John 3:14

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 χαρίζομαι, to show grace, and ἀφίημι, 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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, υψωσε, 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Now, of course, the sole purpose of setting that brazen serpent on the pole was to render it conspicuous, and all that Nicodemus could then understand by the symbol was that, in some unknown way, this heaven-descended Son of Man should be set forth before Israel and the world as being the Healer of all their diseases. But we are wiser, after the event, than the ruler of the Jews could be at the threshold of Christ’s ministry. We have also to remember that this is not the only occasion, though it is the first, on which our Lord used this very significant expression. For twice over in this Gospel we find it upon His lips-once when, addressing the unbelieving multitude, He says ‘When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He’; and once when in soliloquy, close on Calvary, He says, as the vision of a world flocking to Him rises before Him on occasion of the wish of a few Greek proselytes to see Him, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.’ We do not need, though we have, the Evangelist’s commentary, ‘this He spake signifying what death He should die.’

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.’

To save humanity, to make it possible that men should receive that second birth, and should enter into the Kingdom of God-that was a greater work, because a work not only of creation, but of restoration, than it was to send forth the stars on their courses and to ‘preserve’ the ancient heavens ‘from wrong.’ There is a revelation of divine might when we ‘lift up our eyes on high,’ and see how, ‘because He is great in power, not one faileth.’ But there is a mightier revelation of divine power when we see how, from amidst the ruins of humanity, He can restore the divine image, and piece together, as it were, without sign of flaw or crack or one fragment wanting, the fair image that was shattered into fragments by the blow of Sin’s heavy mace. Power in its highest operation, power in its tenderest efficacy, power in its widest sweep, are set forth on the Cross of Christ, and that weak Man hanging there, dying in the dark, is ‘the power of God’ as well as ‘the wisdom of God.’ The Cross is Christ’s Throne, but it is His sovereign manifestation of love and power only if it is what, as I believe He told us it was, and what His servants from His lips caught the interpretation of it as being, the death for the sins of the sin-stricken world. Unless we can believe that, when He died, He died for us, I know not why Christ’s death should appeal to our love. But if we recognise-as I pray that we all may recognise-that our deep need for something far more than Teacher or Pattern has been met in that great ‘one Sacrifice for sins for ever,’ then the magnetism of the Cross begins to tell, and we understand what He meant when He said, ‘I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.’ Brethren, the Cross is His Throne, from which He rules the world, and if you strike His sacrifice for sins out of your conception of His work, you have robbed Him of sovereignty, and taken out of His hand the sceptre by which He governs the hearts and wills of rebellious and restored men.

II. Notice, again, how we have here the look at the uplifted Son of Man.

I do not need to paint for you what your own imaginations can sufficiently paint for yourselves-the scene in the wilderness where the dying men from the very outskirts of the camp could turn a filmy eye to the brazen serpent hanging in their midst. That look is the symbol of what we need, in order that the life-giving power of Christ should enter into our death. There is no better description of the act of Christian faith than that picture of the dying Israelite turning his languid eye to the symbol of healing and life. That trust which Jesus emphasises here in ‘whosoever believeth on Him,’ He opposes very emphatically to Nicodemus’s confession, ‘We know that Thou art a Teacher.’ We know-you have to go a step further, Nicodemus! ‘We know’; well and good, but are you included in ‘whosoever believeth’? Faith is an advance on credence. There is an intellectual side to it, but its essence is what is the essence of trust always, the act of the will throwing itself on that which is discerned to be trustworthy. You know that a given man is reliable-that is not relying on him. You have to go a step further. And so, dear brethren, you may believe thirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand Articles with an unfaltering credence, and you may be as far away from faith as if you did not believe one of them. There may be a perfect belief and an absolute want of faith. And on the other hand, blessed be God! there may be a real and an operative trust with a very imperfect or mistaken creed. The wild flowers on the rock bloom fair and bright, though they have scarcely any soil in which to strike their roots, and the plants in the most fertile garden may fail to produce flowers and seed. So trust and credence are not always of the same magnitude.

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.

Those of you who are using the Revised Version will see that 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.’ Now, it is far too late a period of my discourse to enlarge upon all that these great words would suggest to us, but let me just, in a sentence or two, mark the salient points.

‘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.

My text, if we accept John’s Gospel, contributes an altogether new element to our conception of our Lord as announcing His death. For the other three Gospels lay emphasis on it as being part of His teaching, especially during the later stage of His ministry. But it does not follow that He began to think about it or to see it, when He began to speak about it. There are reasons for the earlier comparative reticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that then first began to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that His work was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. That is a notion that has been frequently upheld of late years, but to me it seems altogether incongruous with the facts of the case. And, if John’s Gospel is a true record, that theory is shivered against this text, which represents Him at the very beginning of His career-the time when, according to that other theory, He was full of the usual buoyant and baseless anticipations of a reformer commencing His course-as telling Nicodemus, ‘Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.’ In like manner, in the previous chapter of this same Gospel, we have the significant though enigmatical utterance: ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up’; with the Evangelist’s authoritative comment: ‘He spake of the Temple of His body.’ So, from the beginning of His career, the end was clear before Him.

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.

‘Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?’ That was a strange utterance for a boy of twelve. It seems to negative the supposition that what is called the ‘Messianic consciousness’ dawned upon Jesus Christ first after His baptism and the descent of the Spirit. But however that may be, it and the similar passages to which I have already referred, bearing upon His discharge of His work prior to His death, teach that the necessity was an inward necessity springing from His consciousness of Sonship, and His recognition of the work that He had to do. And so He is our great Example of spontaneous obedience, which does violence to itself if it does not obey. It was instinct that sent the boy into the Temple. Where should a Son be but in His Father’s house? How could He not be doing His Father’s business?

