“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” – Hebrews 10:1 (KJV).
The presence of a shadow is an indicator or a proof that there is a substance or reality somewhere. The shadow is not the real image but a reflection of the real image. The entire Old Testament comprising of the law and the prophets points to a person who was to come. All the sacrifices demanded under the law for the sins of man pointed to the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would take away the sins of the whole world. The temple was a shadow of his body. The water baptism was a shadow of his death, burial and resurrection. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament point to Jesus Christ. He is the central team and focus of the scriptures. “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” – John 5:39 (KJV).
Jesus is the living word, the word made flesh. The water that the children of Israel drank from the rock was a shadow of Jesus – the living water. The bread they ate in the wilderness (the manna) represents Christ the bread of life. The rock they drank from was a shadow of Christ the rock of ages. “And did all drink the same spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ” – I Corinthians 10:4 (KJV). The Sabbath was a shadow of the rest that Christ represents. Jesus is the real Sabbath. The land of Canaan that God promised the Jews is a shadow of the life in Christ. Life in Egypt is a shadow of life in the world while leaving Egypt and crossing the red sea is a shadow of salvation. The Passover is a shadow of redemption on the cross with Jesus representing the Passover lamb. Goshen in Egypt is a shadow of Christ and the church. All these are shadows of redemption in Christ.
The law is a shadow of the new covenant of grace, for we are saved by grace through faith. Living under law is living under the shadow, while living by grace brings one into practical reality of father-son relationship with God in Christ Jesus. The new life that Jesus offers at new birth is the reality foreshadowed by the Old Testament. God has provided better things for us. The Old Testament presents Christ concealed, but the New Testament is Christ revealed – Christ in us the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
PRAYER: Lord thank you for the privilege of living in the reality of father-son relationship with God.
Rev. Vincent Diolu