The Law Was a Shadow of Spiritual Realities
Hebrews 7:11-28
Introduction
John Newton who wrote the great hymn Amazing Grace once wrote in a letter to a friend that ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of the most of our religious mistakes.
What law was he talking about? Not the laws of this country or any laws in general. No, he was speaking of the law given to Israel by God. If you read the book of Exodus, you will see God rescuing Israel out of bondage to slavery in Egypt.
Then God enters into covenant with the people of Israel. He commits to be their God – to bless them, protect them, provide for them, to give them joy. Israel commits to be God’s people – to worship and serve him alone, to find their joy in him alone.
And in order to show them how to live and serve a holy God, to not live like the pagan peoples around them, God gave them a law through Moses. This was composed of 613 laws that regulated everything from what the people to eat to how they should handle community sanitation to how they should worship the one, true and living God.
The law ordered their daily lives. Keeping the law was an expression of faith in God. Keeping the law did not save Israel. They were not saved by their works – they were saved by faith in God, just as Christians are saved today. But they kept the law as an expression of their faith in God. If they loved God, they demonstrated that love by obeying his commands. God in turn, promised blessing for his covenant people if they keep the law and curses if they did not.
Living by that law or not living by that law dominated the life of Israel for thousands of years. But then when Christ came, Israel was not exclusively the people of God. Whereas before, Gentiles could be part of God’s people by living under the law – by becoming Jewish – now, the offer of life was extended to Gentiles as Gentiles.
Anyone could experience life with God without having to become Jews. And last week we saw from Acts 15, that the apostles and the elders of the church of Jerusalem said that Gentiles should not be expected to keep the Law of Moses.
But confusion about the law persisted, and still persists even to this day. Newton was right. Unfortunately, most Christians even today are confused on what place that law has in our lives. After all, we are used to hearing what Paul say things like Rom 6:13 – “you are not under law but under grace.”
And yet at the same time, Paul will speak of the entire Old Testament, including the law and say things like 2 Tim 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
Many Christians believe that while they shouldn’t keep the part of the law of Moses that involves offering animal sacrifice for the remission of sins, they should keep the Ten Commandments. So how do we decide what we’re supposed to do and what we shouldn’t do?
For the next two or three week, we want to look at this issue. What is a Christian’s relationship to the law of Moses? Do we keep it? Do we not keep? If not, what do we do with the Old Testament?
Let me say from the outset that I believe the New Testament teaches that since Christ has come, there has been a fundamental shift in regards to the Law. In fact, I plan to show from the Bible that as Christians, we should try to keep the law.
That doesn’t mean that we should stop reading the Old Testament or the law. That doesn’t even mean that the law is not profitable for us as Christians. However, we have to read and apply the law through the person and work of Christ.
Today, we want to begin looking at this by seeing that even in the Old Testament, God revealed that there would be a change regarding the law. Specifically, that the law was given as a foreshadowing of what would come in Christ.
We want to look at the Hebrews 8. To give you some idea of what is going on here, let me remind you that the book of Hebrews is written – oddly enough – to a group of Hebrews! That is, a group of Jewish Christians. And as persecution is rising there is a strong temptation to go back to Judaism.
You see, their Jewish friends and family, their community is ridiculing them, making life difficult for them because they now worship Christ. And so now they are thinking, you know we can still worship Christ, but we can live like Jews again – we can live according to the law, offer sacrifices and the pressure will let up.
And the author of Hebrews is writing to say, ‘look you really don’t want to do that!’ His entire argument is that Christ is better. Christ is better than everything Israel had previously because what they had previously pointed to him. Christ comes with better teaching, Christ offers a better sacrifice, Christ is a better high priest, Christ is a better leader for God’s people – in every way, Christ is better.
Hebrews 8:1-13
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, [2] a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. [3] For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. [4] Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. [5] They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” [6] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
[8] For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, [9] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. [10] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [11] And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. [12] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
[13] In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
1. The Better Priest of Our Salvation (8:1-5)
In v. 5, Hebrews writes, “[The things of the old covenant] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’”
That last sentence is a quote from Exodus 25:40. There God is speaking to Moses, and the point Hebrews is making is that everything in the Old Testament tabernacle – the priestly garments, the furniture, the sacrifices themselves – were copies and shadows; symbols and pointers to a heavenly reality.
When God gave Moses a pattern for the priestly, sacrificial system, he didn’t just make it up. He didn’t just say, this would look cool. No, he gives Moses a glimpse of the glory of heaven and says this is the pattern for what I want you to make. This is the reality that cast a shadow onto Mount Sinai.
And the point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has not just come to fit into the earthly system of priestly ministry as the best and final human priest, but he has come to fulfill, and put an end to, that system. He’s the reality, the substance that the shadows of the old system points back to.
And Hebrews is saying, why are going back to the shadows – look to the real thing! So how is Christ the better priest? How is he superior to the priests of the old covenant?
