In John 14:6 the Lord said, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” The Greek word for reality in this verse may also be translated as “truth” (cf. 17:17). We first experience Christ as our life. This life experienced by us becomes our reality, and this reality is the way for us to do everything. The proper way to live, work, serve, and worship is the reality, the truth, which we have through the experience of Christ. We saw in the previous chapter that the way to preach the gospel is to experience Christ. The way for us to preach the gospel is not the demonstration of natural ability or the use of gimmicks, such as plays or musical performances. The unique and living way to preach the gospel is simply to live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ.
John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Truth, or reality, is not doctrine. This verse would not make sense if the word doctrine were used in place of reality. In this verse the apostle John places the law in contrast to reality, or truth. The law being given indicates that it is not a person, and reality coming indicates that it is a person. The law was a shadow, a type, a prefigure, or a picture; the truth is the reality. If I intend to visit some people who have never seen me, I may send them my photograph before I arrive. Thus, the photograph is given, but the person comes.
The Old Testament is called the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:40). Before Christ came, God gave many pictures of Christ in the books of the Old Testament. However, seeing pictures cannot substitute for meeting the real person. Therefore, we must not stop with the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have the person, Jesus Christ. The person came, and now He is present, new, and living in us. We have an active and energizing person living in us. This person is the reality of every positive thing.
In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Man being made in God’s image is a shadow, a picture. Man was made in God’s image, but the real image of God is Christ. Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the image of the invisible God. Thus, Christ is seen in Genesis 1 in a shadow. The body of the shadow, the One who is the image of the invisible God, came in the New Testament. Christ came as the image of the invisible God, the tangible expression of God. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Christ is the expression of the unseen God, the image of the invisible God. The picture of God’s image is in Genesis 1, but the person who is the real image of God is in the New Testament.
The tree of life in Genesis 2 also is a picture of Christ as the real tree of life. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life.” In 11:25 and 14:6 the Lord said that He is the life. Then in 15:1 He said, “I am the true vine.” All other vines are shadows; Christ is the real vine. John reveals that Christ is life and the true vine. This indicates that Christ is the reality of the tree of life. It is for this reason that John 1:17 says, “Reality came through Jesus Christ.”
In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve fell and were poisoned by the serpent. Then God came in to judge the serpent, telling him, “I will put enmity / Between you and the woman / And between your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head” (v. 15). The seed of the woman mentioned here is a shadow. The reality of the seed of the woman is the child brought forth by a virgin (Matt. 1:23). Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” Christ is the seed of the woman, who bruised the head of Satan. Thus, the shadow, the picture, was presented in Genesis 3, and the reality, the person, came in Galatians 4.
The Old Testament is a book of shadows and pictures, and the New Testament is a book of fulfillment, reality, and truth. This truth is a person.
In Exodus 12 the children of Israel killed and ate a lamb, and its blood was applied to their doorposts. This caused God to pass over the children of Israel and strengthened them to make an exodus out of Egypt to a place to which God had called them. All this was a shadow. In the New Testament, when John the Baptist saw the Lord, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The lamb in Exodus 12 was a shadow, a picture; Christ is the Lamb of God in reality.