John Calvin Commentary Colossians 2:17

"which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ`s." — Colossians 2:17 (ASV)

Which are a shadow of things to come. The reason why He frees Christians from observing them is that they were shadows at a time when Christ was still, in a manner, absent. For He contrasts shadows with revelation, and absence with manifestation. Therefore, those who still adhere to those shadows act like someone who would judge a man’s appearance from his shadow, while in the meantime he had the man himself personally before his eyes.

For Christ is now manifested to us, and so we enjoy Him as being present. The body, he says, is of Christ; that is, IN Christ. For the substance of those things which the ceremonies prefigured in ancient times is now presented before our eyes in Christ, since He contains in Himself everything that they marked out as future.

Hence, the person who calls back the ceremonies into use either buries the manifestation of Christ, or robs Christ of His excellence, and makes Him in a manner void. Accordingly, if any mortal should assume to himself in this matter the office of judge, let us not submit to him, since Christ, the only competent Judge, sets us free.

For when he says, Let no man judge you, he does not address the false apostles but prohibits the Colossians from yielding their neck to unreasonable requirements. To abstain from swine’s flesh, it is true, is in itself harmless, but the binding to do it is pernicious, because it makes the grace of Christ void.

If anyone should ask, “What view, then, should be taken of our sacraments? Do they not also represent Christ to us as absent?” I answer that they differ widely from the ancient ceremonies. For as painters do not in the first draft bring out a likeness in vivid colors, and (εἰκονικῶς) expressively, but at first draw crude and obscure lines with charcoal, so the representation of Christ under the Law was unpolished and was, as it were, a first sketch; but in our sacraments, it is seen drawn true to life.

Paul, however, had something further in view, for he contrasts the bare aspect of the shadow with the solidity of the body, and admonishes them that it is the act of a madman to take hold of empty shadows when he has the power to handle the solid substance.

Further, while our sacraments represent Christ as absent in terms of sight and physical distance, they do so in such a way as to testify that He has been once manifested, and they now also present Him to us to be enjoyed. Therefore, they are not bare shadows but, on the contrary, symbols of Christ’s presence, for they contain that Yea and Amen of all the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20), which was once manifested to us in Christ.