

Hebrews 10:1–18 CSB

1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.” 8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. 11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

What an amazing passage of Scripture as we see the power of the Gospel on full display! We see the problem of our sin, the power of our Savior, and the purpose of His sacrifice as He forgives us of the punishment of our sin. This is good news - but it is news that must be responded to. How have you responded to the news of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross? Let’s pray and to business with Jesus today

The Shadow Reminds Us of Our Sin (1-4)

Hebrews 8-9 both talked about the change that Jesus brings in this New Covenant. Change can be difficult at times, but it is necessary at times as well. In this specific situation, it was necessary for there to be some change and we see the reason why there needed to be change in Hebrews 10:1. There is a fundamental problem with the Old Testament law and the problem is that it is incapable of saving sinners by itself. The preacher of Hebrews demonstrates this point by calling the law a shadow of the good things to come. That is a word that paints quite the picture in our brains, doesn’t it? A shadow isn’t a bad thing, although some use the word in a negative way. A shadow isn’t an evil thing, although they do scare people at times. What is the purpose of referring to the law as a shadow?

How many of you have ever made shadows with your hands on the wall thanks to a flashlight? Gabriel thinks that this is just about the most fun thing to do right now, and he’ll ask Lindsey and me to come to his room, shut the door, turn the lights off, turn his flashlight on, and make shadows on the wall. He loves shadows! Last week he was standing in the middle of the beam of light from the flashlight and he could see his own shadow on the wall and just started giggling. He likes to go up to the shadow and give it a high five. What did the shadow do back to Gabriel? Well, it gave him a high five too! Gabriel loved it and kept giving it a high five. Now, when you’re 2 that’s cute… but as you get a little bit older, you realize that the reason why the shadow is giving you a high five is what? Because you are making that shadow and high-fiving yourself. The shadow doesn’t provide anything other than the assurance that there is a substance that is casting it.

So many people in the Old Testament believed that the Law was the end game. Keep the rules, do my job, try hard, and then I’ll be approved and saved by God through my works. What does this lead to, though? Depression. Failure. Problems. Why? Because the people were reminded over and over and over that they kept on breaking the law. They kept on falling short. They kept on experiencing guilt because of their sin. Therefore, the law said they had to keep on offering sacrifices for sin year after year. If the Old Covenant had a better solution, there wouldn’t have had to be those sacrifices… but that’s what the law demanded. Sin must be punished. Sin requires sacrifice. Therefore, whenever it was time for the Day of Atonement, God’s people were reminded of the reality of their sin and an animal was killed to cover that sin for another year. It was an annual reminder of their shortcomings and failures. Sin is a big problem - in fact, sin is our greatest problem!

In the Old Covenant, the way in which sin was dealt with was through the sacrifice of an animal. But in the Old Testament, we see a promise that one day things will change! Look at this truth in Romans 11:26-27 as Paul quotes the prophet Jeremiah

Romans 11:26–27 CSB

26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

This is the only other time in the New Testament that we see the word “take away” in reference to sin. So, let’s contrast here. Our problem is our sins. In the Old Covenant the priests would offer bulls and goats in the place of the people and Hebrews 10:4 tells us that it is impossible for that blood to take away sins… but what about Romans 11:26-27? We see in the New Covenant that there isn’t more blood. There is new blood. And this new blood is a more effective and powerful blood. This blood takes away the sins of God’s people! But the shadow cannot do this. If the law could do this, there would have been no need for Jesus in the first place. Some people in our world and even in churches believe that sin is real but they also believe that they can pay it off by doing lots of good works. They’ll argue, well if I have sinned 1x per day for the last 45 years then I’ll do 2 really good things every day for the next 45 years and it’ll all balance out in the end! It doesn’t work that way - time is a great asset oftentimes, but not even time will help us here if the focus is our works.

Say that you are a high school student and you just need a job and you find one that pays what many states consider minimum wage of $15/hour. $15/hour is great as a student but you have big aspirations and you want to be a millionaire. How many hours would you have to work? That’s 66,667 hours. Let’s say that you work 40 hours each week, that means that you’ll have to work 1,667 weeks or just about 32 years. If you don’t spend any of that money, if you save it all then in 32 years and a few weeks, you’ll be a millionaire. That’s theoretically possible even by working a minimum wage job. But you and I know that there are people in our world who are not millionaires, they are billionaires. How would that work? Well now it takes you 66 million hours of minimum wage to reach your goal. That comes out to 1.6 million weeks or 32 thousand years. In other words, it will never ever happen. It doesn’t matter how many hours we have in our lifetime, it is impossible for us to sacrifice enough or do enough good works to earn our own way to heaven. We are in need of help here and it’s all because of our sin. The shadow, the law, reminds us of our sin and our need for a Savior. Thankfully, this isn’t where the preacher of Hebrews leaves us.

