Continuing to study Colossians 2, we come to verse 17. It calls the foods, festivals, and Sabbaths “a shadow of the things to come.”
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
In contrast with the “shadow,” we find that Christ brings us the “substance” (also translated “reality” and “body”). Hebrews 8:5 and 10:1 also uses the term “shadow” regarding things of the law, shadowy things that pointed ahead to better spiritual realities.
We may illustrate the difference between shadow and reality in this way. Suppose you are walking along a street and approach a corner. A wall keeps you from seeing around the corner. Yet you know that someone is there, behind that corner, because his shadow can be seen on the ground in front of him. From the shadow you cannot tell every detail about the man. You cannot recognize exactly who he is. But the shadow can tell you some things the man is wearing a hat and carrying a case. He too is coming toward the corner. A few moments later, you meet the man at the corner. Now you see the man himself—the reality, the substance. It turns out that the man is close friend. You greet him warmly. Do you reach down to the ground and shake the shadow of his hand? Of course not; that’s just a shadow. When you shake hands in greeting, you take the man’s real hand. The shadow merely made you aware of his coming. It gave some idea of what was ahead. But you are far more interested in the reality, which is the man himself.
In the same way, the Old Covenant’s shadows prepared for the coming of Christ with His spiritual realities. Hebrews 10:1 says,
…the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.
The law was about shadows, not realities.
Similarly, the Bible speaks of “copies” (Hebrews 8:5; 9:23-24), the things of the law that pointed ahead to specific truths of Christianity. Copies and types were like clues from which a thoughtful person might piece together what to expect. They served as a sort of drawing or sketch. Now that Christ has come, God’s people no longer depend on clues and sketches. We have something far better than even the best picture. We have the Person Himself, God’s own Son! Why then would we want to reject the Son of God by making an old drawing our master instead? hat makes as much sense as greeting the shadow instead of the actual friend. Members at Colossae had made a bad mistake. They had listened to false teachers who drew them back into the shadows of the old law. Paul showed them how foolish this was when they already enjoyed the reality, the true Messiah.