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.

‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.’ Striking as these words are in themselves, they are still more striking when we notice their connection; for they follow immediately upon His utterance about laying down His life for the sheep. So, then, this was a work beyond the Cross, and whatever it was, it was to be done after He had died.

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.

‘Zaccheus! make haste and come down; to-day I must abide in thy house.’ Why must He? Because Zaccheus was to be saved, and was worth saving. What was the ‘must’? To stop for an hour or two on His road to the Cross. So He teaches us that in a life penetrated by the thought of the divine will, which we gladly obey, there are no things too great, and none too trivial, to be brought under the dominion of that law, and to be regulated by that divine necessity. Obedience is obedience, whether in large things or in small. There is no scale of magnitude applicable to the distinction between God’s will and that which is not God’s will. Gravitation rules the motes that dance in the sunshine as well as the mass of Jupiter. A triangle with its apex in the sun, and its base beyond the solar system, has the same properties and comes under the same laws as one that a schoolboy scrawls upon his slate. God’s truth is not too great to rule the smallest duties. The star in the East was a guide to the humble house at Bethlehem, and there are starry truths high in the heavens that avail for our guidance in the smallest acts of life.

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.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:14-15 Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that all people could understand the way of salvation, look to him in faith, and have eternal life.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 3:14. Καί, and) Often Christ, after mention of His glorification, made mention of His passion.—Μωσῆς, Moses) This is the first mention of Moses, which is read as made by our Lord.—τὸν ὄφιν, 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.—ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, in the wilderness) where there was no other medicine [remedy].—ὑψωθῆναι, 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.]—δεῖ, must) For it was for this purpose He descended from heaven.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 believerwhich was the design of His redemptive workin 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 (Lücke); 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 Brückner); nor from the first of divine things, Christs 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 ὕψωσις is begun); nor from Christs 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 ζωή 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 Numbers 21 or here.

ὑψωθῆναι] not glorified, acknowledged in His exaltation (Paulus), which, following ὕψωσε, 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 זְקַף (comp. the Heb. זָקַף, 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 Hüffells Zeitschr. II. 1, p. 72 ff.; Brückner, 68, 69. Comp. Test. XII. patr. p. 739: κύριος ὑβρισθήσεται καὶ ἐπὶ ξύλου ὑψωθήσεται. 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 ὑψωθήσ., as = רוּם, 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 (Weizsäcker); 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).

δεῖ] 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 ἐν αὐτῷ (see Critical Notes), we cannot refer it to πιστεύων, but, as μὴ ἀπόληται, ἀλλʼ is spurious (see Critical Notes), to ἔχῃ: 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.

ζωὴν αἰώνιον] eternal Messianic life, which, however, the believer already has (ἜΧῌ) as an internal possession in ΑἸῺΝ ΟὟΤΟς, viz. the present self-conscious development of the only true moral and blissful ΖΩΉ, 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 (Weizsäcker); comp. on Joh_2:19.

[161] The higher significance imparted to Christs person and work by His death (Baur, Neutest. Theol. 379) is not implied in the word ὑψωθῆναι, 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 Christs death is wholly wanting in St. Johns doctrinal view. See also Joh_6:51; Joh_6:53-54.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, καὶ καθὼς Μωσῆς … τοῦ ἀνθρώπου [modern editors read Μωυσῆς ; so also in LXX]. The emphatic word is ὕψωσε . When Moses made the brazen serpent, he did not secrete it in his tent and admit a few selected persons to view it, but ὕψωσε τὸν ὄφιν , gave it an elevation at which all might see it. So must the Son of Man, the bearer of heavenly light and healing, ὑψωθῆναι , 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 δεῖ ὑψωθῆναι 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, οἶμαι γάρ νιν ἱκετεύσαι , 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.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. τὸν ὄφιν. 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.

οὕτως. Christ here testifies to the prophetic and typical character of the O.T. Both Jewish and Christian writers vary much in their explanations of the Brazen Serpent. It is safest in interpreting types and parables to hold fast to the main features and not insist on the details. Here the main points are the lifting up of a source of life to become effectual through the faith of the sufferer. All these points are expressed in Joh 3:14-15. Nicodemus lived to see the fulfilment of the prophecy (Joh 19:39).

ὑψωθῆναι. On the Cross, as in Joh 8:28. The exaltation of Christ to glory by means of the Cross (crux scala coeli) is probably not included: for this δοξασθῆναι would be the more natural term. In Joh 12:32 the Ascension is possibly included by ἐκ τῆς γῆς and in Act 2:33; Act 5:31 by τῇ δεξιᾷ τ. Θεοῦ: here and in Joh 8:28 there is no such addition. Moreover, to include the Ascension spoils the comparison with the Brazen Serpent.

δεῖ. It is so ordered in the counsels of God (Heb 2:9-10). Comp. Joh 3:30, Joh 9:4, Joh 10:16, Joh 12:34, Joh 20:9; Mat 16:21; Mat 26:54; Mar 8:31; Luk 9:22; Luk 17:25; Luk 22:37; Luk 24:7; Luk 24:26; Luk 24:44.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. καθὼς Μωϋσῆς ὕψωσεν τὸν ὄφιν κτλ.