The Shadow Leads to the Substance (5-9)

If the law couldn’t cleanse the conscience of the sinner and take away the sin of the sinner, we might be tempted to ask what it’s purpose was in the first place. Have you ever talked to someone about that before? What is the purpose of the Old Testament? What is the purpose of the law if the people couldn’t even keep it? Some wonder if God made a mistake giving the people the law altogether. These are good questions and we need to look to Scripture in order to answer them. Why do we have the Old Testament? For one, because it is God’s Word. It is inspired by God. It is His Word and it is true just as the New Testament is. Why do we have the law? Because God gave His people the law to follow. The law demonstrates God’s standards and those standards are by definition good. It is a good thing to worship and honor God. It is a good thing to not lie. It is a good thing to not murder. We see Who God is better by having His law - it wasn’t a mistake for Him to give is to Moses. The problem is this: Some in Jesus’ day believed that they were following the law perfectly and not in need of help. See, the law was never purposed to be the end of the story. It had a purpose for a period of time and that purpose was to point people to their need of something better by pointing out their present problems with keeping the law. This is why the preacher of Hebrews calls the law a shadow. If you have a shadow, what must you also have? A substance. What is the substance in this scenario? Jesus Christ. The law which says do points us to Jesus who says done!

In Hebrews 10:5-9 we see a quotation from Psalm 40. This is kind of interesting - Psalm 40, if you look there in your copy of God’s Word, is a Psalm of David. Psalm 40 talks about waiting for the Lord and the Lord eventually responding and delivering His people. Look at Psalm 40:6-8 here

Psalm 40:6–8 CSB

6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; you open my ears to listen. You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering. 7 Then I said, “See, I have come; in the scroll it is written about me. 8 I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.”

Who is this really about? David? David wrote the Psalm, yes, but it is clear that this is about Jesus. How does Psalm 40 point us to Jesus? Let’s look at 2 things in this passage in reference to Jesus Christ.

God didn’t desire more animal sacrifices

God does desires people to do His will

Why would God not desire more animal sacrifices? These sacrifices were only offered because the people sinned. Of course that’s not what God truly desired. We see this throughout the Old Testament that God wanted more than religious check boxes. He wanted their hearts and their entire lives. So, if God didn’t want more sacrifices to be offered (due to disobedience), then what did He want? One who will do His will. What does this require? Perfect Obedience!

The preacher of Hebrews shares that Jesus brings about this change and He did it whenever He came into this world because He came to do God’s will. The coming of Jesus changes everything. Instead of seeing in black and white, we now see in color. So what does this mean to you and me today? What does Jesus coming and taking on human flesh and dying in our place on the cross have to do with you and me? Consider how Jesus came to obey the Father’s will. What did obedience look like for Jesus? Living a life where He didn’t always know where He’d lay His head. Living a life where He would be an outcast much of the time. Living a life where He would die a death He didn’t deserve to die. Obedience cost Jesus His life… what does obedience cost us? In our world, maybe a laugh here or there. Maybe an inconvenience to our schedules as we’re not able to go to a party or event because we have church or we can’t sleep in like everyone else does or something along those lines. That’s the cost? That’s not much at all! Jesus came to do the will of the Father and He accomplishes our salvation and saves us so that we will serve Him. What does serving Jesus look like? It looks differently for each person, but it always starts with following Him.

Consider the cost of following Jesus for people in the Middle East. If you study homiletics (preaching) much, you’ll quickly come across a professor, author, and pastor named Haddon Robinson and his many books on preaching. Years ago, Haddon Robinson was in Turkey with a group touring some of the historical sites that were from Bible times. He and the local tour guide were talking about the Bible and he found out that the tour guide was a Muslim. Robinson asked the guide, “If you were to die tonight, would you be sure that you could stand in the presence of Allah?” The guide said, “No. There are 5 things that Muslims should do and I’ve only done 2 of the 5.” They continued to talk late into the night about the Gospel and how Jesus has already done the work necessary for our salvation and assurance of spending eternity with Him in glory. He asked the guide if he would want to trust in Jesus as His Lord and Savior. The guide said this, “You don’t know what you’re asking me to do. Do you know what it would cost me? It I announced this to anyone, my wife would leave me. My family would disown me. My boss would fire me. My government would not give me an exit visa to go to another country. I would give up everything. You would leave and I would starve to death.” So many people are in situations like that and they trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, but they lose those around them and they suffer and they endure hardship simply for following Christ. Friends, God didn’t save you to get you into a middle-class country club where everyone looks, acts, and thinks just like you do. Quote Romans 8:28 all you want, but that is a promise for believers who have been given a new heart and who desire to do the will of their Father.

