Hebrews 10:1

RECAPITULATION OF THE PREVIOUS ARGUMENT AND RESTATEMENT IN STRONGER TERMS;

SANCTIFIED BY THE BODY OF CHRIST ONCE FOR ;

THE FOURTH EXHORTATION

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. (Hebrews 10:1)

The law as boldly used here indicates that it is not merely certain types of offering and sacrifices, or selected regulations concerning priests, nor some limited portion of the old covenant that was abrogated by Christ, but the entire system.

A shadow, not the very image brings into sharp contrast the old and new covenants, the old being likened to a shadow, and the new to the very image of the heavenly things. Just as a man's shadow would reveal far less information about him than a three-dimensional color photograph; just so, the shadow of the heavenly things as revealed in the law is far inferior to the knowledge of God and his divine fellowship available in the new covenant. We might even affirm that the true forgiveness available in Christ, along with the privileges of faith, and including all the attendant promises, hopes, and blessings of the Christian faith, actually are the REALITIES typified by the shadows of the old covenant; and yet, significantly, the sacred text falls far short of any such declaration, the marvelous benefits and blessings of the new institution THEMSELVES being here hailed as "the very image" of still greater realities yet to be realized and revealed in heaven. As Westcott said,

Theophylact ... carries our thoughts still further. As the image is better than the shadow, so, he argues, will the archetype be better than the image, the realities of the unseen world than the "mysteries" that now represent them.[1]

Likewise, Bruce said, "Within the New Testament itself, we have Paul's repeated description of Christ as the [@eikon] (image) of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15).[2]

It would be wrong, however, to attribute any lack of efficacy to the new covenant, wherein Christians are "workers together with God," and have been blessed with "all spiritual blessings" in Christ, and have been made to stand upon the threshold of eternal life. The magnificent endowments of the faith in Christ are more than sufficient for all the needs and desires of life in man's present condition; and, therefore, it is with the deepest wonder and admiration that one reads,

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away ... For now we see in a mirror darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).

Can never ... make perfect them that draw nigh is the conclusion dependent on the truth that the law and all of its provisions had the status of a mere shadow. They were only typical, carnal, earthly, material, and mortal devices, having no efficacy at all, except as they directed the minds of the worshipers to the holy and heavenly things prefigured.

Them that draw nigh brings before us the whole purpose and intent of holy religion, that of restoring man's lost fellowship with his Creator. The law, far from making that possible, actually dramatized the separation between God and men; and such drawing nigh as took place under the law was certainly not on any general scale but upon the most limited scope, being only for a few, and for them on very rare occasions.

[1] Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 304.

[2] F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 227.