COPIES AND SHADOWS
The Bible always employs the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle where the natural thing is only a copy or shadow of the spiritual thing. God never wants his people to do the natural thing, but always wants them to do the spiritual thing.

Lacking understanding of this principle, religious people interpret the Bible literally and always strive to obey the natural things they see in the Bible. These literal interpretations are the basis of religion. They are only weak, insufficient copies of spiritual truths. Copies always miss the mark of the spiritual principle God is trying to represent: God is only and always concerned about the heart.

Another way to represent the difference between the natural and spiritual is to look at the Old/First Covenant religion and compare it to the New Covenant. In the following scriptures, the Old/First Covenant is highlighted in bold, and the New Covenant is highlighted in red. The bold words represent copies, and the red words represent spiritual truth.