ὑψοῦν means “to lift up,” either literally or figuratively, when it is equivalent to “exalt.” In Act 2:33 (τῇ δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑψωθείς) and Act 5:31 (τοῦτον ὁ θεὸς … ὕψωσεν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ) it is used of the exaltation by God of Jesus to His right hand, i.e. of the Ascension. Cf. Php 2:9 and Isa 52:13, where it is said of the Servant of Yahweh ὑψωθήσεται καὶ δοξασθήσεται σφόδρα.

But the word is not used thus in the Fourth Gospel, where it is always applied to the “lifting up” of Jesus on the Cross, and is always found in connexion with the title “Son of Man” (see Introd., p. cxxxii). Jesus said to the incredulous Jews (8:28) ὅταν ὑψώσητε τὸν υἰὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, “When ye shall have lifted up the Son of Man, then ye shall know, etc.” This “lifting up” is to be the act of the Jews, not of God (as in Act 2:33, Act 5:31), and it is therefore clear that it does not refer to the Ascension, but to the Crucifixion. Again in 12:32 we have ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάτας ἐλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, on which Jn.’s comment is, “this He said, signifying by what death He should die.” And that the people understood the word thus appears from their rejoinder (12:34); while they knew that the Christ “abides for ever,” they were puzzled by the saying that the “Son of Man” was to be “lifted up.” If ὑψωθῆναι were to be understood merely as “exaltation” (as the Ascension was) they would have had no difficulty in admitting δεῖ ὑψωθῆναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (see note in loc.).

In the present passage, there can in like manner be no reference to the Ascension of Jesus, as in that case the type of the brazen serpent would not be applicable. In the story in Num 21:9f., Moses set his brazen serpent “upon the standard,” or, as the LXX turns it, ἔστησεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ σημεὶου, so that those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents might look upon it and live. As the story is explained in Wisd. 16:6, 7, the brazen serpent was a σύμβολον σωτηρίας: “he that turned towards it was not saved because of that which was beheld, but because of thee, the Saviour of all (τὸν παντῶν σωτῆρα).” The word ὑψοῦν is not used anywhere in the LXX of the act of Moses in “lifting up” the serpent and exposing it to the gaze of the people, nor is the word used anywhere in the N.T. outside Jn. of the “lifting up” of Jesus on the Cross. But this is undoubtedly the parallel which is drawn in the words of Jesus in 3:14. Those who looked in faith upon the brazen serpent uplifted before them were delivered from death by poison; those who look in faith upon the Crucified, lifted up on the Cross, shall be delivered from the death of sin.

The early Greek interpreters are quite unanimous about this. Thus Barnabas (§ 12) says that Moses made a brazen serpent, the τύπος of Jesus, that he set it up conspicuously (τίθησιν ἐδόξως), and bade any man that had been bitten “come to the serpent which is placed on the tree (ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου ἐπικείμενον) and let him hope in faith that the serpent being himself dead can yet make him alive (αὐτὸς ὢν νεκρὸς δύναται ζωοποιῆσαι), and straightway he shall be saved.” This is but an elaboration of the idea in Joh 3:14, going beyond what is there said, for Barnabas emphasises the point that the brazen serpent is a type of Jesus, while all that is said in Joh 3:14 is that as the first was “lifted up,” so must the Son of Man be “lifted up.”

Origen (Exhort. ad martyr. 50, arguing that death by martyrdom may be called ὕψωσις), and Cyprian (Test. ii. 20) apply Joh 3:14 to the Crucifixion of Jesus; cf. Justin, Tryph. 94. Claudius Apollinaris (about 171 a.d.) writes of Jesus as ὑψωθεὶς ἐπὶ κεράτων μονοκέρωτος, where ὑψοῦν evidently means to lift up on the Cross; Cf. Psa 22:21 (Routh, Reliq. Sacr., i. 161). See also the passage from Artemidorus quoted on 21:18, 19 below, for the connexion between the ideas of ὕψος and of crucifixion.

We have then here a prediction placed in the mouth of Jesus, not only of His death, but of the manner of that death. The Synoptists represent Jesus as more than once foretelling His death by violence (Mar 8:31, Mar 9:31, Mar 10:33 and parallels), but only in Mat 20:19 is death by crucifixion specified; cf. Luk 24:7. But by the use of the word ὑψοῦν (cf. also 8:28 and 12:32) Jn. consistently represents Jesus as predicting that He would be crucified, which would carry with it the prediction that He would suffer at the hands of the Roman authorities, and not by the Jews (cf. Joh 18:31, Joh 18:32).

It is not consistent with the Synoptic tradition (cf. Mar 8:31, Mat 16:21, Luk 9:22) to represent Jesus as foretelling His Passion so early in His Ministry. We should expect not to find any indication of this until after the Confession of Peter (6:68, 69). And if vv. 11-15 are intended by the evangelist to be taken as words of Jesus, rather than as reflexions of his own (see on v. 13), then it is probable that they are recorded here out of their historical context. See on v. 1 above.

