Leave the Examples, Come to the Reality
The Bible has many people, creatures, places, practices, and objects which are symbols/types/figures/shadows of spiritual realities.
Here are examples:
• Romans 5:14 tells us that “Adam…is a type of Him [Christ] who was to come.”
• John 1:29 records words of John the Baptist, “he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” All the lambs sacrificed in Old Testament times were pictures of the real Lamb of God.
• The Lord Jesus tells us in John 3:14 that the brass serpent lifted up by Moses is a picture of Him being lifted on the cross.
• The Lord Jesus spoke many parables using common things and people as pictures of spiritual realities.
• In Hebrews 8:5, 9:9, 23-24 the tabernacle and the priestly service in it are the example, shadow, and figure of the heavenly things opened to us by the Lord’s death and resurrection.
• In Colossians 2:16-17 ordinances related to eating, annual feasts, new moons, and the Sabbath day are all described as “a shadow of the things to come, but the body/substance/reality* is of Christ.” Christ is the “body” which generates all the shadows.
We should not focus on outward things which are merely shadows of the heavenly and eternal New Testament reality. This must be applied also to New Jerusalem. Do not think about physical gates and streets nor about physical gold, pearls, measurements—all of these material, earthly things are shadows of the spiritual, heavenly realities of New Jerusalem.
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* Words from many translations at biblehub.com.
Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The text of this Bible is at text.recoveryversion.bible; this too is © by LSM. A New Testament of this Bible, with outlines for each book, 9000 footnotes, and 13,000 cross references, is available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe, Bibles for Australia, Bibles for New Zealand.
Posted by Don on April 1, 2026
https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/leave-the-examples-come-to-the-reality/
