Verse 1
The very nature of the Mosaic Law made it impossible to bring believers into intimate relationship with God since it dealt with externals.
"Both Paul and our author speak of the law as ’a shadow’; but whereas Paul in Colossians 2:17 has in mind the legal restrictions of Old Testament times (food-laws and regulations about special days), our author is thinking more especially of the law prescribing matters of priesthood and sacrifice in relation to the wilderness tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple." [Note: Bruce, The Epistle . . ., p. 226.]
"The ’shadow’ [Gr. skia] then is the preliminary outline that an artist may make before he gets to his colors, and the eikon [lit. image, "form"] is the finished portrait. The author is saying that the law is no more than a preliminary sketch. It shows the shape of things to come, but the solid reality is not there." [Note: Morris, p. 95]
"Make perfect" does not mean to make sinless but to make acceptable to God. Jesus Christ provided perfect cleansing for us by His death, as the following verses show.
"This verse (and in fact the whole chapter) continues our writer’s argument regarding the superiority of the sacrifice of Christ over the Mosaic rites." [Note: Jeffrey R. Sharp, "Typology and the Message of Hebrews," East Asia Journal of Theology 4:2 (1986):100.]
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