look and are living: Christ as the genuine Bronze Serpent

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In John three:9–15, Nicodemus, a "grasp of Israel," receives a treatment for his afflicted soul from the master health practitioner. The Son of God gives this evening-disciple an eye fixed to behold the Messiah lifted up on the cross of suffering and demise. To try this, Jesus brings in vital imagery of the bronze serpent from Numbers 21:7–9 to reframe Nicodemus's potential of the Torah. In so doing, he makes us elevate up our heads as smartly.

Jesus items himself because the authentic Bronze Serpent who should be lifted up and regarded on for us to truly are living. What exactly did Nicodemus study in these moments? And what can we be trained from this intimate stumble upon with the Lord of existence?

Beholding the Bronze Serpent

As we verify John three:14–15, we ought to ask why Christ mentioned Moses. Why the allusion to Numbers 21:7–9? For Nicodemus, as for us, the legislations is given to convict him and power him to the gospel. right here, for the primary time in his lifestyles, the legislations of Moses is boarded shut as a probable approach of salvation. in its place, Nicodemus discovers that he must obtain grace to behold the bronze serpent lifted up. For the first time, Nicodemus loses "Martha's busyness" and finds "Mary's component"—to sit down on the ft of Jesus—to be able to seem to be and to reside.

Jesus gifts himself because the genuine Bronze Serpent who must be lifted up and looked on for us to basically live.

seeing that we later see Nicodemus caring for Christ's deceased body as a disciple who had come into the easy (John 19:39), his stumble upon with Jesus in John three have to've been a saving encounter. Nicodemus beheld the offered remedy and by religion this historic student arose satisfied, happy, and content, with the peace that surpasses all understanding filling his soul.

Verse 15 says it evidently: the way is open for "whoever believes." yes, even for the chiefest sinner. All will also be healed and given an eye fixed to behold him. "Whoever" ability there's room for the heavy-weighted down, too. No rely who you are—a boy or a girl, a teen, a mum or dad, a senior—no heart is too hard for him to attain. None has sinned too a whole lot. In Christ, the gospel all the time announces: "Whoever you are, there's still room for you!"

the way to seem Believingly

What concerning the next notice—"whoever believes"? "consider" here ability to appear, believe, lean on, and quit. right here our Lord equates believing and beholding. There are different levels of beholding for the Christian. nevertheless, all little ones of God have three issues in usual when they behold the Bronze Serpent.

No heart is too tough for him to reach. None has sinned too a great deal

First, all infants of God see the equal Christ by religion. the object of faith is never distinctive. a man in penitentiary will see the equal sun via his phone window as a person standing in an open box. One is free and one is bound, but it's the same solar. So some trembling believers may additionally suppose like they behold Christ from afar, as it had been, while in prison in semi-darkness. They battle unbelief, seeing only glimpses via their personal detention center bars. Yet their expectation lies in the same saving vision of Christ.

2d, there's always existence in a sight of Christ, simply as people that seemed to the bronze serpent have been saved from death. Verse 15 says that folks that seem to Christ "will now not perish." with the aid of nature we're area to perishing. We hasten to everlasting destruction. but now not so if we get a sight of Christ via religion. Then, not only do we now not perish, however we get "everlasting lifestyles"—that's, existence in Christ. As one hymn creator puts it,

He forgives all thy transgressionsHeals thy sicknesses and pains,He redeems thee from destruction,And his love thy existence sustains.

Third, religion as searching highlights the proven fact that it's Jesus who saves us through faith (Eph. 2:eight), in preference to religion saving us as a meritorious trigger. therefore the Bible and our forefathers often in comparison faith to a hand that receives Christ, to an arm that leans on Christ, to a foot that walks to him, to a mouth that feasts on him. We're referred to as not to religion in our religion however to faith in Christ.

Why We Refuse to seem to Christ

What about you? have you ever ever looked to Jesus? It's so standard, and yet via nature we refuse this sight. Why?

We're called no longer to religion in our faith however to faith in Christ.

First, the bitterness of sin isn't yet real to you. You deny being really bitten. And if there's no feeling or feel of sin, what is there for Christ to do? most effective the ailing, now not the in shape, want a physician. What Israelite would trouble his recommendations a few raised serpent if he had no pain from the sting of serpents? The identical is true of us spiritually. a true looking to Christ is influenced through a mourning for sin, and a cognizance that our case is fatal.

2d, we're busy making an attempt other physicians. We're trying to find conditions inside to advantage salvation. We glance on the means of salvation by way of Christ on my own, but then we still are attempting to use our own prayers and repentance to function a partial remedy, forgetting that Christ insists on being our complete righteousness before God.

Third, we can appear extra to our sores of sin than to Christ's righteousness. no doubt many within the camp with Moses observed to themselves, What respectable will it do to look to the bronze serpent? definitely there is no such fundamental remedy for the deadliness of these bites! Spiritually, we're often busier looking on the sores of our sin than searching outside of ourselves to God's Bronze Serpent. If we try this, we undervalue the vigour of God and of Christ's blood. Let's no longer overlook Luther's famous asserting: "One drop of Christ's blood is enough to redeem a thousand worlds."

We're often busier looking on the sores of our sin than looking outside ourselves to God's Bronze Serpent.

eventually, the unconverted person claims that the medicine is silly. Why wouldn't the Lord quite simply steer clear of the disease in the first location? however we who've appeared to Christ relaxation assured that the Lord has his own wonderful reasons. His ways aren't our techniques. His techniques are far higher than our concepts. God will glorify his justice and enlarge his grace. We can also not keep in mind him, however we must bow before him.

seem to be and reside

if you're in fact bitten, there is nowhere else to head. if you're basically bitten through your sin, let Christ now not be foolishness or a stumbling block to you, however let him be the vigor of God to salvation.

seem to Christ and are living!

Joel R. Beeke serves as president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan. he's the author or co-author of more than 100 books, editor of another a hundred volumes, and is right now engaged on finishing, with Paul Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology (four vols.; Crossway).