1.1. Served in the better temple
Where did the priest of Israel, the priests of the old covenant serve? In a tabernacle – a tent that was packed up and carried around for a couple hundred years. Then in the temple, the permanent tabernacle that was set up in Jerusalem. It was a structure made with human hands.
But where does Jesus serve as high priest? Hebrews says, “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.”
This is not shadow reality like curtains and bowls and tables and candles and robes and tassels and sheep and goats. This is final, ultimate reality: God and his Son interacting in love and holiness for our eternal salvation.
Jesus deals directly with God the Father. He has a place of honor beside God. He is loved and respected infinitely by God. He is constantly with God in the heavenly temple. No Old Testament priest could ever say that!
1.2. Offered the better sacrifice
“For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. [4] Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.
Hebrews reminds us that the very essence of the function of the priesthood is mediation. The priest offered up sacrifices for sins of God’s people unto God, standing in between and offering up prayers and supplications and intercessions and sacrifices to God, asking him to deal graciously and mercifully to His people. That’s the essence of priesthood, to offer that sacrifice, to intercede, to mediate. The author of Hebrews is saying, Jesus didn’t walk up and offer up some animal on the altar.
Later in Hebrews 10, we’re told, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. [5] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; [6] in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. [7] Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
Jesus offers himself as the sacrifice. And it was the perfect sacrifice. The other priests went in year after year after year, offering animal sacrifices. And Jesus came and put an end to it all. He offered himself as the perfect sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. And while the other priests’ offerings could never take away sin, Jesus’ did. His sacrifice fully satisfied the wrath of God against the sins of his people.
2. The Better Covenant of Our Salvation (8:6-13)
Hebrews says, “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”
He says, why are you going back to an old covenant that? It served its purpose, but now its purpose is over. Now, we have a better covenant that stands on better promises. How is it better?
2.1. Creates a faithful people
[8] For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, [9] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
Here’s the biggest problem with the old covenant, as a whole, Israel couldn’t keep it! Notice what he says – “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Dr. Christian Barnard, the first surgeon ever to do a heart transplant, impulsively asked one of his patients, Dr. Philip Blaiberg, “Would you like to see your old heart?” Later that week at 8 P.M. the men stood in a room of the Groote Schuur Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr. Barnard went up to a cupboard, took down a glass container and handed it to Dr. Blaiberg. Inside that container was Blaiberg’s old heart. For a moment he stood there stunned into silence-the first man in history every to hold his own heart in his hands. Finally he spoke and for ten minutes plied Dr. Barnard with technical questions.
Then he turned to take a final look at the contents of the glass container, and said, ‘So this is my old heart that caused me so much trouble.’ He handed it back, turned away, and left it forever.
God’s problem isn’t with the covenant, it’s with the people who couldn’t keep it! So he says he will create a new people, a faithful people with this new covenant.
Why will they be faithful? Because the law will be different. It will not simply be some external code that they are trying to live up to but never can. Instead, God will give his people new hearts. Hearts that have the law of God etched right in.
As Christians we can look back to our life and say this is what caused so much pain – my sinful heart. But thanks be to God who, because of the work of our great high priest, Jesus Christ, he has given us a new heart. He has given us his Spirit which causes our heart to long for God. A heart that beats with passion for him and a life that lives according to his ways.
2.2. Accomplishes lasting salvation
Hebrews continues to quote from Jeremiah and the Lord says, “they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Under the old covenant, you had believers and non-believers. That is, the old covenant was made with the entire nation. But just because you were born into the nation of the Israel and a part of the covenant, you were no necessarily a believer.
But now, Hebrews says the promise of the new covenant has come in Christ. And now what the Lord had foretold has come true. And part of the glory of the new covenant is this – though it spans more then just Israel, though it stretches forth across the entire world, everyone who is a part of the new covenant will be a believer.
So when the Lord says those in the new covenant will not teach, he doesn’t mean teach the Bible or teach about Christ. He means teach them about God in such a way as to draw them into faith in God for salvation. We don’t try to save other Christians. By definition, we are already saved. In the language of this passage, we know the Lord.
And what does it mean to know the Lord? In part it means this, God looks at us and says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” It means lasting, permanent forgiveness! This new covenant was ratified by the shedding of the blood of Christ – the sacrifice that ended all others sacrifices and brought full salvation.
Conclusion
In the end then, this is the conclusion Hebrews reaches – “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
The great and overarching point of this passage is that we have a great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who came into the world as the Son of God, lived a sinless life, offered himself as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people, rose to everlasting life at the right hand of the majesty of God, and there loves us and prays for us and bids us draw near to God through him.
Christ did not come to fit into the old system of priestly sacrifices. He came to fulfill them and end them. He is the reality; they were the shadow and the copy of the reality. When the Reality comes, the shadow passes away.
