Shadows

by Van Robison

A human shadow is not the person. A human shadow is also dark and not light. A shadow does not give detail, only an outline. You cannot catch your own shadow because it is always elusive. When you chase your shadow it always moves away with you out of grasp.

By the same thought, the Old Testament has many shadows in such ideas as the Saturday Sabbath, the Holy days, physical circumcision and so forth, all of which represented the real. The shadows were not the real, they only pointed to the real. Like a physical human shadow, the shadows in the O.T. are not the person. Those shadows were only dark images of the truth, which truth was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the real REST, and not the Saturday Sabbath, which was only a shadow. The Passover in the O.T. was also only a shadow which was a vague outline of the true Passover which is Jesus Christ. Likewise physical circumcision was a shadow, because true circumcision is of the heart and spiritual. The intention of these shadows was simply to point to the real. The shadow is not the real.

Shadows cannot be grasped, they can be looked upon, but they only represent a basic outline and give no fine details. A shadow cannot think, and the only thing a shadow can do is run away when you try to grasp it. On the other hand the real can be grasped, and when people take hold of Jesus Christ, they have grasped eternal life.

In the world of institutional churches, churches are also shadows, but these shadows are man-made. They have a form and appearance supposedly to look like Jesus Christ, but they are not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Himself. The Bible is not Jesus Christ. No church, no pastor, no organization, no institution is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God Almighty, and no church is God Almighty. Therefore churches are only man-made shadows conjured up in the minds of men as they perceive Christ. Church buildings are not Jesus Christ, nor are the church creeds, doctrines, worship practices, or church services. Jesus Christ has no substitute. He cannot be replaced. He is who He is and there will never be another.

Jesus Christ is not a shadow. Jesus Christ is the Real. He is the Substance. Not only was the O.T. full of shadows, but even the current era is full of shadows. This is unfortunate because Jesus Christ has offered Himself to all, and all who come to Him, He will not turn away. He is the Real. All else, including the Bible itself, church attendance, pastors, organizations are all not the Real, which is only fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We may value shadows, but they will never satisfy, because it is impossible to have meat and drink (spiritually) except in Jesus Christ who is the Living Waters of life. Shadows are not living waters.