"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves." (v. 1)

For Reading and Meditation:     Hebrews 10:1-18

We talked two days ago of humanity's efforts to try to reach God through philosophy and moralism or the law. The inadequacy, even bankruptcy, of trying to find God through the law is brought out most clearly in the passage before us today. The law, we are told, contains no true image, merely a shadow. It was the Word become word, hence a shadow and not an image. It follows that all discussion about the law being the route to finding God is nothing more than shadow boxing. It ends in futility. One day, after centuries of sacrificing animals - during which time God instilled in human minds the important idea of substitution - the unexpected happened. The writer to the Hebrews put it in these words: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me" (v. 5). Christ said to the Father: "Here I am ... I have come to do your will." When the Son of God compressed Himself into a human body, the greatest miracle of the ages took place. This was the substance; all else was shadow. The substance - the Incarnation - superseded all previous manifestations of God and now holds the field as the greatest and indeed the only real revelation. No one would ever have thought that the God of the universe would take a body and become man in order to redeem humankind. A love like that does not exist in the categories of philosophy. But seeing is believing. Every time we write the date we affirm it: God has been here on our planet in the form of a man.

O God, what can I say? I am speechless at the wonder of it. I am in the dust. But that is where I find You - in the dust ready to receive me and lift me to the highest heaven. O gracious condescension. I am Yours forever. Amen.