10:1
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves”. This sums up the whole approach of Hebrews to the Law and the gospel. The mistake the Jews made was to think that the Law was the reality. Even those who were Christians, and were Jewish or had strong Jewish links needed to understand the relationship, or else they would still hold on to the Law, and might even end up denying the gospel. It is also highly relevant to those of us who have no Jewish background. Our tendency is to ignore the Law, or to largely discount it. We need to appreciate that it is a copy of the reality, and therefore can help us to better understand the reality. So the Hebrew Christians needed to appreciate that the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never actually make anyone perfect, we non-Hebrew Christians need to better appreciate the importance of sacrifices.
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves”. This sums up the whole approach of Hebrews to the Law and the gospel. The mistake the Jews made was to think that the Law was the reality. Even those who were Christians, and were Jewish or had strong Jewish links needed to understand the relationship, or else they would still hold on to the Law, and might even end up denying the gospel. It is also highly relevant to those of us who have no Jewish background. Our tendency is to ignore the Law, or to largely discount it. We need to appreciate that it is a copy of the reality, and therefore can help us to better understand the reality. So the Hebrew Christians needed to appreciate that the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never actually make anyone perfect, we non-Hebrew Christians need to better appreciate the importance of sacrifices.
10:2
If the Levitical sacrifices could have worked then surely they would have stopped! For then the worshipper would have been cleansed once for all, with no further need of any sacrifices. They “would no longer have felt guilty for their sins”. But they did. There is an interesting implication for us. The gospel should mean that we no longer feel guilty for our sins. Yet the reality is that we are often in a sort of middle ground. There are areas of our life where we no longer feel guilty, where we enjoy the fruit of the gospel, but there can be times when we do still feel guilty. Now if we have not repented then we are absolutely right to feel guilty, and the sooner we repent the better! But we need to realise that part of the goal and fruit of the cross is that we have a clear conscience.
If the Levitical sacrifices could have worked then surely they would have stopped! For then the worshipper would have been cleansed once for all, with no further need of any sacrifices. They “would no longer have felt guilty for their sins”. But they did. There is an interesting implication for us. The gospel should mean that we no longer feel guilty for our sins. Yet the reality is that we are often in a sort of middle ground. There are areas of our life where we no longer feel guilty, where we enjoy the fruit of the gospel, but there can be times when we do still feel guilty. Now if we have not repented then we are absolutely right to feel guilty, and the sooner we repent the better! But we need to realise that part of the goal and fruit of the cross is that we have a clear conscience.
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