Out of Egypt I called My Son.
— Matthew 2:15
In the first post, we looked at the necessity of allowing the Bible to speak for itself. We need to avoid defining terms such as “literal” in extra-biblical ways. What is literal and what is not literal is ultimately determined by the Bible itself, not by any standard we arbitrarily choose to impose upon it. An example I used was Psalm 102:25, where the Scriptures attribute an arm to God. Here, the Scriptures do not mean to tell us that God has an anatomical arm. It’s using non-literal language (anthropomorphism) to communicate some deeper literal truth about God (His power to defeat His enemies). Thus, Scripture sometimes uses non-literal means to communicate literal truths.
Here in this second post, I want to talk about a distinct, yet relevant concept: typology. Typology refers to God’s use of things to signify or foreshadow other and greater things. For example, I believe Matthew 2:15 shows us that the nation of Israel was a type of the other and greater Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of the nation of Israel, though imperfect, was to foreshadow its other and greater antitype, the Son of God.
How Does Typology Work?
As mentioned above, a type is purposed to show forth it’s other and greater antitype. The antitype is the fulfillment of the type. Now, we need to properly understand these terms “other” and “greater,” respectively. Jesus is not national Israel, so Jesus is other than national Israel. Likewise, Jesus is better or more desirable than national Israel, being the sufficient Lord and Savior of His people, so Jesus is greater than national Israel. Jesus, as the antitype, is other and greater than His type.
So, if Jesus is other than national Israel, in what sense are the two related? The two are related insofar as Israel’s purpose is to reveal something about its greater fulfillment. Israel is God’s “son” in the sense that it reveals something about the coming, greater Son of God (Hos. 11:1; Matt. 2:15). The nation of Israel is not God’s ultimate Son, Israel is not the firstborn of all creation; Israel is intended to bear witness to that ultimate Son, to the firstborn of all creation. Sometimes it bears witness to Christ positively. When Israel obeys God it is positively foreshadowing the one Who will perfectly obey God. Sometimes, however, Israel bears witness to Christ in a negative way. When Israel rebels against God, we learn that the people of old were in desperate need of something other and greater to stand in Israel’s place—Someone who would perfectly fulfill that righteousness to which the nation of Israel was commanded.
There are some implications to be drawn out here. Since the antitype is always other and greater than the type, when the antitype arrives, the type goes away. A shadow flees when the shadow-caster stands in its place. The Eiffel Tower and the Eiffel Tower’s shadow cannot occupy the same place at the same time and in the same relationship (cf. formal laws of logic). So, wherever the Eiffel Tower is present, its shadow is absent. So too, when the fulfillment of the type arrives—the great and wondrous Lord Jesus—the type goes away.
Jesus communicates this point clearly using the analogy of wine and wine skins. He says:
Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
When the new comes, it can’t be shoved back into the old. It doesn’t fit. Nor is the old the right context for the new. Jesus, referencing the Old Covenant ordinances says that something greater has come. Therefore, since something greater has come, let’s not try to go back to the old. When the antitype comes, the type goes away. When the other and greater Sacrifice comes, the lesser sacrifices disappear. Their purpose has been fulfilled.
Hebrews 9 in its entirety is another wonderful place where this principle is drawn out and explained. The author of Hebrews contrasts the earthly tabernacle and old ordinances with the heavenly sanctuary, saying, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.” Again we see that when the greater comes, the lesser goes away.
Applying This View of Typology
Perhaps two instances wherein this view of typology may be brought to bear in the most lucid of terms is within two different, yet related and ongoing discussions. The first discussion is that had between baptists and paedobaptists, concerning their respective views of God’s covenants. Is circumcision a type of baptism? The paedobaptist would answer “yes” assuming the antitype to only be better (in a qualitative sense), yet not other than its type. Like circumcision, baptism still applies to children of covenant members, and it continues to not only be a sign but also a seal of covenant membership.
The Baptist, however, believing that a type must be not only better but other, would say that baptism’s design isn’t like that of circumcision. In fact, they wouldn’t really say circumcision and baptism are related along typological lines at all. Circumcision is a type of the atoning work of Christ—the other and greater blood of the covenant. It’s other because it’s not our flesh and blood which was cut, but Christ’s; and it’s greater because it’s sufficient for the expiation and propitiation for our sins, whereas circumcision was not. It also brings us not into a covenant of works but a covenant of grace. It’s other and greater.
The second discussion may be one had between the Reformed and dispensationalists or futurist premillennialists who believe in an eschatological return of the national, theocratic state of Israel. The dispensationalists have essentially the same view of types as our presbyterian friends do, where the antitype is really just a better version of its type, yet not necessarily other. The imperfect national Israel of the Old Testament is a type of a better, more pure national Israel yet to come. The seventeenth century London Baptists would argue that the antitype of national Israel has to be other and greater. It would have to be Christ who, according to Matthew 2:15, is the other and greater Son. Other in that this Son is not a nation. Greater because this Son was perfectly obedient, even unto death on a cross, and secures a better inheritance than that of earthly land (Heb. 1:4), which is all national Israel could secure with its obedience (Deut. 6:18).
Conclusion
This post was not intended to present every view of typology discussed in an exhaustive fashion. However, I hope you are able to see the significance of how Christians view the relationship of types to their antitypes. Types, while related, are not their antitypes. Antitypes are always other and greater. God’s covenants are always intended to improve the situation of His people. The New Covenant is the superior arrangement and we, therefore, ought to return to the other and lesser arrangements which have gone before us. The Substance has come, the shadows must now go away.
In the next post, I will begin a discussion on the covenants and their relationship to one another. I will begin that discussion with a post defining the term covenant.
— J. S.