It has been suggested, however (e.g. by Westcott and E. A. Abbott) that we must see a deeper significance in the word ὑψοῦν as placed in the lips of Jesus. Abbott holds1 that the Aramaic word which is rendered by ὑψοῦν was זְקַף, and that this actually has the double meaning (1) to exalt, (2) to crucify. But Burkitt has shown that this cannot be accepted because זִקַף could not be used of a “lifting up” such as the Ascension was.2 In short, (a) Jn. clearly states his own view of what Jesus meant by the words which he ascribes to Him here; (b) all the early Greek exegetes agree with him; (c) if we try to get back to the Aramaic word lying behind ὑψοῦν, we cannot find one which has this special ambiguity. ארים will fit ὑψοῦν in the sense of “exalt,” but not in that of “crucify.” זקף will fit ὑψοῦν in the sense of “crucify,” but not in that of “exalt.” We cannot therefore accept Westcott’s view that “the lifting up includes death and the victory over death.” There does not seem to be any hint of this in any of the passages in which ὑψοῦν occurs in Jn.

The Jewish commentators on Num 21:9f. give little help as to the significance of the brazen serpent, being perplexed by the inconsistency of the story with the general prohibition of all images in the religion of Israel. Indeed, Hezekiah found it necessary to destroy “the brazen serpent that Moses had made” (2Ki 18:4) because it had led to idolatrous practices. Philo (Legg. All. ii. 19) allegorises the narrative after his manner. As the poisonous serpents signify the pleasure (ἡδονή) which is dangerous to the soul, so the brazen serpent signifies temperance (σωφροσύνη); then the man who sees psychically the beauty of σωφροσύνη, καὶ διὰ τούτὸν τὸν θεὸν αὐτόν, ζήσεται.

Jesus, however, explicitly takes this story as a type of His Cross, which must have fulfilment: δεῖ, “it is necessary” that so “the Son of Man shall be lifted up,” as Jn. reports His words here. Something has already been said (see note on 2:4) of what may be called the Predestinarian Doctrine of Jn.; see also Introd., p. clii, where Jn.’s use of the phrase “that it might be fulfilled” is examined. A similar Divine necessity is indicated several times elsewhere in this Gospel by the word δεῖ. The evangelst uses it, when writing in his own person, of the inevitableness of the Resurrection of Christ. But he also ascribes the employment of this way of speech to Jesus Himself. “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day” (9:4); “Other sheep I must bring” (10:16); and again at 12:34 the people charge Jesus with saying, as here, δεῖ ὑψωθῆναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. Cf. also 3:30. There is nothing peculiar to the Fourth Gospel in this.1 The Synoptists and Paul alike share the belief that it is not Fate but Providence that rules the world, that God foreknows each event because He has predetermined it, and that therefore it must come to pass. To reconcile this profound doctrine with human free will was the problem of a later age.

See note on 12:32.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Must [δει] . 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 [υψωθηναι] . 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).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 καί (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 καί 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 ὑψωθῆναι (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 δοξασθῆναι (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 ὑψωθῆναι (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 οὕτως : (it is thus)—and not as you picture it to yourselves—that 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 exposed—but 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 sinner—which would proclaim only the particular defeat of that sinner—but 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.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And as Moses, &c.--Here now we have the "heavenly things," as before the "earthly," but under a veil, for the reason mentioned in Joh 3:12. The crucifixion of Messiah is twice after this veiled under the same lively term--"uplifting," Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32-33. Here it is still further veiled--though to us who know what it means, rendered vastly more instructive--by reference to the brazen serpent. The venom of the fiery serpents, shooting through the veins of the rebellious Israelites, was spreading death through the camp--lively emblem of the perishing condition of men by reason of sin. In both cases the remedy was divinely provided. In both the way of cure strikingly resembled that of the disease. Stung by serpents, by a serpent they are healed. By "fiery serpents" bitten--serpents, probably, with skin spotted fiery red [KURTZ]--the instrument of cure is a serpent of brass or copper, having at a distance the same appearance. So in redemption, as by man came death, by Man also comes life--Man, too, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3), differing in nothing outward and apparent from those who, pervaded by the poison of the serpent, were ready to perish. But as the uplifted serpent had none of the venom of which the serpent-bitten people were dying, so while the whole human family were perishing of the deadly wound inflicted on it by the old serpent, "the Second Man," who arose over humanity with healing in His wings, was without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. In both cases the remedy is conspicuously displayed; in the one case on a pole, in the other on the cross, to "draw all men unto Him" (Joh 12:32). In both cases it is by directing the eye to the uplifted Remedy that the cure is effected; in the one case the bodily eye, in the other the gaze of the soul by "believing in Him," as in that glorious ancient proclamation--"Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," &c. (Isa 45:22). Both methods are stumbling to human reason. What, to any thinking Israelite, could seem more unlikely than that a deadly poison should be dried up in his body by simply looking on a reptile of brass? Such a stumbling-block to the Jews and to the Greeks foolishness was faith in the crucified Nazarene as a way of deliverance from eternal perdition. Yet was the warrant in both cases to expect a cure equally rational and well grounded. As the serpent was God's ordinance for the cure of every bitten Israelite, so is Christ for the salvation of every perishing sinner--the one however a purely arbitrary ordinance, the other divinely adapted to man's complicated maladies. In both cases the efficacy is the same. As one simple look at the serpent, however distant and however weak, brought an instantaneous cure, even so, real faith in the Lord Jesus, however tremulous, however distant--be it but real faith--brings certain and instant healing to the perishing soul. In a word, the consequences of disobedience are the same in both. Doubtless many bitten Israelites, galling as their case was, would reason rather than obey, would speculate on the absurdity of expecting the bite of a living serpent to be cured by looking at a piece of dead metal in the shape of one--speculate thus till they died. Alas! is not salvation by a crucified Redeemer subjected to like treatment? Has the offense of the cross" yet ceased? (Compare Kg2 5:12).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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. 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, (Isaiah 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 Numbers 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, (Galatians 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, (1 Corinthians 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, (2 Kings 18:4.) If any one form a different opinion, I do not debate the point with him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(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 death—this was symbolical of the world lying in the misery, restlessness, and spiritual death, which came from the Serpent’s 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 Him—this 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That whosoever believeth in him,.... Whether Jew or Gentile, a greater, or a lesser sinner, and of whatsoever state and condition, age or sex; and though ever so weak a believer, provided his faith, is of the right kind: not an historical or temporary one, a mere assent to the truth of things respecting his person, office, and work; but such a faith, by which a soul sees a glory, fulness, and suitableness in him as a Saviour; goes to him, ventures on him, commits itself to him, lays hold on him, and receives him, leans and relies upon him, and trusts in him, and lives upon him; and which is the faith of God's elect; a gift of his grace, and the operation of his Spirit; and which works by love, and is attended with the fruits of righteousness: now the end of Christ's crucifixion and death is, that such an one

