Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 3:14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
14. the serpent ] We here have some evidence of the date of the Gospel. The Ophitic is the earliest Gnostic system of which we have full information. The serpent is the centre of the system, at once its good and evil principle. Had this form of Gnosticism been prevalent before this Gospel was written, this verse would scarcely have stood thus. An orthodox writer would have guarded his readers from error: an Ophitic writer would have made more of the serpent.
even so ] Christ here testifies to the prophetic and typical character of the O.T.
must ] It is so ordered in the counsels of God. Heb 2:9-10.
be lifted up ] On the cross: the lifting up does not refer to the exaltation of Christ to glory. The glory to which the cross led ( crux scala coeli) is not included. Comp. Joh 8:28 and Joh 12:32; and for other symbolic language about His death comp. Mat 12:40.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And as Moses – Jesus proceeds in this and the following verses to state the reason why he came into the world and, in order to this, he illustrates His design, and the efficacy of his coming, by a reference to the case of the brass serpent, recorded in Num 21:8-9. The people were bitten by flying fiery serpents. There was no cure for the bite. Moses was directed to make an image of the serpent, and place it in sight of the people, that they might look on it and be healed. There is no evidence that this was intended to be a type of the Messiah, but it is used by Jesus as strikingly illustrating his work. Men are sinners. There is no cure by human means for the maladies of the soul; and as the people who were bitten might look on the image of the serpent and be healed, so may sinners look to the Saviour and be cured of the moral maladies of our nature.
Lifted up – Erected on a pole. Placed on high, So that it might be seen by the people.
The serpent – The image of a serpent made of brass.
In the wilderness – Near the land of Edom. In the desert and desolate country to the south of Mount Hor, Num 21:4.
Even so – In a similar manner and with a similar design. He here refers, doubtless, to his own death. Compare Joh 12:32; Joh 8:28. The points of resemblance between his being lifted up and that of the brass serpent seem to be these:
- In each case those who are to be benefited can he aided in no other way. The bite of the serpent was deadly, and could be healed only by looking on the brass serpent; and sin is deadly in its nature, and can be removed only by looking on the cross.
- The mode of their being lifted up. The brass serpent was in the sight of the people. So Jesus was exalted from the earth raised on a tree or cross.
- The design was similar. The one was to save the life, the other the soul; the one to save from temporal, the other from eternal death.
- The manner of the cure was similar. The people of Israel were to look on the serpent and be healed, and so sinners are to look on the Lord Jesus that they may be saved.
Must – It is proper; necessary; indispensable, if men are saved. Compare Luk 24:26; Luk 22:42.
The Son of man – The Messiah.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 3:14-15
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
The brazen serpent
Nicodemuss confession of faith was substantially that of many amongst us, only he went a bit further.
Because he was honest he deserved, and because he was half blind he needed, Christs instruction for the expanding of his creed. Complete Christianity, according to Christ, involves
(1) A radical change comparable to birth. When Nicodemus staggers at this, our Lord
(2) unveils what makes it possible–the Incarnation of the Son of Man who came down from heaven. But a Christianity that stops at the Incarnation is incomplete, so our Lord
(3) speaks of the end of incarnation and ground of the possibility of being born again.
I. THE PROFOUND PARADOXICAL PARALLEL BETWEEN THE IMAGE OF THE POISONER AND THE LIVING HEALER. The correspondence between the lifting up of the serpent and the lifting up of Christ, the look of the half-dead Israelite and the look of faith, the healing in both cases, are clear; and with these it would be strange were there no correspondence between the two subjects. We admit that Jesus Christ has come in the likeness of the victims of the poison, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, without sin; but in a very profound sense He stood also as representative of the cause of the evil. God hath made Him to be sin for us, etc. And the brazen image in the likeness of the poisonous creature, and yet with no poison in it, reminds us that on Christ were heaped the evils that tempt humanity. And Paul, speaking of the consequences of Christs death, says that He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly–hanging them up there–triumphing over them in it. Just as that brazen image was hung up as a proof that the venomous power of living serpents was overcome, so in the death of Christ sin is crucified and death done to death.
II. THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.
1. The serpent was lifted for conspicuousness; and Nicodemus must have understood, although vaguely, that this Son of Man was to be presented not to a handful of people in an obscure corner, but to the whole world, as the Healer.
2. But Christs prescient eye and foreboding heart travelled, onwards to the cross. This is proved from the two other occasions, when He used the same expression.
3. So from the beginning Christs programme was death. He did not begin as most teachers, full of enthusiastic dreams, and then, as the illusions disappeared, face the facts of rejection and death.
4. Notice, too, the place in Christs work which the cross assumed to Him. There have been many answering to Nicodemuss conception–teachers, examples, righteous men, reformers; but all these have worked by their lives: this Man comes to work by His death. He came to heal, and you will not get the poison out of men by exhortations, philosophies, moralities, social reforms. Poison cannot be treated by surface applications, but by the cross.
5. The Divine necessity which Christ accepts–must. This was often on His lips. Why?
(1) Because His whole life was one long act of obedience to the Divine Will.
(2) Because His whole life was one long act of compassion for His brethren.
III. THE LOOK OF FAITH. The dying Israelite had to look. Suppose he had looked unbelieving, carelessly, scoffingly, there would have been no healing. The look was required as the expression of
(1) the consciousness of burning death;
(2) the confidence that it could be taken away because God had said so.
(3) The conviction of the hopelessness of cure in any other way.
IV. THE PROMISE OF HEALING.
1. In the one ease of the body, in the other case of the soul.
2. The gift of life–something bestowed, not evolved.
3. This eternal life is present, and by its power arrests the process of poisoning, and heals the whole nature.
4. It is available for the most desperate cases. Christianity knows nothing of hopeless men. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
The difference between the Gospels and the Epistles is that between seed and flower. Christ gave men the seeds of truth, and left inspired apostles to develop them. Paul has been charged with inventing the doctrine of the atonement, but it is in this verse in germ. Notice here three analogies
I. IN THE DISEASE. The poison of the fiery serpents was fermenting in the Israelites; that of sin is fermenting in us.
1. Men are sinners: a trite observation, but Paul devoted three chapters in Romans to prove it. Our very righteousness is as filthy rags, and you may endeavour by moral improvements to wash them, but you can no more wash them clean than an Ethiop can his left hand by rubbing it with his right.
2. We are all sinners. There is no difference. Irrational animals come short of the glory of God; but men fall short. The idea of a fall underlies all human history: hence culpability. Some men have fallen more deeply, but there is no difference in the fact.
3. All are under sentence of death. Guilty before God, subject to penalty–death. The wages never fall below that.
4. Not only so, but we are polluted, morally sick. What brought death upon us wrought it in us. The venom of the serpents would assuredly terminate in death, in spite of all self or other help. We all sinned in Adam, but Adam continues to sin in us. Sickness is contagious, health never. The Jew transmitted his depravity, not his circumcision: you impart your sin to your posterity, not your holiness. Each has to be regenerated anew.
II. IN THE REMEDY.
1. Our salvation comes through man. The Israelites were bitten by serpents, and by a serpent they were to be healed. By man came sin; by man comes salvation.
2. Not only by man, but the Son of Man, one who in the core of His being is closely united to every other man. According to the ancient law, the Goel or nearest relative alone had the right to redeem. Christ is the nearest relative any man can have.
3. The Son of Man lifted up. The tendency is to make the Incarnation the centre of Christianity: the Bible makes the Cross that. A glorious display of condescending grace was made at Bethlehem; but on Calvary God and man were reconciled. Christ suffered
(1) with man in virtue of His keen sympathies;
(2) for man, in that He suffered martyrdom rather than forsake the path of duty;
(3) instead of man, for He bore the wrath of God.
4. The necessity for our atonement. Not shall, but must. The must of verse 10 indicates the necessity for a radical change in order to salvation; that of our text the necessity of an atonement on the part of God. Sin must be published. Gods righteousness must be upheld, and all its demands met.
5. Jesus Christ uplifted is now both physician and remedy to His people. The brazen serpent could only heal our disease: Christ saves to the uttermost
(1) degree of perfection,
(2) degree of continuation.
III. Is THE APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY FOR THE DISEASE. The Israelites were not bidden to apply poultices, but to look. You are not enjoined to improve yourselves, but to believe.
1. Through faith in Christ the sinner has permission to live. Two words are used in this connection; forgive–give for; remit–set free; corresponding to , to show grace, and , to discharge. These must not be confused. As Broad Church theologians contend every one has been forgiven, but in the first sense. God has given for man all that Almighty Love could offer. But men are only forgiven in the second sense when they accept Gods pardoning grace.
2. By faith we acquire the right to live–this is justification and more than pardon, permission to live.
3. The power to live–regeneration.
Conclusion:
1. In Christs days faith in everlasting life had become practically extinct.
2. Christ revived it, not simply teaching it, but imparting it. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
I. IT WAS TO BE MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF THAT WHICH WAS DESTROYING THEM. Around are serpents victorious: here the serpent conquered and exhibited as a trophy, and the people who see it live. Around us the powers of darkness and death are victorious, and sinning souls are dead in trespasses and sins. Behold on the cross sin, but sin judged, condemned, executed, held up as a specatcle. He was made sin, etc.
II. When the wounded Israelite looked on the brazen serpent, he found a PROOF OF GODS ABILITY AND A PLEDGE OF GODS WILLINGNESS TO SAVE HIM. As we turn to the cross, the old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed.
III. THE NEW LIFE WAS MIRACULOUS IN ITS CHARACTER: it was not by any natural process of improvement or gradual restoration.
IV. How may we APPROPRIATE THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTS REDEMPTION? Let us take a walk round the camp.
1. In one tent is a man who declines to look because he has tried every remedy that science can provide, and who says, How can I be saved by looking at a mere bit of brass? and dies because he is too proud to be saved in Gods way. And so people plead that they cannot understand the doctrine of the atonement, and seem to regard themselves as under no obligation to trust Him who has made that atonement. Will not a general trust in the mercy of God suffice? But the Israelites were not told to discover the mode of the Divine operation.
2. There is another very far gone who says, Not for me–too late, and dies. So many now regard their case as hopeless, but Christ came to save the chief of sinners.
3. We meet with another who says, I am all right, but I had a narrow escape. The serpent didnt bite; it was only a scratch. But a scratch is fatal; go at once and look. Oh, no! theres no danger; but if anything should come of it I will act on your suggestion. At present I am in a hurry; I have some business. By and by the poison works. Oh for a look at the serpent now! So many perish now by making light of their danger.
4. Here is a man suffering acute agony, who listens with eagerness but obstinate incredulity. If God wished to save, He would speak. Besides, the middle of the camp is a long way, and how can healing influence extend so far? Well, to oblige you, I will look; but I dont expect anything will come of it. There; I have looked, and am no better. So, too, many amongst us try a series of experiments. Im trying to believe, but I feel no better.
5. We turn aside into a home of sorrow. A broken-hearted mother is bending over her little girl. But lamentation will not arrest the malady. Mother, your child may live. The mother listens with the incredulity of joy, but the little one cries, Mother, I want to look at Moses serpent. Instantly the mothers arms are around her, and the child is borne to the door. She lifts her deep blue eyes, while the mother, in an agony of hope and fear, stands waiting. Mother I I am healed. There is life for a look at the crucified One. Look and live. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
I. An HISTORICAL FACT DIVINELY ACKNOWLEDGED (Num 21:4-9). Christs entire belief in the Old Testament Scriptures.
II. AN INTIMATE CONNECTION CLEARLY REVEALED.
1. Each divinely appointed.
2. Each met a terrible necessity.
3. Benefit in each case secured by faith.
III. A GREAT NECESSITY INSISTED UPON. Must. Without Christs death none can have life.
IV. A BLESSED PURPOSE CROWNING ALL.
1. A calamity from which we may be delivered.
2. A blessedness to which we may attain.
3. The means of deliverance.
4. The universality of the statement. The only way of mercy and salvation. (J. James.)
The brazen serpent
I. THE BANE. Sin under the aspect of the serpents bite. This symbol has a twofold significance.
1. It glances back to the Old Serpent in Eden; as do also, more or less, that singular phenomenon among so many heathen nations, serpent-worship.
2. The main significance is the light which it throws on sin itself. Its character is spiritual venom; its effects are anguish and death. Those who say, I feel none of those poisonous effects, only prove themselves by that to be the more fatally steeped in sins sweltering venom; for they bewray the awful state described in Scripture as past feeling, or having the conscience seared as with a hot iron.
II. THE ANTIDOTE. Christ uplifted on the Cross and upheld in the gospel as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. The atonement is the only healing balm. Penances, moralities, and all other substitutes are vain.
1. There is a marked significance in the serpent itself and the very pole. The atonement is as eloquent of sin as it is of salvation. The most awful exhibition of sin ever given was that given on the Cross. Hence our guilt is represented as superscribed thereon–as a handwriting against us legible to the entire universe. In the cross, and on the Crucified, God emphatically condemned sin.
2. The human race have been so infected with the serpents venom as to be called after the name of their father, serpents, scorpions, a generation of vipers. Now Christ came not in sinful flesh, but in its likeness. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all as the representative of humanity. Even as the serpent of brass on the pole was in the likeness of the fiery serpents, but, unlike them, had no venom in it. In this vicarious way was human guilt declared, exposed, condemned.
3. The sin, by being condemned, was put away. As in the ancient sacrifices the fire symbolically burned up the imputed sin along with the victim, so, on the Cross, the worlds sin was put away in Christs sufferings, considered as a barrier to salvation. This blow to sin was a death-blow to Satan. It was the bruising of the serpents head Heb 2:14-15).
III. The MEANS by which the antidote becomes available for the removal of the bane; viz., faith. The wounded Israelites were healed by seeing; the perishing sinner by believing. Notice here in Its proper place the significance of the pole. It was the chief military standard–not the minor or portable ones that were borne about, but the main standard that stood conspicuous in the most prominent part of the camp, fixed in the ground, and from which floated a flag (Jer 51:27; Isa 49:22. See Isa 13:2; Isa 13:3-8; Isa 62:10-11). These texts amply illustrate the use and meaning of the large banner-poles, with their floating insignia, as the symbol of universality of promulgation, and thence of Divine interposition of world-wide scope. The texts cited, or referred to, though beginning with the ordinary uses of the symbol, soon run it into Gospel moulds; and most fitly, for very ancient predictions had declared that unto him, the Shiloh, shall the gathering of the people be (Gen 49:10; Isa 11:10; Joh 12:32). (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
I. THERE IS A STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND THE STATE OF MAN BY NATURE.
1. Theirs was a degraded condition. Their pain was the result of their transgression.
2. Miserable.
3. Guilty.
4. Helpless.
II. THERE IS A STRIKING RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE MEANS EMPLOYED FOR THE RELIEF OF THE WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND THE METHOD OF OUR RECOVERY FROM SIN AND DEATH BY JESUS CHRIST.
1. The brazen serpent in shape exactly resembled the fiery serpent. So Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
2. The serpent was lifted up, which is emblematical of
(1) Christs crucifixion.
(2) Christs ascension.
(3) The public exhibition of the Redeemers Cross in the ministry of reconciliation.
III. THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE FEELINGS OF THE WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND THOSE OF THE AWAKENED PENITENT IN THE ACTS OF LOOKING AND BELIEVING RESPECTIVELY. They were
1. Sensible of their calamity.
2. Filled with humility.
IV. THE RESEMBLANCE AS TO THE EFFICACY OF THE REMEDY IN BOTH CASES. In their
1. Instantaneousness.
2. Efficacy to work in the first or last stages of the disease.
3. Completeness of cure.
Learn:
1. That salvation can only be ascribed to the free grace of God.
2. The freedom with which this salvation is bestowed.
3. That gratitude becomes those who have received mercy. (T. Gibson, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
I. THE INCIDENT REFERRED TO. This typical event occurred towards the close of the wanderings. The peoples discouragements had been many, and now the king of Edom suffered them not to pass through his border. The Church must lay its account with difficulty and checks and foes. The Christian who turns out of the straight path at the first menace of the Edomite will find more formidable difficulties before he gets to the heavenly Canaan. Now see the form their murmurings took. Aaron and Miriam are dead, and as Moses is not enough to receive all their taunts they spoke against God. There is no bread, neither is there any water, and this when they had the best of both; so easily does a fretful spirit turn into bitterness the best gifts of God. There was something of peculiar aggravation in this sin, and the retribution was awful. Would God we had died in the wilderness! and the prayer was answered. Now they humble themselves. What powerful teachers are sharp afflictions! Moses prayed for them, and God heard his prayer. To have destroyed the serpents would have been as easy as to command the setting up of the brazen one; but God would give His people a part in their own salvation.
1. Of this event there could be no doubt.
(1) The witnesses were many.
(2) The serpent was preserved as a memorial of it.
2. The serpent had a sacramental character.
3. When this sacramental character encouraged superstition, the serpent was destroyed.
II. THE LESSONS FORESHADOWED.
1. The significant intimation that Christ should die. It was placed on a level with the sacrifices and other symbols which typified the atonement.
2. Salvation does not come to us through Christs being lifted up merely, but through our looking at Him. In the other miracles everything was done by Moses alone. In this case the symbol had no power but that which the faith of the people gave it. The Cross is not a mechanical chain. We must believe.
Conclusion:
1. As the Old Testament and the New are one hook, so the Old Testament way of saving is the same as that of the New.
2. Salvation is the free gift of God received by faith. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
The type and the antitype correspond
I. IN THE OCCASION OF THEIR INSTITUTION. The Israelites were wounded by the serpents; we are wounded by sin.
II. IN THEIR QUALITIES.
1. The serpent was made of an inferior metal; Christ was a root out of a dry ground.
2. There was only one brazen serpent for the whole Jewish camp; there is only one Mediator between God and man.
3. The serpent was appointed of God; Christ was appointed by the Father.
4. The serpent was publicly lifted up; Christ is uplifted by His ministers.
III. IN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE BENEFIT IS DERIVED.
1. By looking personally.
2. Instantly.
3. Steadily and constantly.
4. Exclusively.
IV. IN THE EFFECTS THEY PRODUCE.
1. The completeness of the cure.
2. Its universality.
(1) Every one may be healed.
(2) The whole of the surviving camp was healed. So all the world will one day be saved by Christ.
Conclusion:
1. How simple is the way of salvation.
2. How injurious is unbelief. If we despise this ordinance of God we shall perish. (S. Sutton.)
The mysteries of the brazen serpent
All languages are based on figures. When we teach children we employ figures. And so Christ employed figures to teach this spiritual child the things of the kingdom: a better way than by the use of abstract terms.
I. THE PEOPLE IN THE WILDERNESS, the representatives of sinful men.
1. They had stood valiantly in fight, but the serpents were things that trembled not at the sword. They had endured weariness and thirst and hunger, but these were novelties, and new terrors are terrible from their very novelty. If we could see our condition we should feel as Israel when they saw the serpents.
2. Behold the people after they were bitten–the fire coursing through their veins. We cannot say that sin produces instantly such an effect, but it will ultimately. Fiery serpents are nothing to fiery lusts.
3. How awful must have been the death of the serpent! bitten, and how awful the death of the man without Christ.
II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT. The type of Christ crucified; both remedies.
1. A number, perhaps, declared it absurd that a brazen serpent should do what physicians could not. So many despise Christ crucified.
2. Some say the cross will only increase the evil, just as old physicians averred that the sight of anything bright would intensify the effect of the poison. So many make out that salvation by the Cross destroys morality.
3. Much as those who heard of the brazen serpent might have despised it there was no other means of cure. So there is none other name, etc.
III. WHAT WAS TO BE DONE TO THE BRAZEN SERPENT? It was to be lifted up–so was Christ.
1. By wicked men.
2. By God the Father.
3. By ministers. Let them so preach Him that He may be seen.
IV. WHAT WERE ISRAEL TO DO? To look; the convinced sinner is to believe.
1. There were, perhaps, some who would not look, and some will not come to Christ for life: perhaps
(1) Through unbelief.
(2) Through insufficient conviction.
(3) Through procrastination.
(4) Through belief in other means.
