¹ For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

Summary assessment of the entire Law—it could not make worshipers of Yahweh perfect. “Drawing near” to God through the Levitical rituals was not enough. In fact, it completely failed. Another way had to be found, a better way (Heb 7:19). After building this case over the previous nine chapters, the refrain rings out with theological relief. No clearer statement can be found in Scripture on this note.

But this is not unique in Scripture. Paul also reprises, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:16-17). The value of a shadow is not in the shadow itself, but in the thing of which it is a shadow. The Israelites had missed the whole point of the Law, with its Levitical system of worship. They had vainly turned it into a formula, a system to become righteous and therefore acceptable to God. It became their attempt at worthiness in order to approach God. Their confidence was completely misplaced (see Heb 4:15).

The writer of Hebrews is given to repetition and restatement. Sometimes the very wording is repeated, other times the same concept is rendered with different words. This reflects not superficial literary style, but rather the weightiness of the subject matter. The idea of repeated offerings providing righteousness before God must be repeatedly refuted. It was so ingrained in the Jewish psyche that the writer could not let it stand with just one refutation.

If the Law was good for making people perfectly righteous, then the Law would have ceased to be needed. So then why, in that thinking, continue with the Law? That makes no sense. By its very repetitive nature, it could not get the job done. No amount of Law keeping is adequate. The notion is self-defeating. Yet it is the foundation of every religion of the world. Is that not ironic? The only solution is a completely different kind of righteousness, a different kind of priesthood, a different kind of law, a different kind of “drawing near” to God, a different kind of quest for perfect righteousness. That is the message of the book of Hebrews: “… in these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son…” (1:2).

Lord, how beautiful are these words, that You have spoken to us in Your Son, the perfect image of Yourself, a message of a new kind of righteousness in Him.