Shadow and Reality
(Heb 10:1~18)
Pastor Taegeun Lee
The sacrifice in the Old Testament is a form of ritual offered to God. But God tells us not to offer this sacrifice for sins. Why did God make the sacrifice obsolete and urge us to worship Him in spirit and truth? Lets think about it and find some application points.
1. The law is nothing but a shadow. The law in verse 1 refers to an animal sacrifice, which implies that the animal sacrifice is not the real thing but a shadow of it. Yet some converted Jews in the age of the early Christian church tried to stick to their old rituals without discerning reality from a shadow of it. We also obsessively chase our spouses love, ending up facing their betrayal, which makes us nag our spouse and children more obsessively as if we offered them as sacrifices of our ritual. Yet the old sacrifice we offer with our passion cannot make anyone purified. The old sacrifice in the Law is only a reminder of our sins, which makes the offerer spiritually alarmed through the dreadful order of the animals blood. The blood doesnt cleanse, but reminds the offerer of his sins. Without the sacrifice in the Old Testament, we could barely understand the misery of Jesus crucifixion. Recently I found that my sons non-Christian girlfriend was pregnant. In the midst of this chaos, my son persuaded her not to have an abortion. However, to my disappointment, he has been absent from the Sunday worship service for weeks since the last youth retreat. He confessed that he felt lost on his way to the holy place. I feel sorry that my son worried those who had prayed for him. What are the reality and shadow of my sons incident? The blood of animals cant cleanse sins. What about the blood that Ive shed as a father? Wouldnt it be the blood of animals?
2. We need to grasp Jesus, who came to us as the reality.
Todays passage says, 'the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming.' Its not a bad shadow. In order to make the law as a good shadow, we need to discern reality from its shadow, and accept Jesus as the reality. What reality is Jesus?
1) Jesus came to us in order to fulfill Gods will, not his own . God the Father is not pleased with any burnt offerings or sin offerings. Knowing this, Jesus came to us to practice Gods will. His ministry was toset aside the first and establish the second. Why is God not pleased with the sacrifices that He enacted? Reality doesnt exist along with its shadow. A shadow must give its way to reality. Holding on to the shadow in the face of the reality is a deviation from the truth. Unlike animals blood, the holy blood purifies sins. Lets meditate on whether our offering is animals blood focused on prosperity or the holy blood for the sake of salvation. I was called by God to be a pastor but I chased a shadow of worldly life other than that of a pastor. I even wanted my son to do freely whatever he wanted unlike his father. Through my sons incident, God told me that everything I had stuck to was nothing but a shadow.
2) Jesus offered a once-and-for-all sacrifice. The priests in the Old Testament offered their same standing sacrifice every day. This stands for the incompleteness of their animal sacrifice. Yet Jesus, the eternal priest, sat down at the right hand of God after offering for all time one sacrifice for sins. A few months ago, because of the trouble that my son made, I visited the juvenile jail, consoled him, shared my QT with him, and encouraged him to endure for four weeks. For this event, however, I pray that Jesus will visit my son for his sins, his girlfriend for salvation, and her parents for a life they will give birth to a soul. Id like us to continue to pray for him so that he will repent and sire his spiritual heirs.
3) Jesus brings about a new covenant. The new covenant features are: God inscribing his law in our hearts and thoughts, that he doesnt remember our sins, and that he abolished the old sacrifices for our sins. He wants us to put on a new self, throwing away the old one. He wants us to stop judging others with the Word inscribed on the tablets of stone and look back on ourselves with the Word inscribed in our hearts. Unlike my son who tries to avoid abortion, I actually aided and abetted my wife to abort our second baby. The fact that God wont remember our sins and lawless acts doesnt mean that we can get away with our sinful nature. We need to be sensitive to our sins, but we shouldnt be caught in a guilty conscience. Our senior Pastor Kim replied to my email, writing, 'The things you say! Ill pray! This helped restore my peace. Actually I had been as restless as a drifting boat. Later I resumed my QT with my son. In order to receive Gods eternal inheritance, we need a bleeding sacrifice. Keeping this in mind, I prayed that God will guide me and my son on our road. May God bless us all to walk with Him as His children, remembering his Word inscribed on the tablet of our hearts!
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming ― not the realities themselves. (Heb.10:1a)