should not perish; though he is in a lost and perishing condition in Adam, and by nature, and sees himself to be so, and comes to Christ as such; and though his frames and comforts are perishing, and he sometimes fears he shall be utterly lost; and though he is subject to slips and falls, and great spiritual decays; and shall perish as to the outward man by death; yet he shall never perish eternally, or be punished with everlasting destruction, as the wicked will:

but have eternal life; not by his works, but as the gift of God: and which he that truly believes; has already in the covenant of grace, in Christ his head, in faith and hope; and has the earnest and pledge of it, the Spirit of God; and the beginning of it, which is the knowledge of God in Christ; and shall hereafter possess it fully, and in person, to all eternity: even a life of perfect holiness and knowledge; a life of never ending pleasure; a life free from all the sorrows, distresses, and imperfections of this; and which will always continue.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This comparison of the serpent lifted up in the desert, upon which whoever looked was immediately cured from the bite of the fiery serpents, is a figure of the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary. And we remark, that our divine Saviour makes use of these words, the Son of man must be lifted up or exalted; (exaltari) by which form of expression he would teach us, that he does not consider the cross as a disgrace, but as a glory; (Theophylactus and St. John Chrysostom) and moreover, that as the Israelites, bitten by the fiery serpents, were cured by looking upon the brazen serpent, so are Christians cured by looking up with an active faith, replete with love and confidence, on Jesus Christ crucified.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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 Christ’s ascension into heaven. And this he tells Nicodemus must be, for the fulfilling the Scripture, and the counsels of his Father.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And. Seeing that our Lord had claimed supreme right to speak of heavenly things, he proceeds at once to speak of them also. There may be many ways of taking the kai : supposing that it indicates a transition from the person of the Lord to his work. From his Divine and endowed humanity thus shown to be competent to explain and re veal heavenly things, he proceeds to his atoning sacrifice. These underlying links of connection are not mutually exclusive. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must also the Son of man be lifted up.

The narrative of Num_21:8, etc., is one of the rest curious in Scripture, and it was a great puzzle to the Jewish commentators, who felt that it was in apparent violation of the second command of the Decalogue. Moreover, in the days of Hezekiah the reverence paid to the serpent led to disastrous consequences and puritanic removal of the idolatrous snare. The Jewish divines consulted by Trypho (see Justin Martyr, "Dail.," 94) were unable to explain it. Philo regarded it as a designed contrast to the serpent of the Book of Genesis, but he supposed the antithesis to be that between pleasure and righteousness or prudence ("De Leg. All.," 2:1.80). The Book of Wisdom, (RAPC Wis 16:6) "The murmuring people were troubled for a while for warning, having a symbol of salvation .... he that turned to it was saved, not by reason of that which he beheld, but by reason of the Saviour of all." Ferguson, in his "Tree and Serpent Worship," regards the narrative as an indication that within the bosom of Israel the worship of the serpent had been introduced and had left its traces. But the narrative itself shows that the serpent healing from the serpent bite was a Jehovistie symbol of Divine love and victory. The "Test. XII Patr. Benj.," 9, refers to it as the type of the cross. (cf. Php_2:9 Act_2:33) "Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." The fiery flying serpent, with its poisonous bite and its deadly malice, was the vivid type of the evil of disobedience to the Divine command, infusing its malign venom into the whole nature of its victim. The serpent of brass was not venomous, though it bore the likeness of the deadly plague. It was not flying, gliding from tent to tent, but captured, still, hoisted triumphantly upon the pole, a sign of its conquest. The serpent in Hebrew and Christian literature throughout was emblematic of evil, not as in many Oriental religions, of healing or deliverance; (see Gen_3:1 Rev_12:9; and, properly translated, Job_26:13, Revised Version) and it is possible to see in this type an anticipation of the "lifting up" of Jesus on the cross. There are several interpretations of the uqwyhnai . Paulus urged that Jesus by it referred to the final glorification of himself; but if so, why was not the word doxasyhnai used? It may mean, with Bleek, Lechler, Godet, the exaltation upon the cross as the steppingstone to his glory, the way, not only to David"s throne, but to the very throne of God a conception profoundly different from the current Pharisaic notions concerning the Messiah. The word is used in Joh_8:28 and Joh_12:32, 34 for the passion of the cross, although Peter (Act_2:33) and Paul (Php_2:9) used it for the glorification consequent upon the Passion. Surely the word does, if it is to correspond with Moses" exaltation of the serpent of brass, point to the exaltation of the cross, but to that as to the very throne of his power and glory. Tholuck says, "A word must have been used in Aramaic which admitted both ideas, and the word means in Chaldee and Syriac to "lift up" and "crucify. Many striking relations thus present themselves.