Jesus was perfectly obedient and He establishes this new covenant where God’s law and commands are written on our hearts and His Spirit is with us wherever we go as His children. This means that we must be a people who obey.

The Substance Does What the Shadow Could Not (10)

What is the result of the sacrifice of Jesus’ body in our place on the cross? Our salvation!

Think of the best news that you’ve heard before. You’re healthy. You’re now a parent. You got the job. Your parent is ok. We can think of other things that would qualify as some great news! Are you ready for some even greater news? You’re a sinner. How on earth does this constitute as great news? The Bible doesn’t tell us that Jesus Christ came to die on the cross for marginally good people. It doesn’t say that Jesus saves good people. It doesn’t say that Jesus Christ helps those who help themselves, as if we could help ourselves in the first place. The Bible tells us this in Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Church, this is the amazing news of the Gospel and Hebrews 10:10 bears this out as clear as can be. God’s will was for Jesus to come and die. He prepared a body for the Son and that body was on a collision course with the old rugged cross. But by the grace of God, that’s not where the story stops. That same Jesus, as the substance, changes people to this day. The shadow of the law couldn’t make us like Jesus, it revealed how much unlike Him we are… but through the death burial and resurrection, now there is good news.

This is easier to see if we do a quick grammar lesson here. Do we have time for that? Will the crockpots handle 2 extra minutes? I told you that this was supposed to be a 50 minute message that got split into 2 shorter ones - you’re getting off the hook a little here!

Grammar School: The word “sanctified” in verse 10 is a Perfect tense Greek verb - completed action with present implication. Jesus’ sacrifice is finished, the debt is paid in full, but it still matters today. There is no need for a sacrifice today or tomorrow, His sacrifice on the cross was a one stop shop. Why is it good news that our sin separates us from God? Because it means that Jesus’ sacrifice is the only way that you and I can be brought into fellowship with God. This is exactly what Jesus has done - He made a way when there was no possible way and after He saves us, He continues to change us.

Often we think of sanctification as progressively changing to be more and more like Jesus as John 3:30 says He increases and we decrease. This is how the New Testament talks about it at times as people grow in Christlikeness over time through the power of the Holy Spirit and dying to self. But Hebrews 10:10 is talking about a declarative statement here. In Scripture you have another kind of sanctification that is not progressive but it instead is positional. This is positional sanctification where we have been bought by Christ and released from our bondage to sin and death and we are set free unto service in His Kingdom. This is Colossians 1:13 language

Colossians 1:13 CSB

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

How? By the will of the Father, through the work of the Son. The shadow of the law could never do this. It could postpone judgment, but it couldn’t render judgment void. Aren’t you thankful that Jesus came to do the will of God and to do it perfectly? This is why He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” This is to be our response to Christ today. Just as Jesus submitted to the Father’s will perfectly, we are to submit and follow God’s will for our lives, not our own.

How can we discern and do the will of God in our lives?

Read Scripture Consistently

God’s Spirit will not contradict what God’s Word says

So many talk about wanting to know God’s will for their lives but you will not know God’s will apart from reading God’s Word

Practice Prayer Faithfully

God answers our prayers and God communicates with us through prayer

God changes our hearts and aligns our hearts with His will through prayer

Worship Jesus Corporately

One of the ways in which we discern the will of God in our lives is by being obedient to the things that God commands. One of those things is corporate worship and God speaks to us as we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Through worship, we prioritize the things of God above the things of our world

Sin provides a limit in our lives. It separates us from God. The law that is written on our hearts reminds us of our shortcomings and failures and our consciences remind us of this often. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent His Son. Jesus came into this world 2000 years ago in a body - fully-God and fully-man. He lived a perfect life and died a criminals death for you and me. He did the will of the Father. He accomplished our salvation fully, perfectly, and completely. Have you trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior today? If you haven’t done this, if you keep on seeing this shadow but you haven’t yet met the substance, I’m going to be standing right down here in a minute and I’d love to talk with you about trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior and I’d love to pray with you and watch Jesus change you from the inside to the outside.