CTG 0044

Continued from previous blog post (CTG 0043) 

The well-known statement in John 3:16 is illustrated with the help of an Old Testament historical event. 

The Israelites were being led by Moses during their wilderness wanderings. God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and he would have brought them into Canaan much earlier, if it was not for their disobedience and their failure to believe God's promises. 

Nevertheless, he still cared for them and provided for their needs. But in this incident, yet again, they typically complained and spoke against God and against Moses. Their state of mind caused them to be ungrateful for the manna that God provided for them daily. Apparently they forgot that they were in this protracted situation as a result of their rebellion against God.

They said: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food (Numbers 21:5 ESV)."  

We then read the following details in the Bible (Numbers 21:6-9 NET): So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD that he would take away the snakes from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. 

Turning our attention now to the gospel record written by John, contained in the New Testament, we read about a man named Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, who was a ruler and teacher among the Jewish people. 

When Jesus was in Jerusalem this man came to talk with him, under the cover of night. Nicodemus was impressed by Jesus' teaching and by the miracles that he did and he said to him: "... no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2 ESV)."

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3 ESV)." 

It wasn't sufficient for Nicodemus to come to the conclusion that Jesus was sent by God in a general sense, comparable to other Hebrew prophets. Nor was it sufficient for him to believe that the miracles Jesus did were genuine.   

Although Nicodemus was struggling to understand his words, Jesus was teaching him that what he, his colleagues and the people needed was in fact a new life. New life that could only be produced in them by God's Holy Spirit. 

Jesus then made a statement that describes what had to happen, so that the Holy Spirit would be able to apply new life to individuals: "... as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man (Jesus' description of himself) be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15 ESV)." 

The historical event, that took place in the wilderness many centuries before, provides an illustration of what Jesus Christ accomplished when he was lifted up on the cross, dying for the sins, not only of the Jewish people, but of the world. Through his death and resurrection God's Son secured a far greater deliverance, for all who repent of their rebellion and put their trust in him, granting them the gift of eternal life. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 ESV). 

Tragically the people of Israel turned that which Moses had made into an idolatrous object until it was removed by Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:2-5). 

No image of a cross, or anything or anyone else, has the power to save anybody. It is the actual death and resurrection of God's Son that saves. Jesus is our Saviour. Our faith is in him! 

FOR FURTHER READING 

Numbers 21:4-9 

John 3:1-36 

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5; 10:1-11:1 

1 John 5:10-21