(1) The Lord was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, though without sin.

(2) The evil of sin was seen in him conspicuously revealed, but conquered; not only conquered, but transformed into a remedy. The enemy of man, the world itself, was crucified on the cross of Christ. Sin was nailed to the cross when, in the likeness of sinful flesh, the eternal Son of God made flesh submitted to all the shame of the flesh. "The world is crucified unto me," says Paul ("in the cross of Christ"), "and I to the world." Jesus says, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up." The Son of man here on earth, but having always a Divine life in heaven, when revealed in human nature, subject to the laws and destiny of the flesh, "must" be lifted up. This pathway to his glory must pass through the blood and agony of the Passion. There was a needs be in the Divine counsel, in the purposes of Divine love, in the fall measure of the grace which was welling from the heart of God.

(3) The comparison, however, and relation between type and antitype is more conspicuous still in the fifteenth verse, where Jesus added: In order that whosoever believeth might have in him eternal Life. granting that the above is the true text, in our translation an instance occurs of the frequent absolute usage of pisteuein (pisteuein en autw is not a Johannine phrase, while we do find (Joh_5:39 Joh_16:33 Joh_20:31) that "life," "peace," are "in him"). On this ground, if we retain the en autw , we translate it as above. The object of faith is not specified; but he who believes, who looks with God-taught longing to the Christ, to the Son of man uplifted to save, sees God at his greatest, his best, and discerns the fullest revelation of the redeeming love. "Believing" corresponds with "looking" in the narrative of Nu 21. Whosoever "looked, lived." Such looking was an act of faith in the promise of Jehovah; the otherwise despairing, dying glance of poisoned men was a type of the possibility of a universal salvation for sin-envenomed, devil-bitten, perishing men. Let them believe, and there is life. Let them understand the meaning of the Son of man thus exhausting the curse, and enduring in love the burden and penalty of human transgression, and they have straightway a life that is spiritual, fundamentally and radically new, a life heavenly and eternal. Thus can this vast change of which he had spoken to Nicodemus supervene. How," asks Nicodemus, "can this be?" "Thus may it be," answers the Son of man. It is not necessary that all the mystery of the cross should have been perceived by Nicodemus, yet the subsequent references to this man make it highly probable that, when he saw Jesus suspended on the cross, instead of giving way to unbelief and despair, he was stimulated to an act of lofty faith. (Joh_19:39, and note) In this great utterance we have the answer which Paul addressed to the Philippian jailer, and we have the argument of Paul in Ro 1, 2, and we infer that the sources of the Pauline doctrine were to be found in the known teaching of the Lord himself.

Many commentators, beginning with Erasmus, and followed by Neander, Tholuck, Lucke, Westcott, and Moulton, have supposed that our Lord"s discourse with Nicodemus ended with ver. 15, and that thenceforward we have the reflections in after times made by the evangelist, in harmony with the teachings which he had received from the Lord. This is urged on the ground that in Joh_1:18, and at the close of the present chapter (vers. 31-36), when reciting the testimony of the Baptist, it appears to the commentators that John has blended his own reflections with the words of the Baptist, adding them without break to the sentences which he does record (see notes). I am not prepared to admit the analogy; there is nothing in these words, if attributed to the Baptist, incompatible with the purely Old Testament position and transition standpoint to which he adhered. The argument drawn from the past tenses, hgaphsen and edwken , is not incompatible with the large view of the whole transaction which the Son of God adopted, as though in the fulness of its infinite love it had already been consummated. We are told that there are certain phrases which nowhere else are ascribed to Jesus himself, such as "only begotten Son a term which is found in the prologue (Joh_1:14, Joh_1:18) and First Epist., (1Jn_4:9) i.e. in John"s own composition. The reply is that John used this great word on the specified occasion because he had heard it on the lips of Jesus; that he would not have dared to use it if he had not had the justification of such use, the like to which he here recounts. The believing eiv to onoma the name of does not occur, it is said, in the recorded words of Jesus, though it is found in the discourse of the evangelist himself in Joh_1:12 Joh 2:23; and 1Jn_5:13. The same criticism applies. John used it because he had heard our Lord thus deign to express himself. Moreover, the commencement of the paragraph, by the use of the particle gar , shows that no break has occurred, that a richer and fuller and more triumphant reason is to be given for the obtaining of life eternal than that which had already been advanced. He passes from the Son of man (who is in heaven, and came from heaven and God) to the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. He speaks in more practical and explanatory form of the Object of faith, and the Divine source of the arrangement and its issues. A flood of new thoughts and some terms occur here for the first time; but they are no more startling than other words of Jesus, whose awful weight of meaning and rich originality gave to the evangelist all his power to teach. It is quite unnecessary to find fault with the abruptness of the close of this discourse, or the sudden cessation of the dialogue, or the disappearance of Nicodemus, or of any lack of affectionateness in the style of address. Christ is often abrupt, and in numerous replies which he gave to his interlocutors he prolongs the remarks as though they were addressed to the concealed mind of the speakers rather than to their uttered words. If there had been any hint or indication that these were John"s reflections, we can only say that he who by the Holy Spirit penned the prologue was not incapable of these splendid and heart-searching generalizations of love, faith, judgment, and eternal life. But there does not appear to be any sufficient reason for such a hypothesis. Still, it must be admitted that we have not the whole of the former or the latter part of this wondrous discourse. Much has, without any doubt, been omitted. John has seized upon the most salient points and the loftiest thoughts. These stand out like mountain peaks above the glittering seas, indicating where the inner and hidden connections of their bases lie, but not unveiling them. We do not doubt that John"s mind, by long pondering on the thoughts of Jesus and his words of profound significance, had acquired to some extent the method of his speech, and do not doubt that a certain subjective colouring affects his condensation of the discourses of Jesus. He was not a shorthand reporter, photographically or telephonically reproducing all that passed. He was a beloved disciple, who knew his Lord and lost himself in his Master. He seized with inspired and intuitive accuracy the root ideas of the Son of man, and reproduced them with the power of the true artist. It is incredible, even if we regard the entire paragraph (vers. 16-21) as the language of our Lord, that we have the whole of the discourse, or conversation, of the memorable night. Still less satisfactory is it to suppose that we have in it nothing more than an imaginary scone, an idealization of the bearing of Christian truth on Jewish prejudice. So vast a thought, though it be the burden of the New Testament, and because it is so, issued from the heart of Jesus.

