COPIES AND SHADOWS
The Bible always employs the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle where the natural thing is only a copy or shadow of the spiritual thing. God never wants his people to do the natural thing, but always wants them to do the spiritual thing.
Lacking understanding of this principle, religious people interpret the Bible literally and always strive to obey the natural things they see in the Bible. These literal interpretations are the basis of religion. They are only weak, insufficient copies of spiritual truths. Copies always miss the mark of the spiritual principle God is trying to represent: God is only and always concerned about the heart.
Another way to represent the difference between the natural and spiritual is to look at the Old/First Covenant religion and compare it to the New Covenant. In the following scriptures, the Old/First Covenant is highlighted in bold, and the New Covenant is highlighted in red. The bold words represent copies, and the red words represent spiritual truth.
Hebrews 10:1-18 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. 4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” 8 When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Hebrews 9:18-24 Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
From these sample scriptures we learn that the copy or shadow is not what God wants us to focus on. These natural things or behaviors are only symbolic representations of the spiritual thing (i.e. the heart) in which New Covenant disciples exhibit the desired spiritual behaviors/attitudes.
STUDY TIP: See Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 1, Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 2, andLiteral or Symbolic Interpretation Part 3.
But Biblical shadows do not only represent spiritual behaviors and attitudes. In fact, the most important shadows in the Bible are the shadows of good things to come. Good things symbolically represent God’s spoken word which is yet to come for Old/First Covenant religionists who will someday become New Covenant disciples. This miraculous transformation happens when God’s laws are written on their hearts, which is another way of saying that they hear God’s spoken voice.