Types and Shadows Fulfilled in Jesus Christ
(Part 4 of 7)

Part 4 of 7 · Without Shedding of Blood: The Old Testament Foundation

In Part 3 we followed the high priest within the vail on the day of atonement, where the blood made atonement and the water only cleansed the men who served.

The New Testament tells us how to read these sacrifices: as types and shadows. A type is a person, event, or practice that God placed in the Old Testament to picture something He would fulfill in Jesus Christ. Hebrews calls the law a shadow.

“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1, KJV)

Paul gives the church at Colosse the same key.

“Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:17, KJV)

A shadow is real, but it is not the body that casts it. Israel lived for centuries in the shadow of the cross, and each of these shadows has the shape of Jesus Christ and His shed blood.

The Lamb, the Door, and the Destroyer

The Passover lamb pictured Jesus Christ Himself. Paul writes, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lamb had to be without blemish, and Peter says believers were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). God also commanded Israel not to break a bone of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:46), and John saw that command fulfilled at the cross.

“For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.” (John 19:36, KJV)

The blood on the door post pictured the blood of Jesus Christ received by the one who trusts in Him. A lamb slain in the yard sheltered no one until its blood was on the door. In the same way, the death of Jesus Christ shelters the sinner who believes on Him. Paul says God set forth Jesus Christ “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). A propitiation is a sacrifice that satisfies the just wrath of God against sin.

The destroyer passing over pictured the wrath of God passing over the believer. Every firstborn under the blood was safe that night, however weak or fearful he felt. Every sinner who rests in the blood of Jesus Christ is just as safe.

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:9, KJV)

The Offering, the Priest, and the Mercy Seat

The sin offering pictured Jesus Christ as our substitute. The sinner laid his hand on the animal’s head, and the animal died in his place. Isaiah prophesied that the LORD would lay on His suffering Servant the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Peter writes of Jesus Christ, “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Even the place of burning was a type, because the body of the sin offering was carried without the camp and burned there (Leviticus 4:12, 4:21, 16:27).

“For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” (Hebrews 13:11-12, KJV)

The high priest and the vail pictured the priestly work of Jesus Christ. The high priest of Israel entered every year with the blood of others (Hebrews 9:25). Jesus Christ entered by His own blood “once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). He entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). The vail that kept Israel out of the holiest pointed to the flesh of Jesus Christ, given so that believers may now draw near.

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;” (Hebrews 10:19-20, KJV)

The mercy seat and the scapegoat pictured what the blood of Jesus Christ accomplishes. The mercy seat was the place where sprinkled blood answered the wrath of God against sin, and Jesus Christ is that propitiation. The scapegoat carried the confessed sins of Israel away into the wilderness. That is a picture of how completely God removes the sins of everyone who believes on Jesus Christ.

One Offering for Ever

Hebrews sets the many offerings of Israel beside the one offering of Jesus Christ.

“And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;” (Hebrews 10:11-12, KJV)

Every one of these types points to Jesus Christ and His blood. None of them points to water as the means of remission. The washings in those chapters were real, but they cleansed the men who served, and Scripture never presents them as pictures of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

Search these Scriptures for yourself: Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:17; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Exodus 12:46; John 19:36; Romans 3:25; Romans 5:9; Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 13:11-12; Hebrews 9:12, 24-25; Hebrews 10:11-12, 19-20.

Next in this series: Part 5, Three Witnesses to the Blood.

Go Deeper

• Jesus Christ, the Fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial System
• Paul: Justified by Faith, Justified by His Blood (Salvation in Jesus Christ, Part 5)

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“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)