Church Series-The Church's Relationship to the Mosaic Law-Jesus Christ is the Substantive Reality of the Mosaic Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday January 18, 2017
The Church Series: The Church’s Relationship to the Mosaic Law-Jesus Christ is the Substantive Reality
Lesson # 33
Colossians 2:16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (NASB95)
“Things” is pointing back to the nouns brōsis, “food,” posis, “drink,” heortē, “feast,” neomēnia, “new moon,” and sabbaton, “Sabbath,” which all appear in Colossians 2:16.
“A mere shadow” is used prophetically of the relation of type to antitype.
“Of what is to come” indicates that the dietary regulations, seven great feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which are prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to observe are all a shadow of “the things to come.”
Paul is speaking of all these things from the perspective of the Son of God having yet to enter the human race.
Therefore, this phrase is referring to the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ from the perspective that they are still yet future.
“But the substance belongs to Christ” stands in contrast to the previous assertion.
“The substance” is the noun sōma (σῶμα), which means “the reality” or “the substantive reality” since it pertains to the antitype in contrast to the type and pertains to an entity which corresponds to a type which foreshadows it.
Colossians 2:16 Therefore, continue making it your habit of not letting anyone condemn any of you as guilty because of food or because of drink or because of a particular feast or new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are, as an eternal spiritual truth a shadow, namely, the things which will inevitably come but the substantive reality is, as an eternal spiritual truth specifically the Christ. (My translation)
The apostle makes two assertions in Colossians 2:17.
The first is that the dietary regulations, the seven feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which he mentions in Colossians 2:16 are as an eternal spiritual a shadow.
He then defines what he means by “a shadow” by asserting that they are the things which will inevitably come, which is referring to the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ from the perspective that they are still yet future.
In this first assertion, Paul is speaking from the perspective of living during the dispensation of the Mosaic Law prior to the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ or in other words, he is speaking of these things when the Son of God had yet to enter the human race.
The second assertion in Colossians 2:17 stands in contrast with the first and states that the substantive reality of these various aspects of the Mosaic Law is as an eternal spiritual truth specifically the Christ.
The Christ is the substantive reality of the dietary regulations, seven great feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which are prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to observe.
This means that Jesus Christ is the antitype and the dietary regulations, seven great feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which are prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to observe typify Him and specifically who He is and what He did during His First Advent and what He will do during His Second Advent.
As we noted, “shadow” is used prophetically of the relation of type to antitype and pertains to a faint archetype which foreshadows a later reality.
Zuck writes “A type has a predictive or foreshadowing element to it. It looks ahead and anticipates and points to the antitype. A type is a shadow (Col. 2:17) that points ahead to another reality. A type is a form of prophecy. Prophecy is prediction by means of words, whereas typology is prediction by correspondence between two realities, the type and the antitype. Again there are many similarities and resemblances in the Scriptures, but not every correspondence or resemblance is a type. To be an official type, the correspondence or resemblance must have a predictive element, a foreshadowing and anticipation of the antitype. The type, in other words, has a forward focus…Marsh stated this view as follows: ‘Just so much of the Old Testament is to be accounted typical as the New Testament affirms to be so, and no more.’ In summary, a type must have at least these five elements: a notable resemblance or correspondence between the type and the antitype, historical reality in both the type and the antitype, a prefiguring or predictive foreshadowing of the antitype by the type, a heightening in which the antitype is greater than the type, and divine design .”
So here in Colossians 2:17, the antitype is Jesus Christ and the type is the dietary regulations, seven great feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which are prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to observe.
Jesus Christ is greater of course than all these things since He is the Son of God and gave them to Israel to observe.
Jesus Christ is a historical person and all these things related to the Mosaic Law are also historical realities since Israel observed these things for centuries.
All of these things related to the Law prefigure or are a predictive foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and were all designed to point to Jesus Christ who was the fulfillment of these things.
Some interpreters contend that the noun sōma here in Colossians 2:17 refers to the body of Christ or in other words the church.
Some argue it refers to the physical human body of Jesus but the context indicates that Paul is contrasting the person, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with the various aspects of the Mosaic Law.
In Colossians 2:8-23, Paul is teaching the Colossians that the Judaizers’ attempt to get them to live their lives according to the Mosaic Law is opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ which he exhorts them to continue to live by.
The Mosaic Law does not apply to them but rather the gospel of Jesus Christ since it was His death and resurrection which provided them eternal life and their identification with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection served as the basis for their Christian walk.
A contrast between Jesus Christ’s human body and the Law or a contrast between the church and the Law does not fit the context.
Paul is concerned that the Colossians reject the Judaizers’ misapplication and misuse of the Law and continue to adhere to his gospel and specifically His teaching about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and their union and identification with Christ in His death and resurrection.
Furthermore, up to this point in Colossians, Paul has been emphasizing with the Colossians the superiority of Christ and sufficiency of Christ in their lives (cf. Col. 1:15-20; 2:9-15).
How is Jesus Christ the fulfillment of dietary regulations, seven great feasts, the new moon and the Sabbath which are prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to observe?
First of all, with regards to the seven great feasts, Jesus Christ is the literal fulfillment of Passover because of His death on the cross (1 Cor. 5:7).
He is also the literal fulfillment of the feast of Unleavened Bread because of His impeccable life and person (1 Cor. 5:7-8) and He is the fulfillment of the feast of First-Fruits because of His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23).
He fulfilled the feast of Pentecost in that He sent the Spirit to indwell the church on the day of Pentecost (Joel 2:28; cf. Acts 2:1-47).
Jesus Christ will fulfill the feast of Trumpets in that He will administer the seven trumpet judgments during the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week.
He will be the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement at His Second Advent (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26-27; Heb. 9:19-28).
Lastly, the Lord Jesus Christ will fulfill the feast of Tabernacles with His millennial reign.
In regards to the Sabbath, Jesus Christ is the Christian’s spiritual rest (Heb. 4:3, 9, 11).
With regards to the new moon, Jesus Christ was its fulfillment since the new moon designated the beginning of a new month of the Jewish calendar and Israel was told to offer sacrifices on this day to worship the Lord and these sacrifices were fulfilled by Him and pointed to His cross.
The dietary regulations of the Mosaic Law were fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the sense that these dietary regulations were designed to set the citizens of the nation of Israel apart from their pagan Gentile neighbors.
In other words, they were designed to sanctify them in relation to their Gentile neighbors.
The Jew who trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior is sanctified as a result of being identified with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection through the baptism of the Spirit.
Lastly, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law since He obeyed the Mosaic Law perfectly during His First Advent (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:3-4).
So for these reasons, the faithful Christians in Colossae, were to reject the Judaizers attempt to get them to govern their lives by the various commands and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law.
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law and the substantive reality of the ceremonial aspect of the Law and the moral aspect of the Law.