Types and Anti-Types

In 1 Peter 3:18-22, Peter wrote about Noah’s experience in the ark he built, calling it an “antitype” of baptism.

Many things we see or experience in the life we have in Christ are types or anti-types. Learning about some dynamic of the Kingdom of God is frequently a preview of an experience the next week, in which we do better because we saw the picture before we entered the experience. In other ways, some previews are pictures of the real things we could be experiencing, but we are satisfied with the picture and afraid of the reality.

The partaking of bread and wine with other believers is an anti-type of living and working as if we are as dependent on each others’ presence and gifts as we would be dependent on the heart of a body on which we lived as an ear. Bible studies are replacements for many believers for genuine fellowship, which can be scary and costly.

How many snapshots in our collections of religious items are we settling for when we could be smelling the perfume of the person in the picture?