Colossians 2:17 Commentary and Bible Study

These rites and ceremonies that belonged to the old covenant were shadows; they were symbols or picture language to teach the people. They were not the reality; they were not efficacious; they were ceremonies which helped the understanding of how God would save and do away with sin. They were the foreshadowing, ‘but the body [the fulfilment] is Christ.’ He has bought salvation. So all the pictures of the Old Testament have passed.What is a shadow? Well, a shadow is just a shape, it is an outline. You would not stop on a sunny day and look at the pavement and begin to treat your shadow as if it was real. A shadow is only a semblance; it is only an outline; it has no substance. Oh, says Paul, all those ancient rites, they gave you an outline of what was to come, they were to teach you about the need for the great sacrifice that Christ would give and they were about him. Now when he is come, they finished. He is come now; the full light of day has arrived for everyone. ‘Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [presumably the body which is casting the shadow] is of Christ.’ He is the reality; he is the substance and so with these words the apostle shows the emptiness of going back to the Jewish ritual. The Jews were never supposed to believe that their ritual was actually efficacious but some of them did, many of them did. They thought that to offer this sacrifice actually cleansed their sin, rather than simply pointing to the one who would in the future cleanse their sin in fulfilment of this shadow. To look back at the shadow and treat it as if it was real was to be deeply confused and to deny that Christ, the fulfilment, had come. The Judaisers were encouraging this confusion in others because they were confused themselves.