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 should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:14-15
In verse 13, Jesus makes it clear that no one has ascended into heaven except the One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man. He was declaring that no human being has gone up into heaven by his own strength. No flesh has made its way into the presence of God by its own authority and power. Salvation was never within our reach. We could not rescue ourselves from the wrath that is to come. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Our eyes were blinded, our hearts unaware of the judgment that stood before us. We did not know the way into His Kingdom, and even if we had known it, we had no power to enter into it. Salvation does not rise from the earth. It descends from above. It does not begin with man seeking God but with God sending the LORD Jesus, His Son. What we could never ascend to, God in mercy brought down to us.
We know that God gave dominion over the earth to us, to mankind (Genesis 1:26). From the beginning, we were meant to rule here under God, walking in obedience and fellowship with Him. Yet through Adam’s disobedience, when he yielded to the serpent, he lost that rule on the earth. Instead of ruling, we ourselves came under bondage. Scripture calls satan the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), because Adam handed over what he had been entrusted with. Sin brought slavery from him to all of us, and sin is indeed like poison. It spreads from one life to another (Romans 5:12). It corrupts what was once pure. And in the end, it leads to death (James 1:15).
Was it not when the Israelites rebelled against the LORD that He sent fiery serpents among them, and many were bitten and died? Yet when they repented and cried out to the LORD, He did not cast them away. In mercy, He made a way for them. He told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked upon the bronze serpent, he lived. Think about this for a moment. The people were already bitten. The poison was already working in their blood. They could not draw it out. They could not heal themselves. They could not work their way back to life. As it stood, they were dying, just as the others who had fallen. Their only hope was the provision of God. And the one who looked upon the bronze serpent, though dying, will live (Numbers 21:4-9).
We must always consider the context. The LORD Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, a Jew, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and a man well versed in the Scriptures. He knew the Law. He knew the history of Israel. He was familiar with the story of the fiery serpents in the wilderness. So when the LORD Jesus says, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” He was using something Nicodemus already understood to reveal a deeper truth about salvation. The LORD often uses what we know in order to lead us into what we do not yet understand.
The LORD Jesus brings up the Israelites’ rebellion that brought death to many. It was impossible to remove the poison of the serpent that had entered their bodies by their own strength. In the same way, our rebellion against God has brought sin into us. Sin is like poison working within us. It is spreading contagiously, and it eventually leads us to die. Their situation was hopeless, and so is ours. We cannot draw the sin out of us. We cannot cleanse ourselves from our sins. We are all left waiting to perish. Yet, just as the Israelites repented and cried out for mercy, so must we all do. For we are dying, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. This is what Jesus was showing Nicodemus and what He shows us as well. It is impossible for us to save ourselves from the condition we are in.
Did you know that when a sheep or lamb is exposed to venom, its body can produce antibodies that bind to the poison and stop it from continuing its destructive work, allowing healing to begin? Then Jesus was declared as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Isn’t that powerful? How God intentionally used the lamb to reveal the purpose of the LORD Jesus for us all. The LORD Jesus has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Through His blood we receive the forgiveness of sins, and He has washed us from all sin and set us free from the power of sins.
Just as the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent on the pole to be saved from the hopeless state they were in, so must we do the same with Jesus. We must look up to Him. This is very interesting, because the Scriptures give us piece by piece how the Messiah would die. Here, Jesus says that He will be lifted up on the cross. The LORD Jesus was already telling Nicodemus in what way He would die. And we know that when Jesus was lifted up on the cross, many of the Pharisees mocked Him, saying,
“Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”” Matthew 27:41-43
Because of their unbelief, they did not believe in Jesus, and their sins remained in them (John 8:24). God had already forewarned Nicodemus that when that moment came and the LORD Jesus died on the cross, he was not to respond with unbelief like the others. He was not to look with contempt but with faith.
For the LORD Jesus knew his heart. He truly desired to enter the kingdom of God, for he came humbly, seeking understanding. Yet like all of us, he was in the same hopeless state, with the poison within his system that had corrupted him. How could he easily believe something so new, so strange, and so unfamiliar? This is the challenge for him and for all of us. As it is written, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;” (Proverbs 3:5). Trusting God takes courage, because it is not easy to trust what feels unknown, unfamiliar, or beyond our reasoning.
How could it make sense that all the Israelites needed to do was look up at the bronze serpent to be saved from the fiery serpents and their poison? It seemed too simple. We are accustomed to thinking that if we want something, we must work for it, earn it, and prove ourselves worthy to receive it. Yet salvation is different. It is simple, yet deeply challenging. It is challenging because our hearts have been corrupted by sin. Sin has separated us from God for so long that His presence and His ways can feel unfamiliar and even strange to us. That is depressing. How can we love the very sins that separate us from God, who loved us so much that He died for us? How can we cling to what destroys us and turn away from Jesus, who gave Himself in our place?
This is what Jesus meant when He said that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15). The LORD Jesus desires first of all of us to believe in Him and trust Him. Why? Because it is impossible for us to understand Him on our own, because we are dead in spirit. Only He can make us alive. And the first response of that new life is to believe in Him. It is not about earning. It is about trusting. It is about looking up in faith and receiving the life He freely gives. Then, after He makes us alive with Him, we begin to understand little by little.
I know it may sound foolish to unbelievers to simply believe. Doesn’t the scripture say, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; …” (1 Corinthians 1:18)? But I say, put your faith in Jesus. Just as the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent without mockery but with hope, believing that through God’s provision they would live, so must we. Just as Nicodemus looked upon Jesus lifted up on the cross with faith, not with mockery like the rest of the Pharisees, he was saved from the hopeless state he was in.
So must we all do the same!
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