(5) Through looking too much at their sores, and seeming incurability.
2. Those who would be saved must look.
(1) Whosoever.
(2) Look now.
V. ENCOURAGEMENT.
1. Christ was lifted up on purpose for you to look at.
2. He invites you to believe.
3. He promises to save. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The lifting up of the brazen serpent
I. THE PERSON IN MORTAL PERIL for whom the brazen serpent was made.
1. The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised Gods way and Gods bread (Num 21:1-35.). The natural consequence of turning against God like serpents is to find serpents waylaying our path.
2. Those for whom the brazen serpent was uplifted had been actually bitten by the serpents. The common notion is that salvation is for good people, but Gods medicine is for the guilty.
3. The bite of the serpent was painful. So many by sin are restless, discontented, and fearful. Jesus died for such as are at their wits end.
4. The bite was mortal. There could be no question about that–nor about the effects of sin.
5. There is no limit set to the stage of poisoning: however far gone, the remedy still had power. So the gospel promise has no qualifying clause.
II. THE REMEDY PROVIDED FOR HIM.
1. It was purely of Divine origin: and God will not devise a failure.
2. Exceedingly instructive. Wonder of wonders that our Lord Jesus should condescend to be symbolized by a dead snake.
3. There was but one remedy for the serpent bite: there was only one brazen serpent, not two. If a second had been made it would have had no effect.
4. It was bright and lustrous, made of shining metal. So if we do but exhibit Jesus in His own true metal He is lustrous in the eyes of men.
5. The remedy was enduring. So Jesus saves to the uttermost.
III. THE APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY.
1. The simplest imaginable. It might, had God so ordered, have been carried into the house, rubbed on the man, and applied with prayers and priestly ceremonies. But he has only to look; and it was wall, for the danger was so frequent.
2. Very personal. A man could not be cured by what others could do for him–physicians, sisters, mothers, ministers.
3. Very instructive–self help must be abandoned and God be trusted.
IV. THE CURE EFFECTED.
1. He was healed at once. He had not to wait five minutes, nor five seconds. Pardon is not a work of time, although sanctification is.
2. The remedy healed again and again. The healed Israelites were in danger. The safest thing is not to take our eye off the brazen serpent at all.
3. It was of universal efficacy, and no man who looks to Christ remains under condemnation.
V. A LESSON FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR LORD. Imitate Moses. He did not incense the brazen serpent, or hide it behind vestments or ceremonies, but raised it on a bare pole that all might see. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Three similitudes
I. THE STUNG ISRAELITE AND THE GUILTY SINNER.
1. As the Israelite had death in his bosom, so the sinner (Heb 2:14); although the latter sting may not be felt as was the former.
2. The Israelite wanted all means of cure, and had not God appointed the serpent he had perished. As helpless is the sinner till God shows us His Christ.
II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT AND CHRIST.
1. The serpent was accursed of God. Christ was made a curse for us Gal 3:13).
2. The brazen serpent had the likeness of the serpent, but not the poison. Christ came in the similitude of sinful flesh without sin.
3. The brazen serpent was uplifted on a pole; Christ on the Cross.
4. As the poison of a serpent was healed by a serpent, so the sin of man by man (Rom 5:1-21.; 1Co 15:21). But Christ had power in Himself to heal us which the other had not.
5. The brazen serpent was not the device of an Israelite, but of God; so no man could have found out such a means of salvation as that established by Christ.
III. THE ISRAELITES LOOKING ON THE SERPENT, AND THE SINNERS BELIEVING IN CHRIST.
1. The Israelite was healed only by looking; so the sinner is justified only by believing.
2. As looking, as well as the rest of the senses, is a passion rather than an action; so in justification thou art a patient rather than an agent: thou boldest thy beggars hands to receive, that is all.
3. The Israelites before they looked up to the brazen serpent for help
(1) Felt themselves stung;
(2) Believed that God would heal them by that serpent.
So the sinner must
(1) Feel himself a sinner, be burdened and heavy laden Mat 2:23), before he will or can come to Christ. A man that feels not himself sick, seeks not the physician;
(2) He must believe that in Christ there is all-sufficient help.
4. The stung Israelite looked on the serpent with a pitiful, humble, craving, wishly eye, weeping also for the very pain of the sting: with such an eye doth the believing sinner look on Christ crucified (Zec 12:10).
5. The Israelite by looking on the brazen serpent received ease presently, and was rid of the poison of the living serpent, and so therein was made, like the brazen serpent, void of all poison. So the believer, by looking on Christ, is eased of his guilty accusing conscience (Rom 5:11, and is transformed into the image of Christ (2Co 3:18).
6. Even the squint-eyed or purblind Israelite was healed; so the weak believer, being a true believer, is healed by Christ.
7. Though the Israelite were stung never so often, yet if he looked up to the serpent he was healed. As we are daily stung by sin, so we must daily look up to Christ crucified. Every new sin must have a fresh act of faith and repentance.
Yet there are two differences betwixt their looking on the serpent and our looking by faith on Christ.
1. By looking they lived, but yet so that after they died; but here, by believing in Christ, we gain an eternal life.
2. They looked on the serpent, but the serpent could not look on them; but here, as thou lookest on Christ, so He on thee, as once on Peter, and on
Mary and John from the Cross, and thy comfort must rather be in Christs looking on thee, than in thy looking on Him. (J. Dyke.)
Sin and salvation through Christ
I. SIN. This was the occasion, with its consequent misery, of the setting up of the brazen serpent; so the occasion of Christs coming was mans being bitten by the old serpent (Rev 12:9; 2Co 11:3). Among the Israelites few were stung, here all; there their bodies, here the soul; there temporal death followed, here eternal.
1. The sting is painful, although not always. It is a great part of our misery not to know our misery. Yet Satans darts are often painful (Eph 6:16). Sin in life will make hell in conscience (Pro 18:14; Job 1Co 15:56).
2. The sting is deadly (Rom 5:12; Rom 6:23; Gen 2:17). Not only death temporal, but spiritual and eternal (Mar 9:44; Pro 8:36).
II. CHRIST SET FORTH BY THE BRAZEN SERPENT.
1. The resemblance between the two.
(1) Both were remedies devised by Gods mercy and love (Joh 3:16). We neither plotted nor asked it. The Israelites did ask through Moses; but in our case God, the offended party, makes the first motion (1Jn 4:19).
(2) Christs humiliation set forth.
(a) A serpent was chosen to show that He came in a mean estate Psa 22:6; Isa 53:3; Mar 9:12);
(b) because the serpent was cursed of God (Gen 3:14).
(c) The serpent was made of brass, not of gold.
(3) The serpent had the form, but not the poison. So Christ (Heb 4:15).
(a) God would cure a serpents bite by a serpent (Rom 8:3).
(b) The parties to be cured were men; therefore the Son of Man must be lifted up.
(4) The place where the brazen serpent was uplifted was Punon Num 33:42-43), for from Punon they came to Oboth Num 21:10). This was in Idumaea, famous for mines of brass or copper–known among the ancients as the metal of Punon. Eusebius (Eccl. Hist., bk. 8.) tells us that Sylvanus and thirty-nine more were beheaded for the faiths sake near the mines of brass in Punon; and Eutychius, Epiphanius, and Theodoret speak of Christians condemned to work in these mines. So that the brass out of which the serpent was made was found in the place where they were bitten. That body which Christ assumed was not brought from elsewhere. Where the mischief was the remedy was at hand.
(5) The brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole. So Christ on the Cross 1Pe 2:24). The serpent first stung us by the fruit of a tree, and Christ saved us by suffering on one.
2. The super-excellency of Christ to the type. The brazen serpent
(1) Was but a sign of salvation (Wis 16:6), but Christ is the author of it Heb 5:9).
(2) Benefited the Israelites only, but Christ all nations (Isa 11:10).
(3) Freed them from present death only, Christ from eternal death Joh 11:26).
(4) Became a means of idolatry (2Ki 18:4), whereas Christ is to be equally honoured with the Father (Joh 5:23; Heb 1:6; Php 2:9-10).
(5) Was broken in pieces; but they shall be broken in pieces who deny Christ (Psa 2:9; Dan 2:44; Luk 19:27).
III. FAITH THE MEANS OF BENEFITING BY CHRIST.
1. The necessity of faith. None had benefit but such as looked Num 21:8).
2. The encouragement of faith
(1) To broken-hearted sinners. If you are stung by sin, look to Christ. A felt sense of sin is warrant enough. The Israelites cried out, Oh! what shall we do? So Act 2:37; Act 16:29-30.
(2) To lapsed believers. God did not take away the serpents, only He gave a remedy. Sin is not abolished, but 1Jn 2:1.
3. The nature of faith, which is a looking unto Christ. The act of faith is expressed by seeing or looking (Zec 12:10; Isa 17:7;Joh 6:40; Heb 11:1; Heb 11:27; Heb 12:2). Faith itself is said to be the eye of the soul (Eph 1:18; Gal 3:1), and its hindrance blindness (2Co 4:4).
(1) The objects proper to faith are things that lie out of the view of sense Joh 20:29).
(2) What kind of sight faith is.
(a) Serious; not a glance, but a fixed eye.
(b) Applicative (Job 5:27; Joh 20:28).
(c) Affectionate, with desire and trust (2Ch 20:12; Psa 121:1; 1Pe 1:7; Isa 17:7; Psa 123:2; Psa 34:5).
(d) Engaging (Php 2:8; Eph 1:17).
The saving sight:–Two great historical facts–the uplifted serpent and the uplifted Saviour. Infinite is the difference between them in point of dignity and momentousness. The one had a narrow circle of a few thousands for its witnesses, and the desert for its theatre; the other a universe. From the one came body-healing, soon to be interrupted by death; from the other flows soul-healing unto life everlasting. But the one sheds much light on the other. Compare them
I. IN THE DESPERATE NATURE OF THE MALADY.
1. What could he more fatal or terrible than this judgment?
2. Like the camp of Israel, this is a world of dying men.
II. IN THE SURPRISING CHARACTER OF THE DIVINELY-PROVIDED REMEDY.
1. God alone could stay the judgment. All the virtue of the serpent of brass lay in the fact that it was appointed by God expressly for a sign of His merciful interposition.
2. Both were lifted up.
III. IN THE APPLICATION OF THE DIVINELY-APPOINTED REMEDY AND THE CERTAINTY AND INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF THE CURE. (A. Wilson, B. A.)
Regeneration: its objective cause
In speaking about the subjective work of Christianity Christ mentions only the initiatory acts in the new birth. In speaking of its objective work He introduces us to the central act. Around this very fact objective Christianity clusters.
I. THE LIFTING UP OF THE SON OF MAN. Our Lord dealt much in illustrations. In this chapter He borrows one from human life–birth; one from nature–wind; and now one from the Scriptures, showing how rich the historical events of the Old Testament were in types and symbols. This illustration is intended to set forth
1. The great fact that Christ was to be a healing medium.
2. The symbol of the devil is made the symbol of his Destroyer in the very act of bruising his head.
3. The virtue by which He should become the healing medium (Joh 12:32-33).
4. Christs moral as well as physical exaltation (see Joh 13:31-32) glorifying both Himself and His Father.
5. Christs transcendent greatness of mind, enabling Him to take cognizance only of the glory, and not of the degradation, of His suffering.
6. His lifting up by many tongues made eloquent by a love kindled from Calvary.
II. THIS GREAT TRANSACTION HAD FOR ITS OBJECT THE SALVATION OF MEN.
1. This salvation is negative and positive–meeting the twofold nature of sin, which is
(1) Positive–entailing misery;
(2) punitive–depriving of positive blessedness. Christ delivers from the first–shall not perish and restores the second–eternal life.
2. This perishing is not annihilation, but a deprivation of vital relation to God; eternal life is a restoration of this relation.
3. These effects are the results of Christs lifting up, and connect the objective transaction with the subjective effects, and goes back to the matter of the new birth, which is organically connected with eternal life.
III. THE DIVINE LOVE, AS AN IMPELLING MOTIVE, WAS EQUAL TO THIS (Joh 3:6). Here, then, are five links in the wondrous chain.
(1) Men are delivered from the perdition of sin, and restored to the Divine life.
(2) This is secured by the lifting up of the Son of Man.
(3) But this Son of Man is the only-begotten Son of God.
(4) This only-begotten Son was made incarnate, that He might be lifted up.
(5) This required some mighty motive.
It is implied
1. That the objects were so unworthy, that the method of redeeming them required so much humiliation and sacrifice, that the motive could only be found in the infinite love of God.
2. That this love is not to be described by word, but by action. God so loved. Here are two loves contending–Gods complacent love for His Son and His love of commiseration for the world.
IV. THAT GODS OBJECT IN ALL THIS IS BENEVOLENT (Joh 3:17). The declaration that Christs object was to save men, given in Joh 3:15; Joh 16:1-33, is here emphasized. It was His sole object.
1. This is an important reminder to all engaged in promulgating the kingdom, of the spirit which should actuate them (Luk 9:55-56).
2. An invitation of mens confidence in the gracious intentions of God Isa 55:8-9). (A. J. Parry.)
The scene referred to
Not long ago I saw a picture of this by Guido. In the foreground strong men were writhing in the death agony; some are pallid in death; some hopelessly lifting eyes, bloodshot and ghastly, to the sacred emblem at the right hand of the picture, and already a new life throbs within them; joy flushes the countenance with unexpected hues of health. But in the centre is a mother, despair in her eye, lifting her babe with both hands, that it may gaze on the saving sight. Why does not the child look up? All! it is too far gone; the deadly bite has penetrated to the central springs; it hangs its head; it droops; it will not look; it gives one throe of anguish, and dies in the mothers uplifted hands. Oh! the unutterable pathos of that mothers look! Often, alas! do parents, teachers, pastors, hold up their dear charge, with agonizing solicitude, before the Saving Sight, without saving results. But the fault lies not with God, but with you. (A. Wilson, B. A.)
The agony of sin
What a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate victims were being attacked with these messengers of death. Young and old, rich and poor; for with them there was no respect of persons. On all sides you might see the Israelites writhing in mortal pains. You might hear the mothers agonized screams as the poisonous reptile fastened its fangs in her darlings breast. See that strong man tottering along; he has just been bitten. A moment ago he was in full health and strength, but now the deadly venom is flowing through his veins, and he is a dead man already. In this terrible emergency the people cried unto God, and Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and whosoever looked on this should live. (W. M. H. Aitken.)
The serpents
To this day a mottled snake, with fiery red spots upon its head, abounds at certain seasons in the Arabah. It is the dread of the fishermen, and is peculiarly dangerous to the bare-legged, sandalled Bedouin. So inflammable is its bite, that it is likened to fire coming through the veins; so intense its venom, and so rapid its action, that the bite is fatal in a few hours. The body swells with a fiery eruption; the tongue is consumed with thirst; and the poor wretch writhes in agony till death brings relief. This horrible pest suddenly appeared in the camp of Israel in prodigious numbers. From crevices in the rocks, from holes in the sand, from beneath the scanty herbage, these fiery-headed snake-demons swarmed into every tent. There was no running away from them, and killing seemed hardly to diminish their numbers. On every side there was a cry of anguish; men, women, children, racked with the fiery torture; none able to save or even to help another. And much of the children of Israel Num 21:6).
The serpents bite
Some of you recollect the case of Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens, in October, 1852. This unhappy man was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and he must needs drink with him. He went back to his post in an excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it round his neck, twisted it about, and whirled it round about him. Happily for him it did not arouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-keeper cried out, For Gods sake put back the snake! but the foolish man replied, I am inspired. Putting back the venom.snake, he exclaimed, Now for the cobra. This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous night, and therefore the rash man placed it in his bosom till it revived, and glided downward till its head appeared below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face, and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror. When assistance arrived Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, I am a dead man. They took him to the hospital. First his speech went, then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body, and he was a dead man. I tell you that story that you may use it as a parable and learn never to play with sin, and also to bring vividly before you what it is to be bitten by a serpent. Suppose that Curling could have been cured by looking at a piece of brass, would it not have been good news for him? There was no remedy for that poor infatuated creature, but there is a remedy for you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A beautiful legend
is related respecting a scene in the camp of the Israelites at the time of the setting up of the brazen serpent. A woman had been bitten, and was lying in her tent, while the poison was doing its deadly work on her system. It was the day and the hour when the serpent of brass was to be set up in the camp; but such headway had the poison made that it seemed likely that in that case it would prove too late. But the image was at length raised; and the two daughters of the dying woman brought her to the door of the tent, with her face turned towards the image, when apparently swooning in death; the image of the brazen serpent fell upon her eyes, and she was healed. (D. Curry, D. D.)
The serpent eternal life
It is a noteworthy fact that in many of the ethnic religions the serpent was adored as a symbol of life. Horapollon, explaining (wrongly) a particular Egyptian hieroglyph, remarks that among the ancient Egyptians a serpent with its tail in its mouth was a symbol of eternity. The ordinary word for eternity in Egyptian begins with a figure of a serpent. This ancient symbolism, which leaves its traces also in the classics, may have owed something of its origin to the fact of the apparent renewal of the serpents life when it awakens from its dormant condition, and when it casts its old skin. The adoration of AEsculapius, the Greek god of healing, was always connected with serpent worship. In the chief temple at Epidaurus tame serpents had a place of honour; and the god was said frequently to take the form of a serpent when he appeared to men. In the third century before Christ the help of AEsculapius was invoked by the Romans to avert a pestilence. In response, AEsculapius is said to have appeared in the form of a serpent, to have gone on board the Roman ship, and when the ship arrived in the Tiber to have glided over the side and to have taken possession of an island, where a temple was erected to him. It will be remembered also that Cadmus was changed into a serpent at his own request, when he discovered that serpents were dear to the gods. Among the Arabs the serpent is still the living thing of living things. This is seen in their ordinary speech. The Arabic word for life is haya; a common word for a serpent is hayyat, a plural form from hayya, a living thing. When Moses, therefore, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, it would be recognized by the Jews as a symbol of that life which God had promised to give to those who would look to it in faith. To them it was a most natural symbol; when it ceased to be a mere symbol, and became an object of idolatrous worship, it was destroyed. (Sunday School Times.)
Jesus lifted up
During the American Civil War there was a man on one of the boat-loads of wounded from the field who was very low and in a kind of stupor. He was entirely unknown. Mr. Moody called him by different names, but could get no response. At last, at the name William, the man unclosed his eyes and looked up, and revived. He was asked if he was a Christian. He said, No, but manifested great anxiety upon the subject. I am so great a sinner that I cant be a Christian. Mr. Moody told him he would read what Christ said about that, so turning to St. Johns third chapter he read, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, etc. Stop! said the dying man; read that over again, will you? It was read again. Is that there? Yes, said Mr. Moody; thats there just as I read it to you. And did Christ say that? Yes. The man began repeating the words, settling back upon his pillow as he did so, with a strange, solemn look of peace on his face. He took no further notice of what was going on about him, but continued repeating the blessed words till Mr. Moody left him. The next morning when the soldiers place was visited it was found empty. Mr. Moody asked if any one knew aught about him during the night. A nurse who had spent the hours with him till he died, replied, All the time I was with him he was repeating something about Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness. I asked him if there was anything I could do for him, but he only answered, As Moses lifted up the serpent. Just before he died, about midnight, I saw his lips moving, though there was no sound escaping. I thought he might have some dying message for home, so I asked him for one. But the only answer was the whispered words, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him– and so on until his voice died away, and his lips moved no longer. (D. L. Moody.)
Looking at Christ
Mr. Barnes, of the Jewish Mission, Mildmay, London, said: I was visiting in a Jewish neighbourhood in the East End of London, and called upon a Jewess, whom I had known for a long time as a very hard-hearted unbeliever in Jesus Christ. I did not know what to say to her; in fact, I had given her up as almost hopeless. When, however, I called on this occasion she said, I love Jesus, I have got Jesus now as my Saviour. I said, You have! How came you to love Jesus? Well, she said, I will tell you. You know my little girl attends your school, and she comes home and sings the hymns you teach her. She has been singing a good deal lately, There is life for a look at the Crucified One. She kept on singing and singing, and at last it broke my heart, and I wondered, is it true there is life for a look. I have been induced to search the Bible, and I believe Jesus is now my Saviour.
Christ exalted
Describing the artistic glories of the Church of St. Mark at Venice, Mr. Ruskin says: Here are all the successions of crowded imagery showing the passions and the pleasures of human life symbolized together and the mystery of its redemption; for the maze of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it, sometimes with doves beneath its arms and sweet herbage growing forth from its feet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of the apse. It is the Cross that is first seen and always burning in the centre of the temple; and every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, or returning in judgment.
Saved by a sight of Christ
I have seen Jesus. This was the saying of a half-witted man, who had turned away from living a very wicked life, when he was asked what had led to this great change. The late Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford, Connecticut, tells this story. He was well acquainted with the person to whom it refers. In addition to his being naturally weak-minded, he had fallen into very wicked ways. He swore dreadfully; he was a confirmed drunkard; he would tell lies, and steal, and do almost anything that was sinful. At one time there was a revival of religion in connection with Dr. Bushnells church. Among others who came to see the doctor then with the earnest inquiry, What must we do to be saved? was this weak-minded, wicked man. Thoughtless people, when they saw him going to church, supposed he was only going in mockery, and to make sport of it. And even serious Christians looked on him with pity, and rather wished he would not come. But when Dr. Bushnell came to converse with him he found him so earnest, and apparently so sincere, that he did not hesitate to receive him into the communion of the church. And the whole course of the poor mans life after this showed that the doctor was right in doing so. From that time onward everything about the man showed that old things had passed away with him, and all things had become new. He became an humble and consistent follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. All his bad habits were given up. He never drank intoxicating liquor again. A profane word was never heard from his lips. He was truthful and honest; regular in attending church; diligent in reading the Bible, and faithful in practising what it taught. To those who had known him in former years this change seemed wonderful. And when he was asked by some one to tell what it was which had led to it, his answer was, in the words already quoted, I have seen Jesus. This explained it all. (D. Newton.)
We are saved by looking to Christ
As a general rule, self-contemplation is a power towards mischief. The only way to grow is to look out of ones self. There is too much introversion among Christians. A shipmaster might as well look down into the hold of his ship for the north star as a Christian look down into his own heart for the Sun of Righteousness. Out and beyond is the shining. (H. W. Beecher.)
We must look away from ourselvesfor peace
Did you ever hear of a captain of a vessel driven about by rough winds who wanted anchorage and tried to find it on board his vessel? He desires to place his anchor somewhere on board the ship where it will prove a hold-fast. He hangs it at the prow, but still the ship drives; he exhibits the anchor upon deck, but that does not hold the vessel; at last he puts it down into the hold; but with no better success. Why, man alive, anchors do not hold as long as they are on board a ship. They must be thrown into the deep, and then they will get a grip of the sea-bottom, and hold the vessel against wind and tide. As long as ever you have confidence in yourselves you are like a man who keeps his anchor on board his boat, and you will never come to a resting-place. Over with your faith into the great deeps of eternal love and power, and trust in the infinitely faithful One. Then shall you be glad because your heart is quiet. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Whosoever
Dr. Bonar, of Scotland, tells a story of a lady getting into conversation with a workman, and, finding he was a happy Christian, How long have you been thus rejoicing? she asked. Six months ago, he said, I heard an address from the words, Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. I could not take it to myself, then, he said, but when I went home that night I dreamt that whosoever meant me. I got out of bed, and got the Bible to see the word, and there it was, whosoever. But you knew it was in the Bible, didnt you? Yes, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes, and Ive been resting on it ever since. Whosoever:—Years ago a young woman married, contrary to the advice of her friends, an ungodly man. She was not long in finding out that she was unequally yoked, and much misery followed. Her husbands mother had given him a Bible, which was put away in a napkin and never looked at. Ten years later sickness overtook him, and the end was evidently fast approaching. One day when his wife had gone into the harvest field, and he was sitting alone in the house, the thought came to him, What a fool Ive been! Here my life is nearly gone, and Ive lived it without God and without hope. Shortly afterwards his little boy came home from school, and the father sent the lad to look for the Bible. The boy brought it down and read part of Joh 3:1-36. to his father, and managed to read the little words, but when he came to the longer word whosoever, in Joh 3:16., he stumbled at it, and said, I cant read that; I dont know what it spells. Why, boy, said the father, you should know that word, because all may turn upon its meaning. So the boy ran out to ask a traveller who happened to be passing what it meant, while the father sat at the open window. The traveller answered to the boys inquiry, The word who-so-ever means anybody and everybody. The words fell on the ear of the listening father, and he said to himself, Anybody, everybody. Why that includes me. It was the very message he needed. He left his burden of sin with the great sin-bearer, and became a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Heaven is everlasting
What is wanting here? said a courtier to his sovereign, with whom he was riding, amid the acclamations and splendour of a triumphal procession. Continuance, replied the monarch. So say I, adds Mr. James. Tell me, if you will, of your youth, your health, the buoyancy of your spirits, your happy connections, your gay parties, your elegant pleasures, your fair prospects, and then ask me what is wanting. I reply, Continuance. A single day may spoil everything; before to-morrows sun shall rise you may be attacked by disease and death. (Biblical Museum.)
Looking and finding rest
At last one snowy day, it snowed so much that I could not go to the place I had determined upon, and I was obliged to stop on the road; I found rather an obscure street, and turned down a court, and there was a little chapel. It was the Primitive Methodist Chapel. I had heard of these people from many, and how they sang so loudly that they made peoples heads ache; but that did not matter. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they made my head ache ever so much I did not care. So, sitting down, the service went on, but no minister came (the snowstorm made him late). At last a very thin-looking man came into the pulpit, opened his Bible, and read these words, Look unto him, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Just setting his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, Young man you are in trouble. Well I was, sure enough. Says he, You will never get out of it till you look to Christ. And then lifting up his hands he cried out, Look! look! look! It is only look, said he. I saw at once the way of salvation. Oh, how I did leap for joy at that moment! I know not what else he said, I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, they only looked and were healed. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard this word, Look! what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away; and in heaven I will look on still in my joy unutterable. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Looking and trusting
I once told my little Willie to jump off a high table, and I would catch him. But he looked down and said, Papa, Ise afraid. I again told him I would catch him; but he looked down and said, Papa, Ise afraid. You smile, but that is just the way with the unbeliever. He looks down, and dares not trust the Lord. You would say that would be blind faith, but I say it would not be. I told Willie to look at me and then jump, and he did it, and was delighted. He wanted to jump again, and finally his faith became so great that he would jump when I was eight or ten feet away, and cry out, Papa, Ise a comin. (D. L. Moody.)
Joy comes by looking unto Jesus
Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, He has given me rest by sorrow, and life by His death. Then he stood awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with Peace be to thee; so the first said to him, Thy sins be forgiven thee; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal on it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so they went their way. (Pilgrims Progress.)
Looking brings life
If we look upon Christ with the eye though of a weak faith, we shall be saved. Dr. Cneciger when he lay a-dying cried out, Credo languida fide, sed tamen fide. I believe with a weak faith, but with a faith such as it is. (J. Trapp.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. As Moses lifted up] He shows the reason why he descended from heaven, that he might be lifted up, i.e. crucified, for the salvation of man. kind, and be, by the appointment of God, as certain a remedy for sinful souls as the brazen serpent elevated on a pole, Nu 21:9, was for the bodies of the Israelites, which had been bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness. It does not appear to me that the brazen serpent was ever intended to be considered as a type of Christ. It is possible to draw likenesses and resemblances out of any thing; but, in such matters as these, we should take heed that we go no farther than we can say, Thus it is written. Among the Jews, the brazen serpent was considered a type of the resurrection-through it the dying lived; and so, by the voice of God, they that were dead shall be raised to life. As the serpent was raised up, so shall Christ be lifted up: as they who were stung by the fiery serpents were restored by looking up to the brazen serpent, so those who are infected with and dying through sin are healed and saved, by looking up to and believing in Christ crucified. These are all the analogies which we can legitimately trace between the lifting up of the brazen serpent, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The lifting up of the Son of man may refer to his mediatorial office at the right hand of God. See Clarke on Nu 21:9.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The history of the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness we have, Num 21:8,9. The people being stung with fiery serpents, as a righteous judgment of God for their sins, as a merciful remedy God commanded Moses, Num 21:8, Make thee a fiery serpent, ( that is, the image or representation of one of those fiery serpents), and put it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. This brazen serpent in the wilderness was a lively type of Jesus Christ. Our Saviour having before spoken of the new birth as necessary to those who shall be saved, here comes to show it in the causes, and instances first in the meritorious, then in the instrumental, cause. The meritorious cause was his death; he saith, As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so he, who was the Son of man, must be lifted up; that is, die upon the cross: the phrase is used twice more in this Gospel, Joh 8:28; 12:32,34, in allusion, doubtless, to this type. Yet Mr. Calvin thinks the
lifted up here more properly interpreted of the doctrine of the gospel, and by the preaching of it; and others apply it to Christs ascension into heaven. And this he tells Nicodemus must be, for the fulfilling the Scripture, and the counsels of his Father.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14-16. And as Moses, c.Herenow we have the “heavenly things,” as before the “earthly,”but under a veil, for the reason mentioned in Joh3:12. The crucifixion of Messiah is twice after this veiled underthe same lively term”uplifting,” Joh 8:28Joh 12:32; Joh 12:33.Here it is still further veiledthough to us who know what itmeans, rendered vastly more instructiveby reference to the brazenserpent. The venom of the fiery serpents, shooting through the veinsof the rebellious Israelites, was spreading death through thecamplively emblem of the perishing condition of men by reason ofsin. In both cases the remedy was divinely provided. In both the wayof cure strikingly resembled that of the disease. Stung by serpents,by a serpent they are healed. By “fiery serpents”bittenserpents, probably, with skin spotted fiery red [KURTZ]theinstrument of cure is a serpent of brass or copper, having at adistance the same appearance. So in redemption, as by man camedeath, by Man also comes lifeMan, too, “in the likeness ofsinful flesh” (Ro 8:3),differing in nothing outward and apparent from thosewho, pervaded by the poison of the serpent, were ready to perish. Butas the uplifted serpent had none of the venom of which theserpent-bitten people were dying, so while the whole human familywere perishing of the deadly wound inflicted on it by the oldserpent, “the Second Man,” who arose over humanity withhealing in His wings, was without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.In both cases the remedy is conspicuously displayed; in theone case on a pole, in the other on the cross, to “draw all menunto Him” (Joh 12:32). Inboth cases it is by directing the eye to the uplifted Remedythat the cure is effected; in the one case the bodily eye, in theother the gaze of the soul by “believing in Him,” as inthat glorious ancient proclamation”Look unto me and beye saved, all the ends of the earth,” &c. (Isa45:22). Both methods are stumbling to human reason. What, to anythinking Israelite, could seem more unlikely than that a deadlypoison should be dried up in his body by simply looking on a reptileof brass? Such a stumbling-block to the Jews and to the Greeksfoolishness was faith in the crucified Nazarene as a way ofdeliverance from eternal perdition. Yet was the warrant in both casesto expect a cure equally rational and well grounded. As the serpentwas God’s ordinance for the cure of every bitten Israelite, sois Christ for the salvation of every perishing sinnerthe onehowever a purely arbitrary ordinance, the other divinelyadapted to man’s complicated maladies. In both cases theefficacy is the same. As one simple look at the serpent, howeverdistant and however weak, brought an instantaneous cure, even so,real faith in the Lord Jesus, however tremulous, however distantbeit but real faithbrings certain and instant healing to theperishing soul. In a word, the consequences of disobedience are thesame in both. Doubtless many bitten Israelites, galling as their casewas, would reason rather than obey, would speculateon the absurdity of expecting the bite of a living serpent to becured by looking at a piece of dead metal in the shape ofonespeculate thus till they died. Alas! is not salvation bya crucified Redeemer subjected to like treatment? Has the offense ofthe cross” yet ceased? (Compare 2Ki5:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,…. The history referred to is in Nu 21:8. There is, in many things, an agreement between this serpent, and Jesus Christ: as in the matter of it, it was a brazen serpent; it was made not of gold, nor of silver, but of brass, the meaner metal, and was a very unlikely means, of itself, to heal the Israelites; and might be despised by many: this may denote the meanness of Christ in his human nature, in his birth and parentage, and place of education and converse; and especially in his crucifixion and death; and which, to an eye of carnal sense and reason, seemed a very improbable means of saving sinners; and therefore were to some a stumbling block, and to others foolishness: though on the other hand, as brass is a shining metal, and might be chose for the serpent in the wilderness to be made of, that by the lustre of it the eyes of the Israelites might be attracted and directed to it, who were at the greatest distance in the camp; so it may be expressive of the glory of Christ, as the only begotten of the Father, and who is the brightness of his Father’s glory; and which is the great attractive, motive, and inducement to engage souls to look unto him, and believe in him,
Isa 45:22; and whereas brass is both a strong and durable metal, it may signify the strength of Christ, who is the mighty God, and mighty to save; and his duration, as a Saviour, being the same today, yesterday, and for ever: likewise, the comparison between the serpent Moses lifted up, and Christ, may be observed in the form of it. The brazen serpent had the form of a serpent, but not the poison and venomous nature of one; so Christ was sent, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was found in fashion as a man, as a sinful man, but was without sin, and was perfectly holy; and yet being in this form, was made both sin and a curse, that he might redeem his people both from sin, and from the curse of the law, by dying a death which denominated him accursed, of which the serpent was, an emblem: besides, this serpent was a fiery one; at least it looked like one of the fiery serpents, being of brass, which shone as though it burned in a furnace; and may be an emblem both of Christ’s Father’s wrath, which was poured out like fire upon him, and of his love to his people, which was like burning fire, the coals whereof gave a most vehement flame. Moreover, this serpent Moses made, and was ordered to make, was but “one”, though the fiery serpents, with which the Israelites were bitten, were many; so there is but one Mediator between God and man; but one Saviour, in whom alone is salvation, and in no other, even Jesus Christ. To which may be added the “situation” in which this serpent was put: it was set by Moses on a pole; it was lifted up on high, that every one in the camp of Israel might see it; and may point out the ascension of Christ into heaven, and his exaltation at God’s right hand there, as some think; or his being set up in the ministry of the word, and held forth and exalted there as the only Saviour of lost sinners; or rather his crucifixion, which is sometimes expressed by a lifting up, Joh 8:28. Once more, there is an agreement in the effect that followed upon the lifting up of the serpent; and which was the design of it, viz. the healing of such Israelites as were bitten by the fiery serpents, who looked to this: for as the Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents, with the poison of which they were infected, and were in danger of death, and to many of them their bitings were mortal; so men are poisoned with the venom of the old serpent the devil, by which they are subjected to a corporeal death, and are brought under a spiritual, or moral death, and are liable to an eternal one: and as these bitings were such as Moses could not cure; so the wounds of sin, through the old serpent, are such as cannot be healed by the law, moral or ceremonial, or by obedience to either; and as they were the Israelites who were convinced of their sin, and acknowledged it, and had a cure by looking to the brazen serpent; so such whom the Spirit of God convinces of sin, and to whom he gives the seeing eye of faith, these, through seeing, the Son, and looking to Jesus, as crucified and slain, receive healing by his stripes and wounds: and as those, who were ever so much bit and poisoned by the fiery serpents, or were at ever so great a distance from the pole, or had the weakest eye, yet if they could but discern the serpent on the pole, though it only appeared as a shining piece of brass, had a cure; so the greatest of sinners, and who are afar off from God, and all that is good, and who have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, or but glimmering view of Christ, of his glory, fulness, and suitableness, shall be saved by him. To add no more, this was done “in the wilderness”: which may signify this world, Christ’s coming into it, his crucifixion in it, and his going without the camp, bearing our reproach, or suffering without the gates of Jerusalem. It is certain, that the Jews had a notion that the brazen serpent was symbolical and figurative: Philo the Jew makes it to be a symbol of fortitude and temperance t; and the author of the apocryphal book of Wisdom u, calls it “a sign of salvation”. They thought there was something mysterious in it: hence they say w,
“in four places it is said, “make thee”, c. In three places it is explained, viz. Ge 6:14, and one is not explained, Nu 21:8, “make thee a fiery serpent”, , is not explained.”
And elsewhere x they ask,
“and could the serpent kill, or make alive? But at the time that Israel looked up, and served with their hearts their Father which is in heaven, they were healed but if not, they were brought low.”
So that the look was not merely to the brazen serpent, but to God in heaven; yea, to the word of God, his essential Logos, as say the Targumists on Nu 21:9. The Jerusalem Targum paraphrases the words thus:
“and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a high place, and whoever was bitten by the serpents, and lift up his face, in prayer, to his Father which is in heaven, and looked upon the serpent of brass, lived.”
And Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases them thus:
“and Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a high place; and it was, when a serpent had bitten any man, and he looked to the serpent of brass, “and directed his heart”, , “to the name of the word of the Lord”, he lived.”
And this healing they understand not only of bodily healing, but of the healing of the soul: for they observe y, that
“as soon as they said, “we have sinned”, immediately their iniquity was expiated; and they had the good news brought them “of the healing of the soul”, as it is written, “make thee a seraph”; and he does not say a serpent; and this is it: “and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live”, , “through the healing of the soul”:”
yea, they compare the Messiah to a serpent; for so the Targum on
Isa 14:29 paraphrases that passage:
“the Messiah shall come forth from Jesse’s children’s children; and his works shall be among you as a “flying serpent”.”
And who else can be designed by the “other serpent of life” z, and the “holy serpent” a they speak of, in opposition to the evil serpent that seduced Eve? And it is well known, that , “a serpent”, and , “Messiah”, are numerically, or by gematry, the same; a way of interpretation, and explanation, often in use with the Jews. Now, as this serpent was lifted up on a pole on high, that every one that was bitten with the fiery serpent might look to it, and be healed;
even so must the son of man be lifted up; upon the cross, and die: the crucifixion and death of Christ were necessary, and must be, because of the decrees and purposes of God, by which he was foreordained thereunto, and by which determinate counsel he was delivered, taken, crucified, and slain; and because of his own engagements as a surety, laying himself under obligations in the council and covenant of peace, to suffer, and die, in the room of his people; and because of the prophecies in the Old Testament, and his own predictions, that so it should be; as also, that the antitype might answer the type; and particularly, that he might be a suitable object of faith for wounded sinners, sensible of sin, to look unto.
t De Agricult. p. 202. & Allegor. l. 3. p. 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104. u C. 16. v. 6. w T. Hieros. Roshhashanah, fol. 59. 1. x Misn. Roshhashanah, c. 3. sect. 3. y Tzeror Hammor, fol. 123. 2. z Zohar in Gen fol. 36. 2. a Tikkune Zohar in Jetzira, p. 134.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Moses lifted up the serpent ( ). Reference to Nu 21:7ff. where Moses set the brazen serpent upon the standard that those who believed might look and live. Jesus draws a vivid parallel between the act of Moses and the Cross on which he himself (the Son of man) “must” (, one of the heavenly things) “be lifted up” (, first aorist passive infinitive of , a word not used about the brazen serpent). In John always refers to the Cross (John 8:28; John 12:32; John 12:34), though to the Ascension in Acts (Acts 2:33; Acts 5:31). Jesus is complimenting the standing and intelligence of Nicodemus as “the teacher of Israel” by telling him this great truth and fact that lies at the basis of the work of the kingdom of God (the atoning death of Christ on the Cross).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Must [] . Must signifies the eternal necessity in the divine counsels. Compare Luk 24:26, 46; Mt 26:54; Mr 8:31; Joh 12:34. Lifted up [] . The following are the uses of the word in the New Testament : The exaltation of pride (Mt 11:23; Luk 10:15; Luk 14:11). The raising of the humble (Luk 1:52; Jas 4:10; 1Pe 5:6). The exaltation of Christ in glory (Act 2:33; Act 5:31). The uplifting on the cross (Joh 3:14; Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32, 34). The reference here is to the crucifixion, but beyond that, to the glorification of Christ. It is characteristic of John to blend the two ideas of Christ ‘s passion and glory (Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32). Thus, when Judas went out to betray him, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified” (xiii. 31). Hence the believer overcomes the world through faith in Him who came not by water only, but by water and blood (1Jo 5:4 – 6).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” (kai kathos Mouses hupsosen ton ophin en te eremo) “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, or uninhabited area” to be seen, beheld by all who were bitten by the venomous serpents, a type of man’s snake bite of inherent sin that causes his spiritual death or alienation from God; All that were bitten, who obeyed by looking up to the serpent, were healed, Num 21:8-9; 2Ki 18:4.
2) “Even so must the Son of man be lifted up:- (houtos hupsothenai dei ton huion tou anthropou) “Even so it behooves (is necessary that) the Son of man (heir redeemer of mankind) be lifted up,” or in a “like or similar manner” must the Son of man be lifted up, to make the cross His throne, from which He would obtain remittal of the venom of sin from the souls of all who look to Him for life, from eternal death.
Nicodemus was a disciple of Moses and understood this illustration that pointed to the crucifixion of Jesus, Joh 12:32-33; Gal 3:13; 1Pe 2:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent. He explains more clearly why he said that it is he alone to whom heaven is opened; namely, that he brings to heaven all who are only willing to follow him as their guide; for he testifies that he will be openly and publicly manifested to all, that he may diffuse his power over men of every class. (62) To be lifted up means to be placed in a lofty and elevated situation, so as to be exhibited to the view of all. This was done by the preaching of the Gospel; for the explanation of it which some give, as referring to the cross, neither agrees with the context nor is applicable to the present subject. The simple meaning of the words therefore is, that, by the preaching of the Gospel, Christ was to be raised on high, like a standard to which the eyes of all would be directed, as Isaiah had foretold, (Isa 2:2.) As a type of this lifting up, he refers to the brazen serpent, which was erected by Moses, the sight of which was a salutary remedy to those who had been wounded by the deadly bite of serpents. The history of that transaction is well known, and is detailed in Num 21:9. Christ introduces it in this passage, in order to show that he must be placed before the eyes of all by the doctrine of the Gospel, that all who look at him by faith may obtain salvation. Hence it ought to be inferred that Christ is clearly exhibited to us in the Gospel, in order that no man may complain of obscurity; and that this manifestation is common to all, and that faith has its own look, by which it perceives him as present; as Paul tells us that a lively portrait of Christ with his cross is exhibited, when he is truly preached, (Gal 3:1.)
The metaphor is not inappropriate or far-fetched. As it was only the outward appearance of a serpent, but contained nothing within that was pestilential or venomous, so Christ clothed himself with the form of sinful flesh, which yet was pure and free from all sin, that he might cure in us the deadly wound of sin. It was not in vain that, when the Jews were wounded by serpents, the Lord formerly prepared this kind of antidote; and it tended to confirm the discourse which Christ delivered. For when he saw that he was despised as a mean and unknown person, he could produce nothing more appropriate than the lifting up of the serpent, to tell them, that they ought not to think it strange, if, contrary to the expectation of men, he were lifted up on high from the very lowest condition, because this had already been shadowed out under the Law by the type of the serpent.
A question now arises: Does Christ compare himself to the serpent, because there is some resemblance; or, does he pronounce it to have been a sacrament, as the Manna was? For though the Manna was bodily food, intended for present use, yet Paul testifies that it was a spiritual mystery, (1Co 10:3.) I am led to think that this was also the case with the brazen serpent, both by this passage, and the fact of its being preserved for the future, until the superstition of the people had converted it into an idol, (2Kg 18:4.) If any one form a different opinion, I do not debate the point with him.
(62) “ Sur toutes manieres de gens.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) And as Moses lifted up.This verse is closely connected by the conjunction and with what has gone before. Jesus has taught that in Himself heaven and earth meet; so that, while subject to the conditions of human life, He, the Son of Man, the representative of humanity, is in heaven. He goes on to show that what is true of the representative is, through Him, true of the whole race. Again the Old Testament Scriptures form the basis of the teaching to their expounder. The people in the wilderness bitten by the fiery serpents, the poison-virus spreading through their veins, and causing burning pain, torpor, and deaththis was symbolical of the world lying in the misery, restlessness, and spiritual death, which came from the Serpents victory in Paradise. The serpent of brass lifted up by Moses, in which the sufferer saw the means of recovery determined by God, and was healed by faith in Himthis was symbolical of the means of salvation determined by God for the world. (Comp. the phrase lifted up in Joh. 8:28; Joh. 12:32; and, as an exact parallel with this passage, Joh. 12:34) Nicodemus must have understood that the healing power of the serpent of brass was in the fact that it led men to trust in Jehovah, who had appointed it. This was the current Jewish interpretation. Comp. the Jerusalem Targum, Their faces were to be fixed on their Father who is in heaven; so the Targum of Jonathan ben-Uziel, The heart was fixed on the name of the word of Jehovah; so, again, the Wisdom of Solomon, For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by Thee, that art the Saviour of all (Wis. 16:7; see the whole passage, Wis. 16:6-13). It was the sign of the Eternal in power and in love present to save, and the man who realised that presence lived with a new life. In the divine counsels it was willed, and must be, that the Son of Man should be the witness to the world of the Eternal Power and Love which saves every man who grasps it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus holds forth ( under a veil) the doctrine of universal atonement by the only begotten Son, Joh 3:14-17.
14. Moses lifted up the serpent By the light of subsequent revelation we know that this lifting up, shadowed by the serpent, was the lifting up upon the cross. Nicodemus doubtless understood that Jesus was to be held up and manifested to the world; but he did not understand, so prematurely as sceptics think, that Jesus was to die substitutionally for the sinner.
As the sinner is bitten by the infernal serpent, so the people of Israel in the wilderness were bitten by the fiery serpent. As Moses raised up the brazen serpent upon the pole, so Jesus is raised upon the cross. As the brazen serpent was in the likeness of the fiery serpent, which is Satan’s likeness, so Jesus is in the likeness of sinful flesh. As the bitten Jew was required to look at the brazen serpent, so the sinner is required to look by faith to Jesus. But the symbol for Nicodemus did not reveal the death of the Son of man; nor, especially, that the death of the Son of man must take the place of the death of the sinner. So that these words, too, are one of those passages embracing a depth of meaning undiscovered till a later period. See note on Mat 7:29. The cross and the lifting up were both a matter of manifestation and of sacrifice; the latter was unknown to Nicodemus both are known to us.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’
The fourth mystery is the greatest of all. That this Son of Man must be lifted up on show, as a means of salvation. ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Num 21:9) so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life’. In the wilderness the bronze serpent was lifted up at a time when the people were being punished by a plague of snakes because of their unbelief, and when they looked to it they were healed. Thus too the Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’ and looked to for salvation.
At this stage ‘lifted up’ would not be fully understood, but later we learn fully what it means. He will be lifted up on the cross to die (Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32-33), and men must look to Him as the crucified Saviour. This is Heaven’s greatest mystery, that through His sacrifice of Himself life will come to all who believe in Him, and look to Him for salvation.
So the Son of Man, who is a citizen of heaven, has come down from heaven (v13) so that He might be “lifted up”, in order that those who believe in him might have ‘eternal life’, the life of the age to come, the life of the Spirit.
The word ‘eternal’ (literally “of the ages”) focused in Jewish thinking more on the future ‘coming age’ than on the Greek conception of eternity, although that coming age was of course seen as being everlasting, and that age would be supremely the age of the Spirit. But the idea behind the ‘life of the age to come’ was mainly of the quality of that life.
The Pharisees also had hopes of eternal life, but they hoped to achieve it by obedience to the covenant revealed in their punctilious observance of the Law, and especially of their own interpretations of it. But as the Bible makes clear that way could only lead to hopelessness, for the more they strove the more they failed. In the end the Law they loved so much could only condemn them. So Jesus now tells Nicodemus that what he is hopelessly striving for can be his as a gift if only he responds fully to Him.
We notice here how well this teaching agrees with the other Gospels. There too Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of Man, stresses that He must suffer, and that finally he will receive His glory and come in that glory from Heaven to judge the world (e.g. Mar 8:31; Mar 14:62; Mat 25:31). John adds the idea of His position as Judge in Joh 5:27.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The purpose of Christ’s coming:
v. 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
v. 15. that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
v. 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
v. 17. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The act of Moses in the wilderness, in erecting the brazen serpent before the eyes of the stricken people, was typical, symbolical, Num 21:1-9. The people that had been bitten by the fiery serpents and then looked upon this symbol in faith were healed, and the poison had no effect upon them, Jesus is the antitype of the brazen serpent. In accordance with the divine counsel of love, in which He Himself had taken part, the Lord took upon Himself the obligation that He also should be elevated upon a tree before the eyes of the whole world. There are three points of similarity between type and antitype in this story. The brazen serpent of Moses had the form and appearance of the poisonous reptiles after which it was modeled, just as Jesus was revealed in the form of our sinful flesh, had the needs and ways of an ordinary human being, was finally punished as a criminal, Just as the brazen serpent, however, had no poison, was altogether harmless, so Jesus, though in appearance like unto sinful men, was without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled. A strange curse was resting upon Him, and for the sins of others, imputed to Him, He hung upon the cross. And finally, just as he that looked at the brazen serpent in faith remained alive, so also every sinner that has been poisoned by sin in its various forms, but now looks up to Jesus, the Savior, in simple, trusting faith, shall not perish, shall not be punished with everlasting destruction, but have eternal life. For in Christ all sin has been conquered, all guilt has been taken away: there is complete redemption in Him. This thought Jesus now repeats in a burst of Gospel-preaching which is without equal in the world’s literature, which, in fact, summarizes the entire Gospel in one short sentence. With the full emphasis of adoring wonder Jesus exclaims: For so God loved the world, so much, so greatly, so beyond all human understanding. The greatness of God’s love is such as to call forth this cry of astonishment even from the Son of God, the Savior Himself. God loved the world, God is the Author of salvation, 1Ti 2:3. He loved the world, all the people living in the world, all that make up the human element in the world; there is none excepted. He proved this love with a deed so wonderful, so surpassingly beautiful, that it cannot be brought out strongly enough in words of human speech, God gave His only-begotten Son as a free gift and present for the whole world. And such is His will and intention that He makes no exception: Everyone that believes in Him shall not perish, shall not see destruction, but have everlasting life, the life in and with Jesus that shall have no end, but consists of bliss and joy through countless ages. What a contrast: the holy, eternal God and His equally holy and eternal Son giving the highest and best for the world, for the fallen, corrupt humanity, for the bitter enemy of God! The death of the Son of God is the punishment for the sins of the world; the Son of God dies that the world, all the people in the world, might live in all eternity. God’s death, God’s blood, was thrown into the scales in payment for the sins of the world. And there is nothing to be done on the part of sinners but to accept this atonement in faith; for faith accepts and appropriates the redemption of Christ. And the believer has eternal life even now, even here in time. He is sure of his salvation, because it is based upon the work of Jesus the Savior. “What shall, what can He do and give more? For since He gives His Son, what does He hold back that He does not give? Yea, He gives Himself altogether, as Paul says Rom 8:32: Who spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Surely all must be given with Him who is an only-begotten, dearest Son, the Heir and Lord of all creatures; and all creatures must be made subject to us, angels, devils, death, life, heaven and earth, sin, righteousness, things present and things to come, as St. Paul again says, 1Co 3:22-23: All things are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. ” Jesus emphasizes the glorious fact of salvation also by bringing out the same truth in a negative statement. The mission of Jesus as the gift of God to the world was not to condemn the world, though the latter had richly deserved such condemnation. Though He Himself is the Holy One of God, yet He would not, in His capacity as Savior of sinners, judge and condemn them; The sole purpose of His coming was the salvation of the world. Thus Nicodemus heard from the mouth of Jesus the complete account of the way of salvation, a salvation which is absolutely all-encompassing.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Joh 3:14-15. And as Moses lifted up Our Lord, by telling Nicodemus that the death of the Messiah was prefigured by types in the law, shewed him, that it was agreeable both to the doctrine of Moses, and to the councils of heaven, that the Messiah should be in a suffering state; consequently he insinuated, that the meanness of his present appearance upon earth was no reason why Nicodemus should doubt of his having come down from heaven. The type that he mentioned as prefiguring his sufferings, both in their circumstances and consequences, was that of the brazen serpent, which, though it represented a thing noxious in its nature, was so far from being so, that all who were poisoned by the stings of real serpents, obtained a perfect and speedy cure, if they but looked at it. In like manner, the Son of God, though made in the similitude of sinful flesh, would, by his death on the cross, heal all true penitents; even such as had been guilty of the greatest and most deadly sins, when applying to him by faith for salvation. But see the note on Num 21:9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 3:14-15 . Jesus, having in Joh 3:13 stated the ground of faith in Him, now proceeds to show the blessedness of the believer which was the design of His redemptive work in order the more to incite those whom He is addressing to fulfil the fundamental condition, contained in faith, of participating in His kingdom. That this is the logical advance in the discourse, is clear from the fact that in what follows it is the blessedness of faith which is dwelt upon; see Joh 3:15-16 ; Joh 3:18 . We have not here a transition from the possibility to the necessity of communicating heavenly things, Joh 3:13 (Lcke); nor from the ideal unveilings of divine things to the chief mystery of the doctrine of salvation which was manifested in historical reality (De Wette, comp. Tholuck and Brckner); nor from the first of divine things, Christ’s divinity , to the second, the atonement which He was to establish (Hengstenberg, comp. Godet); nor from the Word to His manifestation (Olshausen); nor from the work of enlightenment to that of blessing (Scholl); nor from the present want of faith to its future rise (Jacobi: “faith will first begin to spring up when my is begun”); nor from Christ’s work to His person (B. Crusius); nor from His person to His work (Lange).
The event recorded in Num 21:8 is made use of by Jesus as a type of the divinely appointed manner and efficacy of His coming death, [160] to confirm a prophecy still enigmatical to Nicodemus, by attaching it to a well-known historical illustration. The points of comparison are: (1) the being lifted up (the well-known brazen sepent on the pole, and Jesus on the cross); (2) the being saved (restored to health by looking at the serpent, to eternal by believing on the crucified One). Comp. Wis 16:6 , and, in the earliest Christian literature, Epist. of Barnabas , c. 12; Ignatius ad Smyrn . 2, interpol.; Justin, Apol . 1. 60, Dial. c. Tr . 94. Any further drawing out of the illustration is arbitrary, as, for instance, that of Bengel: “ut serpens ille fuit serpens sine veneno contra serpentes venenatos, sic Christus homo sine peccato contra serpentem antiquum,” comp. Luther and others, approved by Lechler in the Stud. u. Krit . 1854, p. 826. Lange goes furthest in this direction; comp. Ebrard on Olshausen, p. 104. There is, further, no typical element in the fact that the brazen serpent of Moses was a dead representative (“as the sign of its conquering through the healing power of the Lord,” Hengstenberg). For, apart from the fact that Christ was lifted up alive upon the cross, the circumstance of the brazen serpent being a lifeless thing is not made prominent either in Num 21 or here.
] not glorified , acknowledged in His exaltation (Paulus), which, following , would be opposed to the context, but (comp. Joh 8:28 , Joh 12:32-33 ) shall be lifted up , that is, on the cross , [161] answering to the Aramaean (comp. the Heb. , Psa 145:14 ; Psa 146:8 ), a word used of the hanging up of the malefactor upon the beam. See Ezr 6:11 ; Gesenius, Thes . I. 428; Heydenreich in Hffell’s Zeitschr . II. 1, p. 72 ff.; Brckner, 68, 69. Comp. Test. XII. patr. p. 739: . The express comparison with the raising up of the brazen serpent, a story which must have been well known to Nicodemus, does not allow of our explaining ., as = , of the exaltation of Jesus to glory (Bleek, Beitr . 231), or as including this, so that the cross is the stepping-stone to glory (Lechler, Godet); or of referring it to the near coming of the kingdom , by which God will show Him in His greatness (Weizscker); or of our abiding simply by the idea of an exhibition (Hofmann, Weissag. u. Erf . II. 143), which Christ underwent in His public sufferings and death; or of leaving wholly out of account the form of the exaltation (which was certainly accomplished on the cross and then in heaven), (Luthardt), and conceiving of an exaltation for the purpose of being visible to all men (Holtzmann), as Schleiermacher also held (Leben Jesu, 345); or of assuming, as the meaning which was intelligible for Nicodemus, only that of removing , where Jesus, moreover, was conscious of His being lifted up on the cross and up to God (Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 1, 301).
] according to the divine decree, Mat 16:21 , Luk 24:26 , does not refer to the type, but only to the antitype (against Olshausen), especially as between the person of Christ and the brazen serpent as such no typical relation could exist.
Lastly, that Jesus should thus early make, though at the time an enigmatic, allusion to His death by crucifixion, is conceivable both on the ground of the doctrinal peculiarity of the event, and of the extraordinary importance of His death as the fact of redemption. See on Joh 2:19 . And in the case of Nicodemus, the enigmatic germ then sown bore fruit, Joh 19:39 .
Adopting the reading (see Critical Notes), we cannot refer it to , but, as , is spurious (see Critical Notes), to : “every believer shall in Him ( i.e. resting upon Him as the cause) have eternal life.” Comp. Joh 20:31 , Joh 5:39 , Joh 16:33 , Joh 13:31 .
] eternal Messianic life , which, however, the believer already has ( ) as an internal possession in , viz. the present self-conscious development of the only true moral and blissful , which is independent of death, and whose consummation and full glory begin with the second advent. (Comp. Joh 6:40 ; Joh 6:44-45 ; Joh 6:54 ; Joh 6:58 , Joh 14:3 , Joh 17:24 ; 1Jn 3:14 ; 1Jn 4:9 .)
[160] Which, consequently, He had clearly foreseen not for the first time in Joh 6:51 (Weizscker); comp. on Joh 2:19 .
[161] The higher significance imparted to Christ’s person and work by His death (Baur, Neutest. Theol . 379) is not implied in the word , but in the comparison with the serpent , and in the sentence following, which expresses the object of the lifting up. This passage (comp. Joh 1:29 ) should have prevented Baur from asserting (p. 400) that the Pauline doctrine concerning such a significance in Christ’s death is wholly wanting in St. John’s doctrinal view. See also Joh 6:51 ; Joh 6:53-54 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1609
THE BRAZEN SERPENT A TYPE OF CHRIST
Joh 3:14-15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
A MORE instructive portion of Scripture than this before us we cannot easily find. The conversation of our Lord with Nicodemus was intended to lead him to the knowledge of salvation: and, being directed to a person of his rank, and high attainments in morality, it will serve as a model for our instructions to the greatest and best of men. The first point which our Lord insisted on was the necessity of a new birth: for, whatever our attainments be, it is impossible for us to enter into heaven till this has taken place in our souls; since we brought nothing into the world with us but what is carnal; and we must possess a spiritual nature, before we can be capable of enjoying a spiritual kingdom. But besides this, it is necessary also that we be interested in his atoning sacrifice: for, having once contracted guilt, we must be purged from that guilt, before we can be admitted into the Divine presence: and there is nothing but his atoning sacrifice that can avail for this. Hence our Lord, after shewing Nicodemus that he must experience a change of nature by means of a new and heavenly birth, tells him, that he must prepare to see the Messiah crucified for the sins of men, and must look to him for the healing of his soul as the dying Israelites did to the brazen serpent for the healing of the wounds inflicted by the fiery serpents in the wilderness.
The parallel which our Lord here draws between the brazen serpent and himself, represents that as the type, and himself as the antitype: and, that we may fully understand it, I will trace the resemblance,
I.
In the occasion on which the type was instituted
The Israelites were dying of the wounds received from the fiery flying serpents
[They had provoked God by their murmuring and rebellion [Note: Num 21:4-6.] and to punish them God had sent fiery serpents which they could in no wise avoid, and whose bite was mortal. To heal themselves was beyond their power. Multitudes died: and many, finding that they must die, unless God should graciously interpose for them, entreated Moses to intercede for them: and in answer to his intercession God appointed that a brazen serpent should be erected, and that by looking to it they should be healed.]
Similar to this was our state when God gave his Son to be nailed upon the cross
[Through the agency of that old serpent the devil, sin had entered the world, and inflicted a deadly wound on every child of man. To heal ourselves was impossible. Death, eternal death, awaited us. And, as the only means of averting it, God, in tender mercy, sent his only dear Son into the world to die for us, and to save all who would look unto him for salvation.
But if there was in this respect a great resemblance between the occasions that existed for the erection of the serpent, and the exaltation of our blessed Lord upon the cross, there was also a material difference between them; the one being in answer to the prayers of men, the other being given unsolicited and unsought: the one also being appointed as a mere arbitrary ordinance, that had no suitableness to the end proposed; the other being appointed to make satisfaction for the sins of men, and to merit in our behalf the Divine favour.
In both cases, however, the occasion was the same: death was inflicted as the punishment of sin; and the remedy, the only remedy, against it, in either case, was to look to the object, proposed by God, and lifted up by man, for our relief.]
But let us contemplate the type yet more particularly,
II.
In the end of its appointment
The serpent was erected that all who were bitten might look unto it and live.
[An assurance was given to Moses, that all who looked to the brazen serpent should live. And so it proved, in fact. Not one who directed his eyes to it, died. However desperate his wounds might be, or however distant he might be from the object, so as scarcely to have any clear view of it at all, yet, instantly on looking to it he was healed.]
And does not the crucifixion of our Lord ensure the same benefit to those who look unto him
[It matters not how long, or how grievously, any man may have sinned, provided he look truly and humbly to the Lord Jesus Christ as dying for him. As for the brazen serpent, it had no suitableness whatever to the end proposed. It was a mere arbitrary appointment of the Deity: and was available in that view alone. But the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross under the guilt of all our sins, and offered a full and perfect satisfaction for them to Divine justice. True, indeed, to the judgment of carnal reason, that also appears foolishness; but it was in reality the most stupendous effort of divine power and wisdom; and it has in itself a proper suitableness and sufficiency for the salvation of all who trust in it. We may therefore safely assure every child of man, that, if he believe in Jesus, he shall never perish, but shall have eternal life. Nor shall the conferring of this benefit be delayed. The sight of the brazen serpent healed instantly the dying Israelite: and so shall a sight of Jesus instantly remove the guilt of all our sins, and infuse into our souls a new and heavenly life. Nor shall the blessing ever terminate. The benefit that accrued to those who looked to the brazen serpent lasted but for a time: but that which the believer in Jesus shall receive, shall endure for ever and ever.]
Address
1.
Those who feel not their need of such a remedy
[Such persons existed in the camp of Israel: but where shall one be found in our camp? Where is there one whose whole man is not impregnated with the venom of sin? If you feel it not, that only shews that your wounds are the more deep and deadly: but know assuredly, that, unless you be brought to a sense of your perishing condition, your doom is sealed; and in a little time you will perish for ever.]
2.
Those who would substitute some other remedy in the place of Christ
[What would have become of any man who should have persisted in devising some mode of healing himself, instead of looking to the brazen serpent? He must of necessity have died. And no other fate awaits you, if you will be substituting your own works, whether in whole or in part, in the place of Christ. Every other hope must be utterly renounced, and Christ alone be made the one object of your affiance.]
3.
Those who desire the healing of their souls
[Make the Israelites a pattern for yourselves. When they felt in themselves that they were dying, they sought after God through Moses their mediator; and confessed their sins, and implored mercy, and thankfully availed themselves of the proferred benefit, seeking it humbly in Gods appointed way. Thus then do ye also: seek your God through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man; and with deep contrition implore mercy at his hands: then direct your eyes to the cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for you; and doubt not but that you shall be made monuments of his grace and mercy to all eternity. Let no doubt about his sufficiency or your own worthiness keep you from him: for he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and whosoever believeth in him shall assuredly be saved [Note: Isa 45:22.].]
4.
Those who doubt whether this mode of healing will not encourage sin
[Such doubts were entertained in the Apostles days: but he spurned at the idea with holy indignation: Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. What think you? Would an Israelite have taken one of the fiery serpents to his bosom, because he had been healed of his wounds, and because the same means of healing were yet open to him? How much less would one who has felt the bitterness of sin, cherish it any longer in his bosom, because he has obtained deliverance from its guilt and condemnation? When he reflects that nothing but the crucifixion of the Son of God could heal him, will he think lightly of his sins? Will he not rather look on him whom his sins have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born? Truly this is the proper effect of faith in Christ, who, if he redeem us from guilt and condemnation, will also purify us unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Ver. 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent ] There it was, Vide et vive; See and live, here, Crede et vive. Believe and live, And as there, he that beheld the serpent, though but with a weak squint eye, yea, but with half an eye, was cured. So here, if we look upon Christ with the eye, though but of a weak faith, we shall be saved. Doctor Cruciger, when he lay a dying, cried out, Credo languida fide, sed tamen fide, I believe with a weak faith, but with a faith, such as it is. (Selneccer. in paedag. Christ. p. 321.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14. ] From this point the discourse passes to the Person of Christ, and Redemption by His Death.
The Lord brings before this doctor of the Law the mention of Moses, who in his day by divine command lifted up a symbol of forgiveness and redemption to Israel.
] We must avoid all such ideas as that our Lord merely compares His death to the elevation of the brazen serpent, as if only a fortuitous likeness were laid hold of by Him. This would leave the brazen serpent itself meaningless , and is an explanation which can only satisfy those who do not discern the typical reference of all the ceremonial dispensation to the Redeemer.
It is an important duty of an expositor here, to defend the obvious and only honest explanation of this comparison against the tortuous and inadequate interpretations of modern critics. The comparison lies between the exalted serpent of brass , and the exalted Son of Man. The brazen serpent sets forth the Redeemer . This by recent Commentators (Lcke, De Wette, and others) is considered impossible: and the tertium comparationis is held to be only ‘the lifting up.’ But this does not satisfy the construction of the comparison. ‘The brazen serpent was lifted up: every one who looked on it, lived,’ = ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up: every one who believes on Him, shall live.’ The same thing is predicated of the two; both are lifted up; cognate consequences follow, body-healing and soul-healing (as Erskine, On the Brazen Serpent). There must then be some reason why the only two members of the comparison yet unaccounted for stand where they do, considering that the brazen serpent was lifted up not for any physical efficacy, but by command of God alone. Now on examination we find this correspondence fully established . The ‘serpent’ is in Scripture symbolism, the devil , from the historical temptation in Gen 3 . downwards. But why is the devil set forth by the serpent? How does the bite of the serpent operate? It pervades with its poison the frame of its victim: that frame becomes poisoned: and death ensues . So sin, the poison of the devil , being instilled into our nature, that nature has become , a poisoned nature , a flesh of sin . Now the brazen serpent was made in the likeness of the serpents which had bitten them. It represented to the children of Israel the poison which had gone through their frames, and it was hung up there on the banner-staff, as a trophy, to shew them that for the poison, there was healing; that the plague had been overcome. In it , there was no poison; only the likeness of it. Now was not the Lord Jesus made , Rom 8:3 ? Was not He made ‘Sin for us, who knew no sin’ ( 2Co 5:21 )? Did not He, on His Cross, make an open shew of, and triumph over, the Enemy, so that it was as if the Enemy himself had been nailed to that Cross ( Col 2:15 )? Were not Sin and Death and Satan crucified, when He was crucified? , , , , , Euthym [49]
[49] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
, it is necessary , in the Father’s counsel it is decreed, but not arbitrarily; the very necessity of things, which is in fact but the evolution of the divine Will, made it requisite that the pure and sinless Son of Man should thus be uplifted and suffer: see Luk 24:26 .
] In this word there is more than the mere crucifixion. It has respect in its double meaning (of which see a remarkable instance in Gen 40:13 ; Gen 40:19 , E. V.) to the exaltation of the Lord on the Cross, and through the Cross to His Kingdom; and refers back to . . before. Stier quotes the Christian proverb, ‘ Crux scala cli .’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 3:14 . If the Son of Man alone has this knowledge, how is it to be disseminated and become a light to all men? This is answered in the words, [modern editors read ; so also in LXX]. The emphatic word is . When Moses made the brazen serpent, he did not secrete it in his tent and admit a few selected persons to view it, but , gave it an elevation at which all might see it. So must the Son of Man, the bearer of heavenly light and healing, , that all may see Him. The “lifting up” of the Son of Man is interpreted in Joh 12:33 to mean His lifting up on the cross. It was this which drew human observation and human homage. The cross is the throne of Christ. In the phrase the aorist is used in accordance with Greek usage by which an aorist infinitive is employed to express the action of the verb even though future after verbs signifying to hope, to expect, to promise, and such like. Thus Iph. in Aul. , 462, , where Markland needlessly changes the aorist into the future. Nicodemus could not see the significance with which these words were filled by the crucifixion. What would be suggested to him by the comparison of the Messiah with the brazen serpent might be something like this: The Son of Man is to be lifted up. Yes, but not on a throne in Herod’s palace. He was to be conspicuous, but as the brazen serpent had been conspicuous, hanging on a pole for the healing of the people. His elevation was certain, but it was an elevation by no mere official appointment, or popular recognition, or hereditary right, but by plumbing the depths of human degradation in truest self-sacrifice. There is no royal road to human excellence, and Jesus reached the height He attained by no blare of heralds’ trumpets or flaunting of banners or popular acclaim, but by being subjected to the keenest tests by which character can be searched, by passing through the ordeal of human life in this world, and by being found the best, the one only perfectly faithful servant of God and man.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
THE BRAZEN SERPENT
Joh 3:14
This is the second of the instances in this Gospel in which our Lord lays His hand upon an institution or incident of the Old Testament, as shadowing forth some aspect of His work. In the first of these instances, under the image of the ladder that Jacob saw, our Lord presented Himself as the sole medium of communication between heaven and earth; here He goes a step further into the heart of His work, and under the image, very eloquent to the Pharisee to whom He was speaking, of the brazen serpent lifted up on the pole in the desert, proclaims Himself as the medium of healing and of life to a poisoned world.
Now, Nicodemus has a great many followers to-day. He took up a position which many take up. He recognised Christ as a Teacher, and was willing to accord to the almost unknown young man from Galilee the coveted title of ‘Rabbi.’ He came to Him with a little touch of condescension, and evidently thought that for him, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the upper and educated classes, to be willing to speak of Jesus as a Teacher, was an endorsement that the young aspirant might be gratified to receive. ‘Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher sent from God’-but he stopped there. He is not the only one who compliments Jesus Christ, while he degrades Him from His unique position. Now, to this inadequate conception of our Lord’s Person and work, Christ opposed the solemn insistence on the incapacity of human nature as it is, to enter into communion with, and submission to, God. And then He passes on to speak-in precise parallelism with the position that He took up when He likened Himself to the Ladder of Jacob’s vision-of Himself as being the Son of Man that came down from Heaven, and therefore is able to reveal heavenly things. In my text He further unveils in symbol the mystery and dignity of His Person and of His work, whilst He speaks of a mysterious lifting up of this Son of Man who came down from heaven. These are the truths that the conception of Christ as a great Teacher needs for its completion; the contrariety of human nature with the divine will, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Crucifixion of the Incarnate Son. And so we have here three points, to which I desire to turn, as setting forth the conception of His own work which Jesus Christ presented as completing the conception of it, to which Nicodemus had attained.
I. There is, first, the lifting up of the Son of Man.
So, if we accept the historical veracity of this Gospel, we here perceive Jesus Christ, at the very beginning of His career, and before the dispositions of the nation towards Him had developed themselves in action, discerning its end, and seeing, gaunt and grim before Him, the Cross that was lifted up on Calvary. Enthusiasts and philanthropists and apostles of all sorts, in the regions of science and beneficence and morals and religion, begin their career with trusting that their ‘brethren should have understood’ that God was speaking through them. But no illusion of that sort, according to these Evangelists, drew Jesus Christ out of His seclusion at Nazareth and impelled Him on His career. From the beginning He knew that the Cross was to be the end. That Cross was not to Him a necessity, accepted as the price of faithfulness in doing His work, so that His attitude was, ‘I will speak what is in Me, though I die for it,’ but it was to Him the very heart of the work which He came to do. Therefore, after He had said to the ruler of the Jews that the Son of Man, as descended from Heaven, was able to speak of heavenly things, He added the deeper necessity, He ‘must be lifted up.’ Where lay the ‘must’? In the requirement of the work which He had set Himself to do. Beneath this great saying there lies a pathetic, stern, true conception of the condition of human nature. That desert encampment, with the poisoned men dying on every hand, is the emblem under which Jesus Christ, the gentlest and the sweetest soul that ever lived, looked out upon humanity. And it was because the facts of human nature called for something far more than a teacher that He said ‘the Son of Man must be lifted up.’ For what they needed, and what He had set Himself to bring, could only be brought by One who yielded Himself up for the sins of the whole world.
But that ‘must,’ which thus arose from the requirements of the task that He had set before Him, had its source in His own heart; it was no necessity imposed upon Him from without. True, it was a necessity laid on Him by filial obedience, but also true, it was the necessity accepted by Him in pursuance of the impulse of His own heart. He must die because He must save, and He must save because He loved. So He was not nailed to the Cross by the nails and hammers of the Roman soldiers, and the taunt that was flung at Him as He hung there had a deeper meaning, as scoffs thrown at Him and His cause ordinarily have, than the scoffers understood: ‘He saved others,’ and therefore ‘Himself He cannot save.’
So here we have Christ accepting, as well as discerning, the Cross. And we have more than that. We have Christ looking at the Cross as being, not humiliation, but exaltation. ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up.’ And what does that mean? It means the same thing that He said when, near the end, He declared, ‘The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’ We are accustomed to speak-and we speak rightly-of His death as being the lowest point of the humiliation which was inherent in the very fact of His humanity. He condescended to be born; He stooped yet more to die. But whilst that is true, the other side is also true-that in the Cross Christ is lifted up, and that it is His Throne. For what see we there? The highest exhibition, the tenderest revelation, of His perfect love. And what see we there besides? The supreme manifestation of the highest power.
‘‘Twas great to speak a world from nought,
‘Tis greater to redeem.’
II. Notice, again, how we have here the look at the uplifted Son of Man.
This trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was bid to turn to the brazen serpent. There was no connection between his look and his healing, except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as many people often think it is, which connects inseparably together the look of faith and the eternal life that Christ gives. For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which that salvation can come into a man’s heart is that he, knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life.
It is the only possible condition. God forbid that I should even seem to depreciate other forms of healing men’s evils and redressing men’s wrongs, and diminishing the sorrows of humanity! We welcome them all; but education, art, culture, refinement, improved environment, bettered social and political conditions, whilst they do a great deal, do not go down to the bottom of the necessity. And after you have built your colleges and art museums and stately pleasure-houses, and set every man in an environment that is suited to develop him, you will find out what surely the world might have found out already, that, as in some stately palace built in the Campagna, the malaria is in the air, and steals in at the windows, and infects all the inhabitants. Thank God for all these other things! but you cannot heal a man who has poison in his veins by administering cosmetics, and you cannot put out Vesuvius with a jugful of water. If the camp is to be healed, the Christ must be lifted up.
III. And now, lastly, here we have the life that comes with a look at the lifted-up Son of Man.
‘Eternal life’; do not bring that down to the narrow and inadequate conception of unending existence. It involves that, but it means a great deal more. It means a life of such a sort as is worth calling life, which is a life in union with God, and therefore full of blessedness, full of purity, full of satisfaction, full of desire and aspiration, and all these with the stamp of unendingness deeply impressed upon them. And that is what comes to us through the look. Not only is the process of dying arrested, but there is substituted for it a new process of growing possession of a new life. You ‘must be born again,’ Christ had been saying to Nicodemus. The change that passes upon a man when once he has anchored his trust on Jesus Christ, the uplifted Son of Man, is so profound that it is nothing else than a new birth, and a new life comes into his veins untainted by the poison, and with no proclivity to death.
‘May have eternal life’-now, here, on the instant. That eternal life is no future gift to be bestowed upon mortal men when they have passed through the agony of death, but it is a gift which comes to us here, and may come to any man on the instant of his looking to Jesus Christ.
‘May in Him have eternal life’-union with Christ by faith, that profound incorporation-if I may use the word-into Him, which the New Testament sets forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal life. So, dear brethren, we all need that the poison shall be cast out of our veins. We all need that the tendency downwards to a condition which can only be described as death may be arrested, and the motion reversed. We all need that our knowledge shall be vitalised into faith. We all need that the past shall be forgiven, and the power of sin upon us in the present shall be cancelled. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,’ because it was shed for the remission of the sins of the many, and is transfused, an untainted principle of life, into our veins. What Jesus said to Nicodemus by night in that quiet chamber in Jerusalem, what He said in effect and act upon the Cross, when uplifted there, is what He says to each of us from the Throne where He is now lifted up: ‘Whosoever believeth shall in Me have eternal life.’ Take Him at His word, and you will find that it is true.
John
CHRIST’S MUSTS
Joh 3:14
I have chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn ‘must’ which was so often on our Lord’s lips. I have no purpose of dealing with the remainder of this clause, nor indeed with it at all, except as one instance of His use of the expression. But I have felt it might he interesting, and might set old truths in a brighter light, if we gather together the instances in which Christ speaks of the great necessity which dominated His life, and shaped even small acts.
The expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and Resurrection. There are many instances in the Gospels, in which He speaks of that must. The first of these is that of my text. Then there is another class, of which His word to His mother when a twelve-year-old child may be taken as a type: ‘Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?’ where the mysterious consciousness of a special relation to God in the child’s heart drew Him to the Temple and to His Father’s work. Other similar instances are those in which He responded to the multitude when they wanted to keep Him to themselves: ‘I must preach in other cities also’; or as when He said, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day.’
Yet another aspect of the same necessity is presented when, looking far beyond the earthly work and suffering, He discerned the future triumph which was to be the issue of these, and said, ‘Other sheep I have . . . them also I must bring.’
And yet another is in reference to a very small matter: His selection of a place for a few hours’ rest on His last fateful journey to Jerusalem, when He said, ‘Zaccheus, . . . to-day I must abide at thy house.’
Now, if we put these instances together, we shall get some precious glimpses into our Lord’s heart, and His view of life.
I. Here we see Christ recognising and accepting the necessity for His death.
And why must He go to the Cross? Not merely, as the other Evangelists put it, in order that ‘it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets.’ It was not that Jesus must die because the prophets had said that Messiah should, but that the prophets had said that Messiah should because Jesus must. There was a far deeper necessity than the fulfilment of any prophetic utterance, even the necessity which shaped that utterance. The work of Jesus Christ could not be done unless He died. He could not be the Saviour of the world unless He was the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
We cannot see all the grounds of that solemn imperative, but this we can see, that it was because of the requirements of the divine righteousness, and because of the necessities of sinful men. And so Christ’s was no martyr’s death, who had to die as the penalty of the faithful discharge of His duty. It was not the penalty that He paid for doing His work, but it was the work itself. Not that gracious life, nor ‘the loveliness of perfect deeds,’ nor His words of sweet wisdom, nor His acts of transcendent power, equalled only by the pity that moved the power, completed His task, but He ‘came to give His life a ransom for many.’
‘Must’ is a hard word. It may express an unwelcome necessity. Was this necessity unwelcome? When He said, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up,’ was He shrinking, or reluctantly submitting? Ah, no! He must die because He would save, and He would save because He did love. His filial obedience to God coincided with His pity for men: and not merely in obedience to the requirements of the divine righteousness, but in compassion for the necessities of sinners, necessity was laid upon Him.
Oh, brethren! nothing held Christ to the Cross but His own desire to save us. Neither priests nor Romans carried Him thither. What fastened Him to it was not the nails driven by rude hands. And the reason why He did not, as the taunters bade Him do, come down from it, was neither a physical nor a moral necessity unwelcome to Himself, but the yielding of His own will to do all which was needed for man’s salvation.
This sacrifice was bound to the altar by the cords of love. We have heard of martyrs who have refused to be tied to the stake, and have kept themselves motionless in the centre of the fierce flames by the force of their wills. Jesus Christ fastened Himself to the Cross and died because He would.
And, oh! if we think of that sweet, serene life as having clear before it from the very first steps that grim end, how infinitely it gains in pathetic beauty and in heart-touchingness! What wonderful self-abnegation! How he was at leisure from Himself, with a heart of pity for every sorrow, and loins girt for all service, though during all His life the Cross closed the vista! Think that human shrinking was felt by Him, think that it was so held back that His purpose never faltered, think that each of us may say, ‘He must die because He would save me’; and then ask, ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?’
II. In a second class of these utterances, we see Christ impelled by filial obedience and the consciousness of His mission.
Thus He stands before us, the pattern for the only obedience that is worth calling so, the obedience which would be pained and ill at ease unless it were doing the work of God. Religion is meant to make it a second nature, or, as I have ventured to call it, an instinct-a spontaneous, uncalculating, irrepressible desire-to be in fellowship with God, and to be doing His will. That is the meaning of our Christianity. There is no obedience in reluctant obedience; forced service is slavery, not service. Christianity is given for the specific purpose that it may bring us so into touch with Jesus Christ as that the mind which was in Him may be in us; and that we too may be able to say, with a kind of wonder that people should have expected to find us in any other place, or doing anything else, ‘Wist ye not that because I am a Son, I must be about my Father’s business?’ As certainly as the sunflower follows the sun, so certainly will a man animated by the mind that was in Jesus Christ, like Him find his very life’s breath in doing the Father’s will.
So then, brethren, what about our grudging service? What about our reluctant obedience? What about the widespread mistake that religion prohibits wished-for things and enforces unwelcome duties? If my Christianity does not make me recoil from what it forbids, and spring eagerly to what it commends, my Christianity is of very little use. If when in the Temple we are like idle boys in school, always casting glances at the clock and the door, and wishing ourselves outside, we may just as well be out as in. Glad obedience is true obedience. Only he who can say, ‘Thy law is within my heart, and I do Thy will because I love Thee, and cannot but do as Thou desirest,’ has found the joy possible to a Christian life. It is not ‘harsh and crabbed,’ as those that look upon it from the outside may ‘suppose,’ but musical and full of sweetness. There is nothing more blessed than when ‘I choose’ covers exactly the same ground as ‘I ought.’ And when duty is delight, delight will never become disgust, nor joy pass away.
III. We see, in yet another use of this great ‘must,’ Christ anticipating His future triumph.
I need not point out to you how far afield Christ’s vision goes out into the dim, waste places, where on the dark mountains the straying sheep are torn and frightened and starving. I need not dwell upon how far ahead in the future His glance travels, or how magnificent and how rebuking to our petty narrowness this great word is. ‘There shall be one flock’ not fold; and they shall be one, not because they are within the bounds of any visible ‘fold,’ but because they are gathered round the one Shepherd, and in their common relation to Him are knit together in unity.
But what sort of a Man is this who considers that His widest work is to be done by Him after He is dead? ‘Them also I must bring.’ Thou? how? when? Surely such words as these, side by side with a clear prevision of the death that was so soon to come, are either meaningless or the utterance of an arrogance bordering on insanity, or they anticipate what an Evangelist declares did take place-that the Lord was ‘taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God,’ whilst His servants ‘went everywhere preaching the Word, the Lord also working with them and confirming the Word’ with the signs He wrought.
‘Them also I must bring.’ That is not merely a necessity rooted in the nature of God and the wants of men. It is not merely a necessity springing from Christ’s filial obedience and sense of a mission; but it is a ‘must’ of destiny, a ‘must’ which recognises the sure results of His passion; a ‘must’ which implies the power of the Cross to be the reconciliation of the world. And so for all pessimistic thoughts to-day, or at any time, and when Christian men’s hearts may be trembling for the Ark of God-although, perhaps, there may be little reason for the tremor-and in the face of all blatant antagonisms and of proud Goliaths despising the ‘foolishness of preaching,’ we fall back upon Christ’s great ‘must.’ It is written in the councils of Heaven more unchangeably than the heavens; it is guaranteed by the power of the Cross; it is certain, by the eternal life of the crucified Saviour, that He will one day be the King of humanity, and must bring His wandering sheep to couch in peace, one flock round one Shepherd.
IV. Lastly, we have Christ applying the greatest principle to the smallest duty.
So, brethren, bring your doings under that all-embracing law of duty-duty, which is the heathen expression for the will of God. There are great regions of life in which lower necessities have play. Circumstances, our past, bias and temper, relationship, friendship, civic duty, and the like-all these bring their necessities; but let us think of them all as being, what indeed they are, manifestations to us of the will of our Father. There are great tracts of life in which either of two courses may be right, and we are left to the decision of choice rather than of duty; but high above all these, let us see towering that divine necessity. It is a daily struggle to bring ‘I will’ to coincide with ‘I ought’; and there is only one adequate and always powerful way of securing that coincidence, and that is to keep close to Jesus Christ and to drink in His spirit. Then, when duty and delight are conterminous, ‘the rough places will be plain, and the crooked things straight, and every mountain shall be brought low, and every valley shall be exalted,’ and life will be blessed, and service will be freedom. Joy and liberty and power and peace will fill our hearts when this is the law of our being; ‘All that the Lord hath spoken, that must I do.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
as = even as. Reference to Num 21:9.
Moses. See note on Joh 1:17 and Mat 8:4.
must = it behoved to, in order to fulfil the prophetic Scripture. See Luk 24:26, Luk 24:46. Act 3:18; Act 17:3, and compare Heb 2:9, Heb 2:10.
be lifted up. See note on Joh 3:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14.] From this point the discourse passes to the Person of Christ, and Redemption by His Death.
The Lord brings before this doctor of the Law the mention of Moses, who in his day by divine command lifted up a symbol of forgiveness and redemption to Israel.
] We must avoid all such ideas as that our Lord merely compares His death to the elevation of the brazen serpent, as if only a fortuitous likeness were laid hold of by Him. This would leave the brazen serpent itself meaningless, and is an explanation which can only satisfy those who do not discern the typical reference of all the ceremonial dispensation to the Redeemer.
It is an important duty of an expositor here, to defend the obvious and only honest explanation of this comparison against the tortuous and inadequate interpretations of modern critics. The comparison lies between the exalted serpent of brass, and the exalted Son of Man. The brazen serpent sets forth the Redeemer. This by recent Commentators (Lcke, De Wette, and others) is considered impossible: and the tertium comparationis is held to be only the lifting up. But this does not satisfy the construction of the comparison. The brazen serpent was lifted up: every one who looked on it, lived, = The Son of Man must be lifted up: every one who believes on Him, shall live. The same thing is predicated of the two;-both are lifted up; cognate consequences follow,-body-healing and soul-healing (as Erskine, On the Brazen Serpent). There must then be some reason why the only two members of the comparison yet unaccounted for stand where they do,-considering that the brazen serpent was lifted up not for any physical efficacy, but by command of God alone. Now on examination we find this correspondence fully established. The serpent is in Scripture symbolism, the devil,-from the historical temptation in Genesis 3. downwards. But why is the devil set forth by the serpent? How does the bite of the serpent operate? It pervades with its poison the frame of its victim: that frame becomes poisoned:-and death ensues. So sin, the poison of the devil, being instilled into our nature, that nature has become , a poisoned nature,-a flesh of sin. Now the brazen serpent was made in the likeness of the serpents which had bitten them. It represented to the children of Israel the poison which had gone through their frames, and it was hung up there on the banner-staff, as a trophy, to shew them that for the poison, there was healing;-that the plague had been overcome. In it, there was no poison; only the likeness of it. Now was not the Lord Jesus made , Rom 8:3? Was not He made Sin for us, who knew no sin (2Co 5:21)? Did not He, on His Cross, make an open shew of, and triumph over, the Enemy, so that it was as if the Enemy himself had been nailed to that Cross (Col 2:15)? Were not Sin and Death and Satan crucified, when He was crucified? , , , , , Euthym[49]
[49] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
, it is necessary, in the Fathers counsel-it is decreed, but not arbitrarily;-the very necessity of things, which is in fact but the evolution of the divine Will, made it requisite that the pure and sinless Son of Man should thus be uplifted and suffer: see Luk 24:26.
] In this word there is more than the mere crucifixion. It has respect in its double meaning (of which see a remarkable instance in Gen 40:13; Gen 40:19, E. V.) to the exaltation of the Lord on the Cross, and through the Cross to His Kingdom; and refers back to . . before. Stier quotes the Christian proverb, Crux scala cli.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 3:14-15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Whosoever. Note that word, for it means you, and it means me. No matter though you are near to deaths door, crushed and broken, bruised and mangled, look to the Crucified One, and, looking, you shall find that there is life eternal for you. Though your soul has been ready to choose strangling rather than your life, yet there is a better life for you by trusting in Christ. Choose that, and rest in him. Say, from your heart, the last lines of the hymn we sang just now,
Jesus, to thy arms I fly;
Save me, Lord, or else I die.
Joh 3:16-17. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Now this, which is good teaching for those who have but lately come to Christ, or for those who are seeking to come to him, is the very same teaching which will bring comfort to the most advanced and best instructed of the saints. How I love continually to begin with Christ over again as I began at the first! They say, when a man is sick, that it is a good thing to take him to his native place, and when a true believers soul gets faint and unbelieving, let him breathe the air of Calvary over again. The learned Grotius, who had spent the most of his life in theological disputations, not always or yet often on the right side, when he was dying said, Read me something; and they read him the story of the publican and the Pharisee. He said, And that poor publican I am; thank God, that publican I am. God be merciful to me a sinner. That was the word with which the great scholar entered into heaven, and that is the way in which you and I must come to God. May the Holy Spirit help us to come to him thus!
Amen.
This exposition consisted of readings from Job 7, and Joh 3:14-17.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Joh 3:14. , and) Often Christ, after mention of His glorification, made mention of His passion.-, Moses) This is the first mention of Moses, which is read as made by our Lord.- , the serpent) As that serpent was a serpent without poison, to counteract the poisonous serpents: so the man Christ [was] a man without sin, to counteract the old serpent.- , in the wilderness) where there was no other medicine [remedy].-, be lifted up) on a cross towards heaven: ch. Joh 12:32, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me, etc. [Not as yet did Jesus speak at this early time more distinctly as to His suffering on the cross: see Joh 3:16.-V. g.]-, must) For it was for this purpose He descended from heaven.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 3:14
Joh 3:14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up;-When the Israelites had murmured in the wilderness against Moses and against God on account of the difficulties and trials of the way, they had as a punishment been bitten by fiery serpents and they died. The people came to Moses, confessed their sins and asked Moses to pray for them that they might be healed. Moses prayed for them and God told him to make a brazen serpent and put it on a pole and all who looked upon it should live. (Num 21:9). This seems to have been given as a test of their faith in Moses. God has in all ages demanded that mans faith shall express itself in a bodily act. This was the type of Jesus being lifted up on the cross that man might be drawn to him in his service and be saved.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Look And Live
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a standard: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the standard: and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.Num 21:8-9.
[And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.Joh 3:14-15.]
1. While the children of Israel were roaming homeless through the wilderness, their heart, we read, failed them because of the way, and, as was their wont, they vented their vexation in angry thoughts and rebellious words against God. On this occasion God sent among them judgment in the form of fiery serpents. The bite of these serpents was deadly, so that when a man was once bitten by their venomous fangs his life was forfeited, and, although he did not drop down dead on the instant, in one sense he was a dead man already. What a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate victims were being attacked by these messengers of death! In this terrible emergency the people cried to God, and in doing so confessed, We have sinned; and in answer to their prayer Moses was instructed to make a fiery serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and it should come to pass that, if any were bitten by a fiery serpent, on looking at this they would live.
They did well, when they came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. So far as I know, it is the only real expression of true sorrow and willing confession which we find in the wilderness story. We have sinned. And if so, it is well worth while for us to notice, that this was the occasion for Gods giving to them the great sign of mercy to which Jesus Christ pointed as a sign of Himself. So it is that God gives grace to the humble, encourages the contrite, is found of those who seek.1 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
2. Recalling this incident of Israel, Jesus found in it a type and prophecy of Himself. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
It is very instructive to notice the New Testament use of the Old Testament record of Moses. His history and its incidents are constantly referred to as illustrations and types of Christ. St. Paul again and again finds his illustrations in the life of Moses, and much more than illustrations. Not with any curious fancy is it that his sturdy logic finds the materials for two compact arguments in these chapters. The manna, the rock, the veil on the face of Moses, are all immediately connected with Jesus Christ. St. John, too, in the Book of Revelation, constantly finds here the imagery by which he sets forth the things which are to come. And the Church in all ages has found in Egypt and the wilderness journey to the goodly land a very Pilgrims Progress. No type is more familiar, no illustration more constant. The arrangements of Jewish worship are full of predictions of Christliving pictures of our salvation. The Lord Jesus is the sacrifice for our sinsthe Lamb of God which beareth away the sins of the world. He is the Mercy-seat, as the word propitiation is rendered in the marginal reference. He is the High Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and who is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.2 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
The old is always becoming the new. As Moses so the Son of man; as the old, so the new; as the historical so the prophetical. All the pattern of the spiritual temple has been shown in the mountain, and has been frayed out in shapely and significant clouds which themselves were parables. That the Scripture might be fulfilled. History always has something more to do than it seems to have; it does not only record the event of the day, it redeems old subjects, old vows and oaths; it takes up what seems to be the exhausted past and turns it into the present and energetic action of the moment. As Moses, as Jonah, as Solomon, as the bold Esaias; it is always a going-back upon the sacred past and eating up the food that was there provided. Do not live too much in what we call the present; do not live upon the bubble of the hour; have some city of the mind, some far-away strong temple-sanctuary made noble by associations and memories of the tenderest kind. You could easily be dislodged from some sophism of yesterday. If you are living in the little programmes that were published but last night you have but a poor lodgment, and to-morrow you will be found naked, destitute, and hungry. Always go back to the As Moses, as David, as Daniel, as Jeremiah, and see in every culminating event a confirmation of this holy wordthat the Scripture might be fulfilled. The plan was drawn before the building was commenced; the specification was all written out before the builder handled his hammer and his trowel; we do but work out old specificationsold, but not decayed; old with the venerableness of truth. See that you stand upon a broad rock, and do not try to launch your lifeship upon a bubble.1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]
We have here
I. A Pressing Danger.
i. Death from the bite of a SerpentThe Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died (Num 21:6).
ii. Perishing in Sinmight not perish (Joh 3:15 A.V.; should not perish, Num 3:16).
II. A Way of Escape.
i. A Brazen Serpent lifted up on a poleMake thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a standard (Num 21:8).
ii. A Sin-bearer lifted up on the CrossAs Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (Joh 3:14).
III. How to use the Way of Escape.
i. Looking to the SerpentIf a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:9).
ii. Believing in the Sin-bearerthat whosoever believeth in him, R.V. that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life (Joh 3:15).
IV. The Good Effect.
i. LifeWhen he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:9).
ii. Eternal Lifethat whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life (Joh 3:15).
I
A Pressing Danger
The danger is(i.) Death from the bite of a serpent (Num 21:6); (ii.) perishing in sin (Joh 3:16).
i. The Serpent and Death
1. The district through which the Israelites were passing is infested at the present day with venomous reptiles of various kinds, and this seems to have been its character in the time of Moses. It is impossible clearly to identify these fiery serpents with any of the several species now known, or to say why they received the appellation fiery. The name may have been given them on account of their colour, or their ferocity, or, inasmuch as the word is rendered deadly in the Septuagint, and burning in some other versions, it may indicate the burning sensation produced by their bite, and its venomous and fatal character.
2. The bite was fatal. Much people died. It was no light affliction which was but for a moment, a passing inconvenience that wore away with time; no sickness was it from which prudence and care could recover them. Not as when Paul shook off his venomous beast into the crackling flames, and it perished there. He who was bitten died: old and young, strong man and frail woman. Ah, said some of those who are always ready to make light of any illness unless it is their own, he will get over it; he is young, and he has youth on his side. See, said another, what a splendid constitution he has; he will mend. Come, said another, we must hope for the best. But much people died.
In October, 1852, Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens, was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and according to custom he must needs drink with him. He drank considerable quantities of gin, and although he would probably have been in a great passion if any one had called him drunk, yet reason and common sense had evidently been overpowered. He went back to his post at the gardens in an excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it round his neck, twisted it about, and whirled it round about him. Happily for him it did not rouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-keeper cried out, For Gods sake, put back the snake, but the foolish man replied, I am inspired. Putting back the venom-snake, he exclaimed, Now for the cobra! This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous night, and therefore the rash man placed it in his bosom till it revived, and glided downward till its head appeared below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face, and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror; and, as he told the jury, he did not know how long he was gone, for he was in a maze. When assistance arrived, Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, I am a dead man. They put him in a cab, and took him to the hospital. First his speech went, he could only point to his poor throat and moan; then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body, and he was a dead Man 1:1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
ii. Sin and Perishing
1. The bite of these serpents was mortal. The Israelites could have no question about that, because in their own presence much people of Israel died. They saw their own friends die of the snake-bite, and they helped to bury them. They knew why they died, and were sure that it was because the venom of the fiery serpents was in their veins. They were left almost without an excuse for imagining that they could be bitten and yet live. Now, we know that many have perished as the result of sin. We are not in doubt as to what sin will do, for we are told by the infallible Word, that the wages of sin is death, and, yet again, sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Sin can have but one endingdeathdeathdeath. The soul that sinneth it shall die, so rings the warning of God. How foolishly we talk of it! When it is the child, we say, He is young, and will grow better. When it is the youth, we say, Let him sow his wild oats, and he will settle down. Ah, what cruel folly! What a man soweth, that shall he also reap. When it is middle age, we say, Yes, it is very sad, but he has a great many good points, you know. And when he is an old man and dies, we say, Well, we must hope for the best. And in upon this Babel there comes the terrible note of doom: The wages of sin is death.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
2. Is it always immediate? Not always. May we not play with the serpent? We may not. Are there not moments when the cruel beast is not cruel? Not one. The sandwasp paralyses the beetle with his sting that he may, and that his progeny may profit, by the paralysis. The sandwasp does not kill the insect, but thrusts a sting into him, not fatally; the insect can still lay eggs for the advantage of the progeny of the sandwasp. It is so with many serpentine tricks; we are paralysed to be used, not to-day, but to be eaten in six months. We are so paralysed that we will do this or do that and have joy in it and have a banquet over it, ay, a foaming tankard of wine that froths out its own mocking laugh. It is the sting of the sandwasp; it has thrust in that venomous sting and hung us up for the next meeting, for the next occasion, just before the bankruptcy comes, and the devouring of our very soul by those whom we have wronged.
The worst consequences of sin are sin itself, more sin. Drink and lust mean stronger passion, more ungovernable desire. Anger and temper mean as their consequence a heart more bitter, more ready for more wrath. Selfish ways mean less power even to see when we are selfish or what selfishness is. Yes, and not only is there deepening of the same sin, but other sins are bred from it; cruelty, even murderous, out of lust and drink; cruelty, too, out of selfishness; lying and slander out of the hot heart and ungoverned life of anger. So it goes: sin breeding sin, sin deepening into more sin.2 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
It is necessary to be ever vigilant, and, always looking on a trifling sin as one of magnitude, to flee far from it; because if the virtuous deeds exceed the sinful acts by even the point of one of the hairs of the eyelashes, the spirit goes to Paradise; but should the contrary be the case, it descends to hell.1 [Note: The Dabistan in Fields Book of Eastern Wisdom, 121.]
3. What was the sin the Israelites were guilty of?
(1) The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised Gods way. The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. It was Gods way; He had chosen it for them, and He had chosen it in wisdom and mercy, but they murmured at it. As an old divine says, It was lonesome and longsome; but still it was Gods way, and therefore it ought not to have been loathsome. His pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and His servants Moses and Aaron led them like a flock, and they ought to have followed cheerfully. Every step of their previous journey had been rightly ordered, and they ought to have been quite sure that this compassing of the land of Edom was rightly ordered too. But, no; they quarrelled with Gods way, and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the great standing follies of men; they cannot be content to wait on the Lord and keep His way, but prefer a will and a way of their own.
(2) The people also quarrelled with Gods food. He gave them the best of the best, for men did eat angels food; but they called the manna by an opprobrious title, which in the Hebrew has a sound of ridicule about it, and even in our translation conveys the idea of contempt. They said, Our soul loatheth this light bread, as if they thought it unsubstantial, and only fitted to puff them out, because it was easy of digestion, and did not breed in them that heat of blood and tendency to disease which a heavier diet would have brought with it. Being discontented with their God they quarrelled with the bread which He set upon their table. This is another of mans follies; his heart refuses to feed upon Gods Word or believe Gods truth. He craves the flesh-meat of carnal reason, the leeks and the garlic of superstitious tradition, and the cucumbers of speculation; he cannot bring his mind down to believe the Word of God, or to accept truth so simple, so fitted to the capacity of a child.
II
A Way of Escape
The way is(i.) a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole; (ii.) a Sin-bearer lifted up on the cross.
i. The Brazen Serpent
1. The command to make a brazen or copper serpent, and set it on some conspicuous place, that to look on it might stay the effect of the poison, is remarkable, not only as sanctioning the forming of an image, but as associating healing power with a material object. Two questions must be considered separatelyWhat did the method of cure say to the men who turned their bloodshot, languid eyes to it? and What does it mean for us, who see it by the light of our Lords great words about it? As to the former question, we have not to take into account the Old Testament symbolism which makes the serpent the emblem of Satan or of sin. Serpents had bitten the wounded. Here was one like them, but without poison, hanging harmless on the pole. Surely that would declare that God had rendered innocuous the else fatal creatures.
That to which they were to look was to be a serpent, but it was to be a serpent triumphed over, as it were, not triumphing, and held up to view and exhibited as a trophy. Around on every side the serpents are victorious, and the people are dying. Here the serpent is represented as conquered and, we may say, made a spectacle of, and the people who see it live. Strong were the serpents in their power of death, but stronger was God in His omnipotence of life, and the life triumphed.
The sight of the brazen serpent was as though Gods spear had pierced the plague, and held it aloft before their eyes, a vanquished, broken thing. It was not one of the serpents; it was an image of all and any of them; it was the whole serpent curse and plague in effigy.1 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
2. How could a cure be wrought through merely looking at twisted brass? It seemed, indeed, to be almost a mockery to bid men look at the very thing which had caused their misery. Shall the bite of a serpent be cured by looking at a serpent? Shall that which brings death also bring life? But herein lay the excellency of the remedy, that it was of divine origin; for when God ordains a cure He is by that very fact bound to put potency into it. He will not devise a failure or prescribe a mockery. It should always be enough for us to know that God ordains a way of blessing us, for if He ordains, it must accomplish the promised result. We need not know how it will work, it is quite sufficient for us that Gods mighty grace is pledged to make it bring forth good to our souls.
ii. The Sin-bearer
1. It is strange that the same which hurt should also heal; that from a serpent should come the poison, and from a serpent the antidote of the poison; the same inflicting the wound, and being in Gods ordinance appointed for the healing of the wound. The history would sound a strange one, and would suggest some underlying mystery, even if it stood alone, with no after-word of Scripture claiming a special significance for it. But it is stranger and more mysterious still when we come to the Lords appropriation of it to Himself. The Son of Man, healer and helper of the lost race whose nature He took, compared to a serpent! Of what is the serpent the figure everywhere else in Scripture? Not of Christ, but of Christs chiefest enemy; of the author of death, not of the Prince of life. Disguised in a serpents form, he won his first success, and poisoned at the fountain-head the life of all our race. His name is the Old Serpent; while the wicked are a serpent seed, a generation of vipers, as being in a manner born of him. Strange therefore and most perplexing it is to find the whole symbolism of Scripture on this one occasion reversed, and Christ, not Satan, likened to the serpent.
There is only one explanation which really meets the difficulties of the case. In the words of St. Paul, to the effect that God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, we have the key to the whole mystery.
2. The sign of salvation, as it is called in the Book of Wisdom, which Moses was commanded of God to make, was at once most like the serpents which hurt the people, and also most unlike them; most like in appearance, most unlike in reality. In outward appearance it was most like, and doubtless was fashioned of copper or shining brass that it might resemble their fiery aspect the more closely; but in reality it was most unlike them, being, in the very necessities of its nature, harmless and without venom; while they were most harmful, filled with deadliest poison. And thus it came to pass that the thing which most resembled the serpents that had hurt them, the thing therefore which they, the Israelites, must have been disposed to look at with the most shuddering abhorrence, was yet appointed of God as the salve, remedy, medicine, and antidote of all their hurts: and approved itself as such; for it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Unlikely remedy, and yet most effectual! And exactly thus it befell in that great apparent paradox, that foolishness of God, the plan of our salvation. As a serpent hurt and a serpent healed, so in like manner, as by man came death, by man should come also the resurrection from the dead; as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one should many be made righteous; as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, the second Adam, shall all be made alive.
3. That serpent, so like in many points to those which hurt the people, so like in colour, in form, in outward show, was yet unlike in one, and that the most essential point of allin this, namely, that it was not poisonous, as they were; that there was no harm or hurt in it, as there was in them. Exactly so the resemblance of Christ to His fellow-men, most real in many things, for He was found in fashion as a man, hungered, thirsted, was weary, was tempted, suffered, died like other men, was yet in one point, and that the most essential, only apparent. He only seemed to have that poison which they really had. Wearing the sinners likeness, for He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, bearing the sinners doom, His face was more marred than any mans, He was yet holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; altogether clear from every spot, taint, and infection of our fallen nature. What was, and indeed could only be, negative in a dead thing, such as that brazen serpent, the poor type and weak figure of the true, namely, the absence of the venom, this was positive in Him, as the presence of the antidote. And thus out of this Mans curse came every mans blessing, out of this Mans death came every other mans life.
My predecessor, Dr. Gill, edited the works of Tobias Crisp, but Tobias Crisp went further than Dr. Gill or any of us can approve; for in one place Crisp calls Christ a sinner, though he does not mean that He ever sinned Himself. He actually calls Christ a transgressor, and justifies himself by that passage, He was numbered with the transgressors. Martin Luther is reputed to have broadly said that, although Jesus Christ was sinless, yet He was the greatest sinner that ever lived, because all the sins of His people lay upon Him. Now, such expressions I think to be unguarded, if not profane. Certainly Christian men should take care that they use not language which, by the ignorant and uninstructed, may be translated to mean what they never intended to teach.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
There is a text (2Co 5:21) which tells us that He knew no sin. That is very beautiful and significantwho knew no sin. It does not merely say did none, but knew none. Sin was no acquaintance of His; He was acquainted with grief, but no acquaintance of sin. He had to walk in the midst of its most frequented haunts, but did not know it; not that He was ignorant of its nature, or did not know its penalty, but He did not know it; he was a stranger to it, He never gave it the wink or nod of familiar recognition. Of course He knew what sin was, for He was very God, but with sin He had no communion, no fellowship, no brotherhood. He was a perfect stranger in the presence of sin; He was a foreigner; He was not an inhabitant of that land where sin is acknowledged. He passed through the wilderness of suffering, but into the wilderness of sin He could never go. He knew no sin; mark that expression and treasure it up, and when you are thinking of your substitute, and see Him hang bleeding upon the Cross, think that you see written in those lines of blood traced along His blessed body, He knew no sin. Mingled with the redness of His blood (that Rose of Sharon), behold the purity of His nature (the Lily of the Valley)He knew no sin.2 [Note: Ibid.]
4. The Serpent and the Sin-bearer were lifted up. The elevation of the serpent was simply intended to make it visible from afar; but it could not have been set so high as to be seen from all parts of the camp, and we must suppose that the wounded were in many cases carried from the distant parts of the wide-spreading encampment to places whence they could catch a glimpse of it glittering in the sunshine.
Of the meaning of this there cannot well be any mistake. It denotes the lifting up of our Lord on the Cross; as St. John, in another place, tells us, that when He said to the Pharisees, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, He spoke, signifying by what death he should die. He did not mean merely that His Name should be preached in all the world, and made thoroughly known as the only way of salvation; He meant that He should be really and bodily lifted up. He meant His nailing to the Cross, and then the setting of the Cross upright in the earth. By this He became, more especially, the scorn of men, and the outcast of the people.1 [Note: John Keble.]
It is the lifting up that is the chief point in the comparison The word is mentioned twiceAs Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. To Jesus, and to John as taught by Him, the lifting up was doubly significant. It meant death upon the Cross, but it also suggested the beginning of His exaltation. As the serpent was lifted up so that it might be seen, we are compelled to adopt the same reason for the lifting up of the Son of Man. It is a marvellous thought, an amazing foresight. The death which was intended to consign Him and His teaching to oblivion was the means by which attention was directed to them. That which was to make Him accursed became the means by which He entered into His glory. His name was not obscured, but was exalted above all other names by the shame which men put upon it. The crucifixion was the first step of exaltation, the beginning of a higher stage of Revelation 2 [Note: John Reid.]
I feel a need divine
That meeteth need of mine;
No rigid fate I meet, no law austere.
I see my God, who turns
And oer His creature yearns:
Upon the cross God gives and claims the tear.3 [Note: Dora Greenwell, Carmina Crucis.]
III
The Acceptance of the Offer of Escape
The offer of escape is accepted(i.) by looking to the brazen serpent; (ii.) by believing in the Sin-bearer.
i. Looking to the Serpent
1. We are not told that trust in God was an essential part of the look, but that is taken for granted. Why else should a half-dead man lift his eyelids to look? Such a one knew that God had commanded the image to be made, and had promised healing for a look. His gaze was fixed on it, in obedience to the command involved in the promise, and was, in some measure, a manifestation of faith. No doubt the faith was very imperfect, and the desire was only for physical healing; but none the less it had in it the essence of faith. It would have been too hard a requirement for men through whose veins the swift poison was burning its way, and who, at the best, were so little capable of rising above sense, to have asked from them, as the condition of their cure, a trust which had no external symbol to help it. The singularity of the method adopted witnesses to the graciousness of God, who gave their feebleness a thing to look at, in order to aid them in grasping the unseen power which really effected the cure. He that hath turned himself to it, says the Book of Wisdom, was not saved by the thing which he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all.
They would try all their own remedies before they turned to the Lord. I can think that none would be so busy as the charmers. Amongst them would be some who knew the secrets of the Egyptian snake-charmers. In the mixed multitude may have been the professional charmer, boasting a descent which could not fail in its authority. And they come bringing assured remedies. There is the music that can charm the serpent, and destroy the poison. There is the mystic sign set around the place that made it sacred. There are mysterious magic amulets to be worn for safety; this on the neck, and this about the wrist. There is a ceremony that shall hold the serpent spellbound and powerless. But come hither. Lift up this curtain. See here one lies on the ground. He sleeps. Nay, indeed, he will never wake again. Why, it is the charmer. Here are the spells and the charms and the mystic signs all around him. And lo! there glides the serpent; the charmer himself is dead.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
2. We can imagine that when that brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, there were some bitten by those fiery serpents who refused to look at this exalted sign of salvation, and so perished after all.
We may imagine, for instance, a wounded Israelite saying, I do not believe this hurt of mine to be deadly. If some have died of the same, yet this is no reason why all should die. Surely there are natural remedies, herbs, or salves which the desert itself will supply, by whose aid I can restore health to myself.
We can imagine another Israelite running into an opposite extreme, not slighting his hurt, but saying on the contrary, My wound is too deadly for any remedy to avail for its cure. Thousands who have been bitten have already died, their carcases strew the wilderness. I too must die. Some, indeed, may have been healed by looking at that serpent lifted up, but none who were so deeply hurt as I am, none into whose frame that poison had penetrated so far, had circulated so long; and so he may have turned away his face, and despaired, and died; and as the other perished by thinking lightly of the hurt, this will have perished by thinking lightly of the remedy, as fatal, if not as frequent, an error.
Can we not imagine one of the Israelites demanding, in a moodier and more sullen discontent, Why were these serpents sent at all? Why was I exposed to injury by them? Now, indeed, after I am hurt, a remedy is proposed; why was not the hurt itself hindered? Translate these murmurings into the language of the modern world, and you will recognize in others, perhaps at times in yourself, the same displeasure against Gods plan of salvation. Why should this redemption have been needful at all? Why was I framed so obvious to temptation, so liable to sin? I will not fall in with His plan for counterworking the evil which He has wrought. Let Him, who is its true author, answer for it. We all know more or less of this temptation, this anger, not against ourselves, but against God, that we should be the sinners which we are, this discontent with the scheme of restoration which He has provided. But what is this after all but an angry putting of that question, older than this world of ours, Why is there any evil, and whence?a mystery none have searched out or can search out here. This only is sure, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; and of the evil in the world, that it is against His will; of the evil in us, that He is on our side in all our struggles to subdue and cast it out.
ii. Believing in the Sin-bearer
1. The brazen serpent was to be looked upon. The wounded persons were to turn their eyes towards it, and so to be healed. So Christ, lifted up on the Cross, is to be believed on, to be looked upon with the eyes of our heart. The Son of man is lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Law could not save us, in that it was weak through the flesh; through the corruption of our fallen nature, for which it provided no cure. It could but point to Him who is our cure, as Moses did to the brazen serpent. It could not justify us, it could only bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Justification by faith is that which was betokened by the healing of the Israelites when they looked up to the serpent. It justifies, because it brings us to Him, with whom to be united is to be justified; that is, to be forgiven and saved from this evil world, to be clothed with heavenly righteousness.
2. Trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was told to turn to the brazen serpent. There was no connexion between his look and his healing, except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as many people often think it is, which connects inseparably together the look of faith and the eternal life that Christ gives. For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which that salvation can come into a mans heart is that he, knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life.
Looking at Jesuswhat does it mean practically? It means hearing about Him first, then actually appealing to Him, accepting His word as personal to ones self, putting Him to the test in life, trusting His death to square up ones sin score, trusting His power to clean the heart and sweeten the spirit and stiffen the will. It means holding the whole life up to His ideals. Ay, it means more yet; something on His side, an answering look from Him. There comes a consciousness within of His love and winsomeness. That answering look of His holds us for ever after His willing slaves, loves slaves. Paul speaks of the eyes of the heart. It is with these eyes we look to Him, and receive His answering look.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 16.]
Faith is the keynote of the Gospel by John. The very purpose for which this Gospel was written was that men might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through His name (Joh 20:31). This purpose is everywhere its predominant feature. From the announcement that John the Baptist was sent that all men through him might believe (Joh 1:7), to the confident assurance with which the beloved disciple makes the declaration that he knows his testimony is true (Joh 21:24), the Gospel of John is one long argument, conceived with the evident intention of inducing men to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of all who trust in Him. The word believe occurs in this Gospel no fewer than ninety-eight times, and either that or some cognate word is to be found in every chapter.2 [Note: H. Thorne.]
A woman who was always looking within herself, and could not reach assurance and peace, was told she must look out and up. Yet light did not come. One night she dreamed that she was in a pit which was deep, dark, and dirty. There was no way of escapeno door, no ladder, no steps, no rope. Looking right overhead she saw a little bit of blue sky, and in it one star. While gazing at the star she began to rise inch by inch in the pit. Then she cried out, Who is lifting me? and she looked down to see. But the moment she looked down she was back again at the bottom of the pit. Again she looked up, saw the star, and began to rise. Again she looked down to see who or what was lifting her, and again she found herself at the bottom. Resolving not to look down again, she for the third time gazed at the star. Little by little she rose; tempted to look down, she resisted the desire; higher and higher she ascended, with her eyes on the star, till at last she was out of the pit altogether. Then she awoke, and said, I see it all now. I am not to look down or within, but out and up to the Bright and Morning Star, the Lord Jesus Christ.3 [Note: J. J. Mackay.]
IV
The Good Effect
The effect is(i.) life: when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived; (ii.) eternal life: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.
i. Life
It does not seem possible that so great a thing as life should depend upon so small a thing as a look. But life often depends on a look. A traveller was once walking over a mountain-road; it grew quite dark, and he lost his way. Then a thunderstorm came on, and he made all the haste he could to try to find some shelter. A flash of lightning showed just for a moment where he was going. He was on the very edge of a precipice. The one look that the lightning enabled him to take saved his life. A few weeks ago I was in a train after it was dark. The signal was put all right, and the train started. We had gone a few hundred yards, when I heard the whistle sound very sharply, and soon the train stopped. Some one had shown the engine-driver a red light, and warned him of danger. It turned out that one of the chains by which the carriages were coupled together had broken. If the man who saw the broken chain had not looked, and if the engine-driver had not looked and so seen the red light, most likely many lives would have been lost. Here, again, life depended upon a look.
The wounded Israelite was in one sense dead already, his life was forfeit as soon as he was bitten; it follows that the new life infused by a look at the brazen serpent was miraculous in its character. What have we here but a striking figure of death and resurrection? Not by any natural process of improvement or gradual restoration was the death-stricken Israelite rescued from his fate, but by the direct and supernatural intervention of Him who was even then, as He is still, the resurrection and the life, in whom whosoever believes lives though he were dead.1 [Note: W. H. M. H. Aitken.]
ii. Eternal Life
1. Our Lord said, Ye must be born again, and Nicodemus answered, How can a man be born again when he is old? Our Lord replied by telling him something more. A man needs to be born not only outwardly of water, but inwardly of the Spirit, and when he is so born he will be as free as the windfrom legal bondagefrom the tyranny of sin. And to this Nicodemus replied by asking yet more impatiently, How can these things be? The answer that he receives is given through the speaking figure of death and resurrection, and if we desire a striking commentary on the figure, and a definite statement of the truth, we have only to turn to St. Pauls Epistles. You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. Surely nothing can be more striking than the parallelism between the words of this passage and the symbolism of the scene that we are contemplating.
Eternal life is the blessing of the Kingdom of God viewed as a personal possession. The description is peculiar to Johns Gospel, but it agrees with the life which is spoken of with such emphasis in the other Gospels. According to them, to enter into the Kingdom is to enter into life (Mat 18:3; Mat 18:8-9). It is not so much duration that is expressed by the word eternal as the peculiar quality of the life that arises out of the new relations with God which are brought about by Jesus Christ. It is deathless life, although the believer has still to die, and go unterrified into the gulf of Death. It may be described as a life which seeks to obey an eternal rule, the will of God; which is inspired by an eternal motive, the love of God; which lives for and is lightened by an eternal glory, the glory of God; and abides in an eternal blessedness, communion with God. It is both present and future. Here and now for the believer there are a new heaven and a new earth, and the glory of God doth lighten them, and the Lamb is the light thereof. No change which time or death can bring has power to affect the essential character of his life, though its glory as terrestrial is one, and its glory as celestial is another. Wherever after death the man may be who has believed in Jesus, the life that he lives will be the same in its inner spirit and relation. To him all one, if on the earth or in the sun, Gods will must be his law, Gods glory his light, Gods presence his blessedness, Gods love his inspiration and joy.1 [Note: John Reid.]
I distinguish between Life, which is our Being in God, and Eternal Life, which is the Light of the Life, that is, fellowship with the Author, Substance, and Former of our Being, the Alpha and Omega. It is the heart that needs re-creation; it is the heart that is desperately wicked, not the Being of man. I think a distinction is carefully maintained in Holy Scripture between the life in the heart and the Life of the Being: Lighten thou my eyes that I sleep not in death. It is the Light of Life we want, to purify or re-create or regenerate our hearts so that we may be the Children of Light.2 [Note: R. W. Corbet, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Day, 63.]
2. In the Revised Version there is a little change made here, partly by the exclusion of a clause and partly by changing the order of the words. The alteration is not only nearer the original text, but brings out a striking thought. It reads that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. May in him have eternal lifeunion with Christ by faith, that profound incorporation into Him, which the New Testament sets forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal life.
A soldier lay dying on the battlefield; the chaplain speaking to him read St. John 3. When he came to Num 21:14-15, he was asked to read them again; when they were read, the soldier, having repeated them, added, That is enough for me; that is all I want.3 [Note: L. N. Caley.]
There is a most impressive little story which tells how Sternberg, the great German artist, was led to paint his Messiah, which is his masterpiece. One day the artist met a little gypsy girl on the street, and was so struck by her peculiar beauty that he requested her to accompany him to his studio in order that he might paint her. This she consented to do, and while sitting for the great artist she noticed a half-finished painting of Christ on the cross. The gypsy girl, who was ignorant and uneducated, asked Sternberg what it was, and wondered if Christ must not have been an awfully bad man to be nailed to a cross. Sternberg replied that Christ was the best man that ever lived, and that He died on the cross that others might live. Did He die for you? asked the gypsy. This question so preyed upon the mind of Sternberg, who was not a Christian, that he was greatly disturbed by it. The more he pondered it, the more impressed he became that, though Christ had died for him, he had not accepted the sacrifice. It was this that led him at last to paint the Messiah, which became famous throughout the world. It is said that John Wesley got one of his greatest inspirations from this picture.
Literature
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Gods Everlasting Yea, 117.
Banks (L. A.), On the Trail of Moses, 201.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year, Holy Week, 114, 480.
Mackay (J. J.), Recent Letters of Christ, 156.
Maclaren (A.), Christs Musts, 1.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 362; St. John i.viii., 162, 171.
Macpherson (W. M.), The Path of Life, 105.
Parker (J.), The City Temple Pulpit, iv. 12.
Pearse (M. G.), Moses, 253.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, ix. 169.
Reid (J.), Jesus and Nicodemus, 185.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxv. No. 1500.
Talbot (E. S.), Sermons in Leeds Parish Church. 147.
Thorne (H.), Foreshadowings of the Gospel, 57.
Thorne (H.), Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 25.
Trench (R. C), Sermons in Ireland, 228.
Christian World Pulpit, xx. 237 (Walters).
Churchmans Pulpit (Second Sunday after Easter), viii. 15 (Caley).
Preachers Magazine, iv. (1893) 469.
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
as: Num 21:7-9, 2Ki 18:4
even: Joh 8:28, Joh 12:32-34, Psa 22:16, Mat 26:54, Luk 18:31-33, Luk 24:20, Luk 24:26, Luk 24:27, Luk 24:44-46, Act 2:23, Act 4:27, Act 4:28
Reciprocal: Num 21:9 – A serpent of Isa 11:10 – which shall Zec 13:7 – smite Mat 16:13 – I the Mar 9:31 – The Son Luk 6:19 – sought Luk 23:33 – they crucified Joh 1:51 – the Son Joh 4:42 – and know Joh 12:34 – who Joh 16:10 – because Joh 18:32 – the saying Act 10:43 – whosoever Act 26:22 – the prophets Act 28:5 – felt Rom 3:21 – being Rom 3:28 – General Rom 4:24 – if we Rom 6:23 – but the Rom 8:3 – God Eph 2:4 – his Eph 2:8 – through
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE GIFT OF THE CROSS
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Joh 3:14
The only remedy for the serpent-bitten Israelites was the serpent of brass; the only remedy now is Christ lifted up on the Cross (1Pe 2:24). The Son of Man must be lifted up. Think of the Cross.
I. It is a great gift.No one was worthy to die for our sins but the only begotten and well-beloved Son of God. The greatness of it is measured by the greatness of our sin. For Thy names sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great (Psa 25:11).
II. It is invaluable.The rugged Tree of the Cross sweetens the bitter waters of our life. What should we do without our dear Lord in life and death? He knows all our sorrows, and disappointments, and bitterness; and He cares for us.
III. It is free.Whosoever believeth. Christ is offered as a Saviour from sin to all. What are we going to do with Jesus? Accept Him, or reject Him? Take the gift with a humble, rejoicing heart. My Lord and my God. My Jesus. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4
The account of the serpent is in Num 21:9. There were no curative qualities in the brasen serpent, but those who looked upon it were cured by the Lord as a reward for their faith. The serpent was placed on a pole so all could see it.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
[And as Moses lifted up the serpent, etc.] the Jews dote horribly about this noble mystery. There are those in Bemidbar Rabba; that think that the brazen serpent was not affixed to a pole, but thrown up into the air by Moses, and there to have settled without any other support.
“Moses put up the serpent for a sign; as he that chastiseth his son sticks up the rod in some eminent place, where the child may see it, and remember.”
Thou shalt remove the mischief by that which did the mischief; and thou shalt heal the disease by that which made thee sick. The same hath R. Bechai; and both confess that it was a miracle within a miracle. But it is not for a Jew to understand the mystery; this is the Christian’s attainment only.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 3:14-15. And as Moses lifted on high the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted on high, that every one that believeth may in him have eternal life. These verses continue the revelation of the heavenly things. The first truth is, that He who was in heaven came down to earth to be the Son of man. The next is, that the Son of man must be exalted, but in no such manner as the eager hopes of Nicodemus imagined. The secret counsel of heaven was, that He who was with God should as Son of man be lifted on high, as the serpent was lifted on high by Moses in the wilderness. Thus, indeed, it must be, that He may become the Giver of eternal life.The word rendered lifted on high occurs fifteen times in other parts of the New Testament, sometimes in such proverbial sayings as Mat 23:12, sometimes in reference to the exaltation of our Lord (Act 2:33; Act 5:31). In this Gospel we find it in three verses besides the present. The general usage of the word in the New Testament and the Old is sufficient to show that it cannot here signify merely raising or lifting up. And yet Johns own explanation forbids us to exclude this thought. All the passages in his Gospel which connect the word with the Son of man must clearly be taken together; and chap. Joh 12:33 (see note there) declares that the word contains a reference to the mode of the Saviours deaththe elevation on the cross. Nicodemus looked for the exaltation of the King in the coming kingdom of God. Exalted He shall be, not like me monarch sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, amid pomp and splendour, but receiving His true power and glory at the time when He hangs upon a tree an object of shame. The brazen serpent, made in the likeness of the destroyer, placed on a standard and held up to the gaze of all, might seem fitted only to call forth execration from those who were reminded of their peril, scorn and contempt from those who saw but a powerless symbol; but the dying Israelite looked thereon and lived. The looking was a type of faithnay, it was itself an act of faith in the promise of God. The serpent was raised on high that all might look on it; the exaltation of the Son of man, which begins with the shame of the cross, has for its object the giving of life to all (compare chap. Joh 12:32, and also Heb 2:9).
That every one that believeth. At first our Lord closely follows the words spoken in Joh 3:12. As there we read, Ye believe not, so here, He that believeth as yet no qualifying word is added to deepen the significance of the belief. What is before us is the general thought of receiving the word of Jesus. In that all is in truth included; for he that truly receives His word finds that its first and chief requirement is faith in Jesus Himself. So here, the trust is first general, but the thought of fellowship and union, so characteristic of this Gospel, comes in immediately, that every one that believeth may in Him have eternal life. These verses which reveal the heavenly truths contain the very first mention of eternal life, the blessing of which John, echoing his Masters words, is ever speaking. Eternal life is a present possession for the believer (comp. Joh 3:36); its essence is union with God in Christ. See especially chap. Joh 17:3; 1Jn 1:2; 1Jn 5:11.
The result of the interview with Nicodemus is not recorded, but the subsequent mention of him in the Gospel can leave no doubt upon our mind that, whether at this moment or not, he eventually embraced the truth. It would seem that, as the humiliation of Jesus deepened, he yielded the more to that truth against which at the beginning of this conversation he would most have rebelled. It is the persecution of Jesus that draws him forward in His defence (Joh 7:51); it is when Jesus has been lifted up on the cross that he comes to pay Him honour (Joh 19:39). He is thus a trophy, not of the power of signs alone, but of the power of the heavenly things taught by Jesus.
At this point an important question arises. Are the next five verses a continuation of the preceding discourse? Are they words of Jesus or a reflection by the Evangelist himself upon his Masters words? Most commentators have taken the former view. The latter was first suggested by Erasmus, and has found favour with many thoughtful writers on this Gospel. And with reason. The first suggestion of a sudden break in the discourse may be startling, but a close examination of the verses will show that they present distinct traces of belonging to John:(1) Their general style and character remind us of the Prologue. (2) The past tenses loved and were in Joh 3:19 at once recall chap. Joh 1:10-11; and are generally more in harmony with the tone of the Evangelists later reflections than with that of the Redeemers discourse. (3) In Joh 3:11 Jesus says, ye receive not our testimony: in Joh 3:19 the impression produced is not that of a present refusal, but rather of a past and continued rejection. (4) In no other place is the appellation only begotten used by Jesus Himself in regard to the Son, though it is used by the Evangelist in chap. Joh 1:14, Joh 1:18, and 1Jn 4:9. It cannot be fairly said that there is anything really strange in the introduction of these reflections. It is altogether in the manner of this writer to comment on what he has related (see especially Joh 12:37-41); and in at least one instance he passes suddenly, without any mark of transition, from the words of another to his own,for very few will Suppose chap. Joh 1:16 to be a continuation of the Baptists testimony (Joh 3:15). The view now advocated will receive strong confirmation if we convince the reader that there is a similar break after Joh 3:30 in this chapter, the last six verses belonging to the author of the Gospel and not to the Baptist.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Christ having instructed Nicodemus in the doctrine of regeneration in the former verses, here he instructs him in the death of the Messiah, and in the necessity of faith in his death. The Son of man must be lifted up; that is, upon the cross, and die; that whosover believeth in him should not perish.
Observe here, 1. An Old Testament type which our Saviour refers to, and that is, the brazen serpent in the wilderness, the history of which is recorded, Num 21:8-9.
Observe, 2. The antitype, or the substance of what that type did shadow forth: the brazen serpent’s lifting up upon the pole, prefiguring Christ’s exaltation or lifting up upon the cross. So must the Son of man be lifted up.
Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ is of the same use and office to a sin-stung soul, which the brazen serpent was of old to a serpent-stung Israelite.
Here observe, 1. Wherein the brazen serpent and Christ do agree.
And, 2. Wherein they differ. They agree thus: In the occasion of their institution; they were both apppointed for cure and healing.
Were they serpent-stung? we are sin-stung; devil–bitten. Was the sting of the fiery serpent inflaming? Was it spreading? Was it killing?
So is sin, which is the venom and poison of the old serpent. They agree in this; that they both must be lifted up before cure could be obtained; the brazen serpent upon the pole, Christ upon the cross.
They both must be looked unto before cure could be obtained; the looking up of the Israelites was as necessary unto healing, as the lifting up of the serpent.
Faith is as necessary to salvation as the death of Christ. The one renders God reconcilable unto sinners, the other renders him actually reconciled.
Again, did the brazen serpent heal all that looked upon it, and looked up unto it, though all had not eyes alike, some with a weak, others with a stronger eye? In like manner doth Christ justify and save all, that with a sincere faith, though weak, do rely upon him for salvation; Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish.
Further, the brazen serpemt was effectual for Israel’s cure after many stingings; If after they were healed they were stung afresh, and did look up to it, they were healed by it. Thus the merit of Christ’s death is not only effectual for our cure and healing at our first conversion, but after involuntary relapses and backslidings, if by faith we have recourse to the blood of Christ, we shall find it efficacious for our further benefit and future healing.
In a word, as the brazen serpent was effectual for Israel’s cure after many stingings; If after they were healed they were stung afresh, and did look up to it, they were healed by it. Thus the merit of Christ’s death is not only effectual for our cure and healing at our first conversion, but after involuntary relapses and backslidings, if by faith we have recourse to the blood of Christ, we shall find it efficacious for our further benefit and future healing.
In a word, as the brazen serpent had the likeness of a serpent, the form, the figure, the name, the colour of the serpent, but nothing of the venom and poison of the serpent in it; so Christ did take upon him our nature; but sin, the venom and poison of our nature, he had nothing to do with: though Christ loved souls with an invincible and insuperable love, yet he would not sin to save a soul. This was the similtude and resemblance between Christ and the brazen serpent.
The disparity or dissimiltude follows: The brazens serpent had no power in itself, or of itself, to heal and cure: but Christ has a power inherent in himself, for the curing and healing of all that do believe in him.
Again, The brazen serpent cured only one particular nation and people, Jews only; Christ is for the healing of all nations, and his salvation is to the end of the earth.
Farther, The brazen serpent cured only one particular disease; namely, the stinging of the fiery serpents; had a person been sick of the plague, or leprosy, he might have died for all the brazen serpent: but Christ pardons all the iniquities, and heals all the diseases, of his people, Psa 103:3
Yet again, Though the brazen serpent healed all that looked up unto it, yet it gave an eye to none to look up unto it; whereas Christ doth not only heal them that look up to him, but bestows the eye of faith upon them, to enable them to look unto him that they may be saved.
In a word, the brazen serpent did not always retain its healing virtue, but in time lost it and was itself destroyed, 2Ki 18:4 But now the healing virtue and efficacy of Christ’s blood is eternal.
All believers have and shall experience the healing power of our Redeemer’s death to the end of the world.
Lastly, The Israelites that were cured by looking up to the brazen serpent, died afterwards; some distemper or other soon carried them to their graves; but the soul of the believer that is healed by Christ shall never die more: Whosoever believeth in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 3:14-15. As Moses lifted up the serpent As if he had said, And even this single witness, bearing testimony of heavenly things, will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious manner. Or, as Dr. Doddridge connects the words with what precedes, And now I mention the Son of man, let me rectify that grand mistake of yours concerning his kingdom, which otherwise may be attended with fatal consequences. You expect to see him raised on a magnificent throne; and not only breaking off the yoke from the Jewish nation, but leading them on to conquer and destroy the Gentiles; but I must assure you that, as Moses lifted up, [Greek, , raised on high, namely, on a pole,] the serpent in the wilderness To heal those that were dying by the venom of the fiery serpents there; even so must the Son of man be lifted up On a cross, (see the margin,) and then publicly exhibited in the preaching of the gospel, that sinners may by him receive a far more noble and important cure; even that whosoever believeth in him should not perish As all in their natural state otherwise would; but may obtain so perfect a recovery as certainly to have eternal life For all those who look to him, and rely on him by faith, recover spiritual life and health. The reader will observe, 1st, That the grand point of similitude here is, in the manner of performing the cure, that is, by believing regards to what was lifted up, or raised on high, for that purpose, by a divine appointment. 2d, That the passage strongly implies, that as the wounded Israelites would have died if they had not looked to the brazen serpent for a cure, so will men, wounded by sin, original and actual, assuredly perish, and that eternally, if they do not look to, and believe on Christ, delivered unto death for their offences, and raised from the dead for their justification; which great truth is still more strongly expressed, Joh 3:18. 3d, That our Lord, by telling Nicodemus, that the death of the Messiah was prefigured by types in the law, showed him, that it was agreeable both to the doctrine of Moses, and to the counsels of heaven, that the Messiah should be in a suffering state; and consequently he intimated that the meanness of his present appearance on earth was no reason why any should doubt of his having been, and still being in heaven.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 14, 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, 15, that whosoever believeth on him, may have eternal life.
The commentators give more or less forced explanations of (and). Lucke : I can reveal (Joh 3:11-13), and I must do so (Joh 3:14-16). Olshausen: I give not only my word, but my person. De Wette: Jesus passes from the theoretical to the practical. Meyer and Luthardt: He has spoken of the necessity of faith; He speaks now of its sweetness. Weiss: There is here a new motive to believe. The elevation of Jesus will give salvation only by means of faith. All this is too artificial. From our point of view, the connection is more simple: the and, and also, adds a second divine mystery to the first, the decree ofredemption to that of revelation.
The central idea of this verse is that of the lifting up of the Messiah. Three principal explanations have been given of the word (to be lifted up). It has been applied either to the spiritual glory which the moral perfection which He will display in His sufferings will procure for Jesus in the hearts of men (Paulus), or to His elevation to heavenly glory which will take place as following upon His death (Bleek), or finally, to the very fact of His suspension on the cross; this last interpretation is the one most generally received. And indeed, in the one or the other of the first meanings, Jesus would rather have used the term (to be glorified). For the third, the following points decide the case: 1. The comparison with the serpent raised to the top of the pole, which certainly had nothing glorious in it; 2. The naturally material sense of the word (to be lifted up); finally, 3. The relation of this word to the corresponding Aramaic term zekaph, which is applied to the suspension of malefactors. Only we must take account of the allusion which Jesus, in using this term (being lifted up), certainly made to the ideas of Nicodemus, according to which the Messiah was to ascend the throne of Solomon and rule the world. And the voluntary and ironical amphibology of this expression will be understood as in connection with the Messianic expectation of the Pharisees. To perceive this shade, we must strongly emphasize the : (it is thus)and not as you picture it to yourselvesthat the lifting up of the Son of man will take place.
This word (will be lifted up), intimates indeed that by this strange elevation the Son of man will attain not only to the throne of David, but to that of God. Such is the full meaning of the word: to be lifted up. We must not, as Meyer does, refuse to follow the thought of Jesus in this rapid evolution, which instantaneously brings together the greatest contrasts, if we would understand all the depth and all the richness of His words. We find here again the same enigmatical character as in Joh 2:19. The fact related in Num 21:9, is one of the most astonishing in sacred history. Three peculiarities distinguish this mode of deliverance from all the other analogous miracles: 1. It is the plague itself, which, represented as overcome, becomes, by its ignominious exposure, the means of its own defeat; 2. This exposure takes place, not in a realserpent the suspension in that case would have proclaimed only the defeat of the individual exposedbut in a typical copy, which represents the entire species;
3. This expedient becomes efficacious through the intervention of a moral act, the look of faith on the part of each injured person. If this is the type of salvation, it follows from this fact that this salvation will be wrought in the following way: 1. Sin will be exposed publicly as vanquished, and for the future powerless; 2. It will not be in the person of a real sinnerwhich would proclaim only the particular defeat of that sinnerbut in the person of a holy man, capable of representing, as a living image, the condemnation and defeat of sin, as such; 3. This exhibition of sin as one who is vanquished, will save each sinner only by means of an act on his part, the look of faith upon his spiritual enemy condemned and vanquished. Here, Jesus declares, is the salvation on which the establishment of the Kingdom will be founded; here is the second heavenly decree revealed to men. What a reversal of the Messianic programme of Nicodemus! But, at the same time, what appropriateness in the choice of this Scriptural type, designed to rectify the ideas of the old doctor in Israel!
Must, says Jesus; and first, for the fulfillment of the prophecies; then, for that of the divine decree, of which the prophecies were only an emanation (Hengstenberg); let us add, finally; and for the satisfaction of certain moral necessities, known to God only. The designation, Son of man, is here, as at Joh 3:13, chosen with a marked design. It is on the complete homogeneousness of His nature with ours, that the mysterious substitution rests, which is proclaimed in this verse, precisely as it was on this same community of nature that the act of revelation rested, which was announced in the preceding verse.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 14
Be lifted up. It is uncertain whether the meaning is exalted in honor, as expressed Matthew 28:18 or whether the reference is to his being raised upon the cross in ignominy, as in John 12:32-34.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
In another sense Jesus would rise up to heaven. The Ascension is not in view here. Jesus’ enemies lifting Him up toward heaven as Moses lifted the serpent on the pole toward heaven is in view (cf. Num 21:4-9). In the wilderness God promised the Israelites that whoever looked on the bronze serpent would receive physical life and not die.
This is Jesus’ earliest recorded prediction of His death. It is an allusion to death by crucifixion (cf. Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32; Joh 12:34). Wherever the Greek word hypsoo ("lifted up") occurs in John’s Gospel, and it only occurs in these four verses, it combines the ideas of crucifixion and exaltation (cf. Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12). [Note: Carson, p. 201.] The Synoptic evangelists viewed Jesus’ exaltation as separate from His crucifixion, but John thought of the crucifixion as the beginning of His exaltation.
God had graciously provided continuing physical life to the persistently sinning Israelites. It should not, therefore, have been hard for Nicodemus to believe that He would graciously provide new spiritual life for sinful humanity.
Joh 3:13 pictures Jesus as the revealer of God who came down from heaven. Joh 3:14 pictures Him as the suffering exalted Savior. It was in His suffering that Jesus revealed God most clearly. These themes cluster around the title "Son of Man" in the fourth Gospel.