Vers. 14, 15. The revelation of the Divine plan of salvation.

Redemption is the essential content of revelation. The Incarnation carries with it the necessity of the Crucifixion.

I THE NATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SYMBOL HERE PRESENTED TO OUR VIEW. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.

1. This refers to the last miracle wrought by Moses on the borders of the promised land. (Num_21:7)

2. The Israelites were to see in it the sovereign hand of God, and not to ascribe the efficacy of the cure to the mere outward symbol the brazen serpent apart from Divine power.

3. They were to see in the whole incident, not a mere effective comparison, but a preparatory type a figure of "good things to come," exhibiting

(1) the punishment of sin,

(2) and the image of a vicarious dispensation. "By his stripes we are healed". (Isa_53:5)

II THE WORK OF CHRIST. "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.

1. Consider the meaning of this expression.

(1) It does not signify that he was to be exalted in the sight of men in the preaching of the gospel.

(2) Nor does it signify his exaltation to heaven.

(3) But his being lifted up on the cross. This is the commentary of the apostle himself: "This he said, signifying what death he should die". (Joh_12:33) The cross was to be the step to the throne.

2. There was a Divine necessity for the death of Christ. "The Son of man must be lifted up.

(1) The Divine prophecies must be fulfilled.

(2) The justice of God demanded the sacrifice. Sin can no more exist without punishment than it can exist without hatefulness. The justice of God is as manifest as his grace in the death of his Son.

(3) The love of God was the grand motive for this sacrifice.

(4) The necessity of Christ"s death is attested by many passages of Scripture. (Heb_7:2-9 Heb_8:3 Heb_9:7, Heb_9:12, Heb_9:22)

III THE DESIGN OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. "That whosoever believeth in him should have eternal life." Mark the various points of comparison between the type and the antitype.

1. The poison of the serpents in the wilderness represents the deadly nature of sin. That poison was death; so sin is death.

2. The gaze of the stricken Israelites answers to the look of faith. "There was life in a look.

(1) Faith is the eye of the soul looking to a Saviour. "Look unto me, and be ye saved". (Isa_45:22)

(2) The look implied a dependence in the divinely appointed remedy.

3. The brazen serpent answers to Christ the Son of man. We admit none of the fancies of divines respecting this matter. The one point of analogy was in the "lifting up." Jesus is the Object to be looked at by faith; and, as such, is seen

(1) in the excellence of his Person,

(2) in the completeness of his work,

(3) in the fulness of his grace.

4. The healing of the Israelites answers to that eternal life which is the result of faith. Thus the death of Christ is indispensable to the life of believers. And it stands in causal connection with eternal life as their inheritance. This passage proves not, as some divines say, that life is first, and that the acceptance of the sinner flows from the life; but that acceptance flows from Christ"s death, and that life issues out of the acceptance.

Vers. 14, 15. An emblem of salvation.

It was Christ"s teaching that Moses testified of him. This Moses did by foretelling the advent of a prophet like unto himself, and still more strikingly by the whole system of sacrifice which he perfected, and which the Messiah both fulfilled and superseded. He did so likewise by symbolic acts, thus unconsciously witnessing to Christ and his works. It was natural that our Lord"s first mention of Moses should occur in his conversation with a Hebrew rabbi, an inquirer, and a sympathizing inquirer into his claims. The incident in Jewish history upon which our Lord grafts great spiritual lessons was one familiar, doubtless, to Nicodemus, but one of which he could never until now have seen the deep spiritual significance.

I THE SERPENT BITE IS THE EMBLEM OF SIN. For the moral evil is, like the venom of the viper,

(1) diffused in action;

(2) rapid in progress;

(3) painful to experience;

(4) dangerous and deadly in result.

II THE DEATHS IN THE CAMP OF ISRAEL ARE THE EMBLEMS OF THE SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. Scripture consistently represents death, i.e. moral, spiritual death, as the natural and appointed result of subjection to sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die;" "The wages of sin is death." If spiritual life is the vigorous exercise, in the way appointed by heavenly wisdom, of the faculties of our intelligent and voluntary nature, spiritual death consists in the deprivation of power, in the cessation or suspension of such activities as are acceptable to God.

III THE BRAZEN SERPENT IS AN EMBLEM OF THE DIVINE REDEMPTIVE REMEDY.

