THE KING’S BUSINESS
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sin is death (1 Cor. 15:56) and Christ was made sin for us on the cross.(2 Cor. 5:21). (5) The Israelites were perishing from the sting of the serpents, and mankind is per ishing from sin. (6) The brazen serpent on the pole cured all those who looked upon him in a way unknown to reason, arid so does Christ. (7) The bite of the ser pent was incurable by human instrumental ity. (8) The cure came by simply looking at the serpent, and salvation comes by sim ply looking at Christ with a look of faith. (9) Only those who are stung will look. (10) One could not look for another; each must look for himself. (11) As the Israelite looked new life coursed through his veins and the poison of the serpent was driven out: As the dying sinner looks to Christ, new life streams into his being from the crucified Saviour to Whom he is looking. Here we find our Lord’s answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” (12) God’s way of cure in the wilderness may have appeared unreasonable to many and they therefore rejected it, if they did they per ished; so the cross of Christ to some is a stumbling block and to others foolish ness (1 Cor. 1:23) and they therefore rejected it and they must therefore perish. (13) Though the brazen serpent was lifted up for all, only those who looked were healed, so Christ is lifted up for all, “He has tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2 :9) but only those who look are saved. v. 16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son: ( , ) that whosoever believeth in (on) Him should not perish, but have everlasting (eternal) life." This verse has 1probably been used to the salvation of more persons than any other verse in the Gospel. It contains the Gospel in a nutshell. (1) The need of salvation—“shall not perish.” (2) The origin of salvation—God’s love. (3) The ground of salvation—the death of Christ (God gave His only begotten Son). (4) The condition of salvation—“believing on Him.” (5) The recipients of salvation— “whosoever believeth.” (6) The results
must the Son of man he lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,r hut have everlasting life (that who soever believeth, may in Him have eternal life)." Here we apparently have some of the heavenly things to which our Lord had referred in verse 12, for the “And” with which verse 14 begins connects it in the closest way with what has gone before. Our Lord here finds a point of contact between His teaching and that of the Old Testament with which Nicodemus was familiar, and which he accepted. He gives an interpretation of this incident in Jewish history which was doubtless new to Nico demus, but which was unquestionably the original intention of the incident. The serpent on the pole was intended by God Himself to be a type of the Messiah(on the cross. In the wilderness the serpent had beep “lifted up” and made to all the stricken people so conspicuous an object that all could see it, and looking upon it could find life, so too Jesus declares that He, the Son of man, the Christ, shall be lifted up in order that all who looked to Him might find life. The word “musf’ should be carefully noted: the crucifixion of Christ was an absolute necessity. It was not a mere incident of His incarnation, it was the purpose of His incarnation (cf. Gal. 3:10, 13; 2 Cor. 5:21). There could be no eternal life for us without the death of Christ on the cross. The serpent on the pole was a remarkable and wonderfully significant type of our Lord Jesus on the cross. There are at least twenty-two points at which the serpent was a type of. Christ. It is impossible to give them all here. The more vital points are: (1) The serpent which Moses made was of brass and formed in the likeness of the real serpent that bit the people, and in like manner our Lord Jesus, when nailed on the cross, was made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3). (2) Lifted up where all could see (John 12:32). (3) The serpent was cursed in paradise, and Christ was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). (4) The sting of the fiery serpent was death, and the sting of
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