Bible Verse: Colossians 2:17 – shadow and body

Originally posted on January 19, 2026 – by Andre Piet

… things which are a shadow of what is coming, but the body is of Christ.

What Paul writes here sharpens the proportions. The laws and practices of the Old Testament—feasts, food, Sabbaths—are shadows of what was to come. They have prophetic significance and point forward. But to what? Not merely to Christ Jesus as a person, but to the body of Christ. All the shadows point to Him who was to come, including the body, the ecclesia that is connected with Him.

The ecclesia is not subjected to the shadows—it is their subject. What for centuries was announced in type and image has now, in Christ and His body, become reality. The feasts, the tabernacle, the priesthood: they were all illustrations, advance announcements of Him and of all who now share in His position. Christ is seated at God’s right hand; well then, there our life also is hidden together with Him (3:1,3). Not by way of speaking, but essentially, as head and body are inseparable.

That is why Paul expressed himself so decisively: “Let no one judge you…” (:16). For whoever knows the body of Christ realizes that he himself is part of the fulfillment of everything to which the shadows referred. A shadow, after all, does not exist by itself but derives its form from the reality. We do not follow the shadow; the shadow follows us!

Delen: