Bob Prichard by Via Bulletin Gold
Greek philosopher and teacher Plato used his real life
teacher Socrates to share his philosophical views. In The
Republic, he records a scene of Socrates describing a cave
where a group of men are tied down so that all they can see
are the shadows reflected on the wall as objects are held up
before a fire behind them. They see the shadow of a book,
and think they see the real thing. When a man escapes from
the cave, he is at first blinded by the bright sunlight, but soon
realizes he is seeing the real thing for the first time. When
he tries to tell the others, they reject him and hold to their
own shadow reality.
Paul encouraged the Colossians against the Judaizing
teachers, telling them that as Christ gave his life for us, he
was “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). Since
they were no longer under the Law of Moses, Paul said, Let
no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holyday, or the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of
Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).
The Jews thought that their holy days, new moons and
Sabbath days were the real thing but they were in fact only
shadows of the greater reality of the New Covenant and the
heavenly kingdom. “For the law having a shadow of good
things to come, and not the very image of the things, can
never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers there unto perfect” (Hebrews
10:1). How privileged we are to live under the new covenant
of Christ, and to look forward to being in the heavenly
kingdom! We have not the shadow, but the real thing.