Shadow Puppets & The Puppet-Master

Quotes:

"We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God." - St. Francis De Sales

"Only God can fully satisfy the hungry heart of man." - Hugh Black

“God doesn't owe us anything - yet in His grace, He still gives us good things.” - Billy Graham

“Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life; and without the Way there is no going; and without the Truth there is no knowing; and without the Life there is no living." –Sam Fulkerson quoting Thomas Kempis

"To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement." - Raphael Simon

"To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love." - Thomas A Kempis

Hebrews 10:1; Galatians 3:24-25

God, in His great wisdom gave Old Covenant as a shadow of the New Covenant.

Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

Shadows – Types – Antitypes – Figures - Schoolmaster.

I think we all understand how “shadows” work… First the thing that the cast the shadow, then the shadow that is cast.

For example: a physical tree would cast a shadow, and therefore the shadow would be a vague reference to the tree that cast it.

So then the “shadow” in our text is identified as the Old Testament Covenant (Law); meaning that it is a vague reference of something much greater.

Hebrews 7:19 “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”

Hebrews 8:6 “...He [Jesus] is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”

Let’s look at some examples of types and antitypes:

(An antitype would be the answer or that is to say, the counterpart of the type.)

1Peter 3:20-21 “Who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 ¶ The like figure [antitype in NKJV] whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”

So the type is: souls being saved by water.

The antitype is: souls being saved by baptism.

Romans 5:14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure [type in NKJV] of him that was to come.”

In our text the shadow (LAW) was displayed first then the real covenant (GRACE) second.

The same thing happens here in Romans 5:14: The first Adam was a figure/type of the last Adam (Christ).

I Corinthians 15:46 “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”

We know that they who were under the Law (served that which was a copy and a shadow of the) real and the true which we call the New. (see Hebrews 8:5).

Jeremiah writes about this new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-33 “31- Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32- Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33- But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This is a FAITH covenant, rooted and grounded with Abraham.

That is why the Bible says in Romans 4:16:

“…it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,”

The Old Law Passed away:

Hebrews 8:13 “…A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

Therefore “Mercy Rejoiceth Against Judgment” –James 2:13.