1. Like the figure placed upon the banner staff, the provision for salvation from spiritual death is due to Divine mercy. Christ is the Gift of God; the power of spiritual healing is Divine power; the ransom paid is appointed and accepted by God.

2. In both there is observable a remarkable connection between the disease and the cure. It was not without significance that the remedy provided in the wilderness bore a resemblance to the disease. Christ too was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and in a human body endured for us that death which is the penalty of sin.

IV THE ELEVATION OF THE BRAZEN SERPENT UPON THE POLE WAS AN EMBLEM OF OUR SAVIOUR"S CRUCIFIXION AND EXALTATION. It is observable how early in his ministry Jesus referred to his "lifting up." That he by this language indicated his crucifixion does not admit of question. "When ye have lifted up the Son of man;" "I, if I be lifted up from the earth; are instances which show how distinctly Jesus foresaw and foretold his death, and even the manner of it. The consistency is manifest between this elevation of sacrificial death and the subsequent elevation to the throne of eternal glory.

V THE LOOKING AT THE LIFTED FIGURE OF THE SERPENT IS AN EMBLEM OF FAITH IN CHRIST. There was nothing in the act of gazing which itself contributed to the recovery of those who were bitten. Nor is there anything meritorious in the attitude of the soul that exercises faith in the Saviour. But it is an act which brings the soul into closest relation with the all-gracious Redeemer. Faith is an attitude, an inspiration of the soul, which instrumentally secures salvation. The Divine ordinance is this: "Look and live!

VI THE PUBLICATION OF THE NEWS CONCERNING THE SERPENT OF BRASS IS EMBLEMATICAL OF THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. It was a ministry of benevolence and of blessing which was discharged by those who went through the camp of Israel, heralding deliverance and life. And there are no tidings so honourable to deliver, and so profitable to receive, as the glad tidings of a great Saviour and a great salvation, which it is the office of the Christian preacher to publish to those who are afar off and to those who are near. T.

Vers. 14, 15. The lifting up of the Son of man.

These are probably the closing words of Jesus to Nicodemus. Jesus has had to teach him great spiritual truths from the analogies of natural birth and the wind blowing where it listeth. Now he will conclude with a historical parallel.

I AN HONOURED NAME IS MENTIONED. Nicodomus and his sect professed to glorify Moses. Jesus did glorify him ia reality. Perhaps Nicodemus is beginning to think that, after all, there is nothing in Jesus likely to he of much service, no correspondence between outward appearance and desired results. And now he is made to understand that Jesus is well acquainted with all the proceedings of Moses, and can use them just when they are wanted. Moses is not only giver of laws, prescriber of ceremonies, fountain of honoured traditions; he is also a saviour, and a saviour by methods that to the natural eye look to have no salvation in them.

II A PRESSING NEED IS SUGGESTED. There must be deliverance from destruction. Something had to be done for the bitten, dying children of Israel, and God gave Moses instructions according to his own wisdom. Other means might have been employed, but those means actually were employed which served the largest ends. Why Moses had to raise the brazen serpent is not seen till Jesus is lifted on the cross. Then we understand how God has his eye on perishing individuals still. Nicodemus is not yet bitten of a guilty conscience. His aims are earthly and limited. He wants something for his own temporal advantage something ministering to his pride as a Jew. And now Jesus hints to Nicodemus how he must discover his spiritual danger, if he is to get the full blessing from Jesus. Jesus is a Saviour as well as a Teacher. He would have men learn first their need of salvation, and then, being saved, they will go on to learn from him how best to use the life that has been saved.

III THE DEMAND FOR SIMPLE FAITH. Such a demand must not be left out of such a discourse. There are many things Jesus cannot yet explain to Nicodemus. Even were Nicodemus a spiritual man, he would have to wait while Jesus goes on through all the transactions of his great work.

How mysterious the announcement of the lifting up of Jesus would seem when it was first made! But Jesus, we may be sure, made that announcement with a view to all in future ages who should read of his lifting up on the cross. Nicodemus might not come again, so Jesus sends him away with as much of essential truth as possible. Let us, too, be deeply thankful fur the parallel Jesus draws between the brazen serpent and himself. It makes us see the power residing in simple faith when that faith goes out to an object of God"s own appointment. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And as Moses - And even this single witness will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious manner. Num. xxi, 8, 9.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14, 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. The reference is to Numbers 21:4–9. As the bitten Israelites were healed by looking upon the brazen serpent lifted on high, so the world in sin is saved by looking to Jesus lifted up upon the cross.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up

This figure of speech is called a simile. Some people will "lift up" Jesus just as Moses "lifted up" the bronze serpent in the wilderness. (See: Simile)

in the wilderness

The wilderness is a dry, desert place, but here it refers specifically to the place where Moses and the Israelites walked around for forty years.

translationWords

Moses

serpent

desert

Son of Man

eternity

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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.

καθώς] 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 (Lücke, 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 σὰρξ ἁμαρτίας, 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 ἐν ὁμοιώματι σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας, 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? ἐκεῖ μέν, ἐπεὶ διʼ ὄφεως ἡ βλάβη, διʼ ὄφεως καὶ ἡ θεραπεία· ἐνταῦθα δέ, ἐπεὶ διʼ ἀνθρώπου ὁ θάνατος εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, διʼ ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἡ ζωὴ παρεγένετο, Euthym.

δεῖ, 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.

ὑψωθῆναι] 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 ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τ. οὐρ. before. Stier quotes the Christian proverb, ‘Crux scala cæli.’

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.