Shadow and Substance
In our Wednesday evening series teaching through Colossians, we have just completed Colossians 2:16-23. In this passage, Paul utilizes the distinction between the “shadow” presented in the Old Testament laws and the “substance” that comes in Christ. This interplay of shadow and substance—type and antitype—is a key interpretative tool that helps us to understand so much of the God’s revelation in history and helps to understand how Jesus and the Apostles read the Scriptures—and how we should too! As a follow up to my teaching on Colossians 2:16-23, I spent some time working through what typology is, how it works as an interpretive way of thinking, and what ways we can see this play out in Scriptures especially in the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.
Don’t Be a Modern-Day Marcionite
One of the significant motivations for a typological interpretive framework is to help us see just how unified the Old and New Testaments are. So often, we think of ourselves as “New Testament” Christians. But truly, we are people of the entire Word. While there are many aspects of the Old Testament that have been fulfilled in Christ, we can’t excise the Old Testament from our Bibles—or at least we shouldn’t. I fear that we actually do become modern-day Marcionites at times. Not confessionally, but practically in the way that we read the Bible. By tending towards reading mostly (or only?) the New Testament, we effectively demonstrate a misunderstanding of the relationship between the Testaments while also robbing ourselves of the very foundation upon which our “New Testament faith” is built. Without understanding the ways in which God has worked and promised to fulfill His purposes laid forth in the Old Testament, we truncate and shrink our understanding of and appreciation for what is communicated in the New Testament. In fact, did you know that about 84 percent of your Bible is Old Testament when you consider both the Old Testament text itself and then all the quotations and citations of the Old Testament by New Testament authors? An understanding of typology helps us to fight against the tendency to only read and study part of the Bible. By showing us the majesty of Christ in fulfilling not just the direct prophecies of the Old Testament but also the whole story that God is telling typology leads us toward an appreciation of the entire Word of God.
Spurgeon and the Majesty of Christ
As a way of demonstrating this line of thinking, I want to point you to the Prince of Preachers and a sermon that C. H. Spurgeon preaching on John 19:30. As you read this excerpt (warning: it’s lengthy), I want you to think on two concepts. First, consider the majesty of Christ in the fulfillment of all the expectations of the Old Testament. What person could hold together and fulfill all the prophecies and all the prefigurements that are found in the Scriptures? No one but the God-Man. Second, contemplate the sovereignty, wisdom, and omnipotence of God to be able to orchestrate such an elaborate, expansive, and awesome plan. Truly there is no God like ours!
What I hope you’ll see is this: a typological framework brings practical awareness and enduring appreciation for who God is and what He alone has done in human history to save us. What a God we have! Isn’t He worthy of worship and obedience?
“What meant the Saviour, then, by this — “It is finished?” He meant, first of all, that all the types, promises, and prophecies were now fully accomplished in him...This leads us to see his meaning very clearly, that all the Scripture was now fulfilled, that when he said, “It is finished,” the whole book, from the first to the last, in both the law and the prophets, was finished in him. There is not a single jewel of promise, from that first emerald which fell on the threshold of Eden, to that last sapphire-stone of Malachi, which was not set in the breast-plate of the true High Priest. Nay, there is not a type, from the red heifer downward to the turtle-dove, from the hyssop upwards to Solomon’s temple itself, which was not fulfilled in him; and not a prophecy, whether spoken on Chebar’s bank, or on the shores of Jordan; not a dream of wise men, whether they had received it in Babylon, or in Samaria, or in Judea, which was not now fully wrought out in Christ Jesus. And, brethren, what a wonderful thing it is, that a mass of promises, and prophecies, and types, apparently so heterogeneous, should all be accomplished in one person! Take away Christ for one moment, and I will give the Old Testament to any wise man living, and say to him, “Take this; this is a problem; go home and construct in your imagination an ideal character who shall exactly fit all that which is herein foreshadowed ; remember, he must be a prophet like unto Moses, and yet a champion like to Joshua ; he must be an Aaron and a Melchisedek; he must be both David and Solomon, Noah and Jonah, Judah and Joseph. Nay, he must not only be the lamb that was slain, and the scape-goat that was not slain, the turtle-dove that was dipped in blood, and the priest who slew the bird, but he must be the altar, the tabernacle, the mercy-seat, and the shewbread.” Nay, to puzzle this wise man further, we remind him of prophecies so apparently contradictory, that one would think they never could meet in one man. Such as these, “All kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him;” and yet, “He is despised and rejected of men.” He must begin by showing a man born of a virgin mother — “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” He must be a man without spot or blemish, but yet one upon whom the Lord doth cause to meet the iniquities of us all. He must be a glorious one, a Son of David, but yet a root out of a dry ground. Now, I say it boldly, if all the greatest intellects of all the ages could set themselves to work out this problem, to invent another key to the types and prophecies, they could not do it. I see you, ye wise men, ye are poring over these hieroglyphs; one suggests one key, and it opens two or three of the figures, but you cannot proceed, for the next one puts you at a nonplus. Another learned man suggests another clue, but that fails most where it is most needed, and another, and another, and thus these wondrous hieroglyphs traced of old by Moses in the wilderness, must be left unexplained, till one comes forward and proclaims, “The cross of Christ and the Son of God incarnate,” then the whole is clear, so that he that runs may read, and a child may understand. Blessed Saviour! In thee we see everything fulfilled, which God spoke of old by the prophets; in thee we discover everything carried out in substance, which God had set forth us in the dim mist of sacrificial smoke. Glory be unto thy name! “It is finished” — everything is summed up in thee.”
Additional Reading
Fred Zaspel has put together a few excellent but short articles that summarize and provide some examples of Typology. If you would like more information about this subject, check out these articles.
The Warrant for Typological Interpretation of Scripture
