Near Easter I watched the live streamed version of The Chosen, Season one. I was especially impacted by Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Whereas Jesus couched his discourses with the multitudes in parables – and even His own disciples had a hard time figuring out what He was saying – He was very plain with Nicodemus. He laid out what salvation would look like under the Messiah.
John chapter 3 starts out with Jesus declaring that one must be born again to enter the kingdon of God – you must be reborn in your spirit,, of the Holy Spirit. It leads into John 3:16, the most famous verse in the New Testament, called the gospel in a nutshell. But there is a very mysterious verse leading up to it. Well, maybe mysterious to us, but it would have been very familar to Nicdemus.
Lift Jesus Higher
John 3:14-16 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
What did Jesus mean when He said He must be “lifted up”? Let scripture interpret scripture:
(John 8:28) Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things..
(John 12:32-34) “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die. 34 The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
We sing “Lift Jesus Higher”, associating the meaning of lift up to exalt or magnify. But Jesus was referring to the manner of His death – “lift up” was slang for crucifixion.
As Moses Lifted the Serpent
The rest of John 3:14 says “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness….” So let’s look at the incident referred to.
Numbers 21:4-9 4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.
5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
What in the world does Jesus have in common with a snake on a pole?
- Both were “lifted up”; the bronze snake on the pole, Jesus on the cross. Those that looked on the image of the serpent were cured; those that look to Jesus in faith are saved.
- But what does Jesus have in common with a snake?
Moses made an image of the thing that was plaguing the people, the fiery serpent. What was plaguing us? Sin.
(2 Cor. 5:21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus was made sin – he became a replica of what was plaguing us, infected with our disease, the sin nature. He took on the sins of the whole world.
Serpents are synonymous with sin and Satan. Moses’ serpent was made of bronze, the material used in the temple for implements dealing with sin or cleansing from sin, such as the altar of burnt offering and bronze laver.
But Jesus didn’t just bear our sins like a burden, He became sin. He took on our sin nature: John 12:32 literally says, “I will draw all men into myself.”
He died spiritually. What does that mean? What happened to Jesus is what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden. The Father told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “For the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17). The literal Hebrew in that passage says, “Dying, you shall surely die”. Two deaths are spoken of. One was a spiritual death, which happened immediately. It was a change of nature. The second death was physical death, which wouldn’t catch up to them for centuries.
But Jesus never committed a transgression, so how did this happen to Him? I am not sure of the mechanism, but somehow the sins of the world – past present and future – were placed in Him, and he took on that nature. In a similar way, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that we – where all our righteousness is as filthy rags – somehow took on His righteousness. It was a great exchange – Jesus took on our sins, and we took on His righteousness.
When Jesus took on our sin nature, He became separated from the Father. The Father turned His back on Him.
At that point Jesus cried out on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”.
So, for all intents and purposes, Jesus became the “snake” on the cross, taking upon Himself the nature and punishment for our sins. And as we look on Him in faith, we are cured of the sin disease, and a great exchange is made: we are made righteous with His righteousness!
This was the great truth that Jesus was revealing to Nicodemus. The story of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent on the pole was a precedent for when we could look on Jesus in faith and be saved from our sins. It was the justification for the verses that came next:
John 3:14-18 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The snake and healing
The snake on the pole is also closely associated with healing – it is the symbol of the American Medical Association.
The Scriptures show a close connection between spiritual healing (forgiveness/remission of sins), and physical healing.
(1 Peter 2:24) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.
Did you know that the scourging that Jesus received was not a normal part of being crucified? The two thieves that were nailed besides Him had not been scourged. The scourging was Pilate’s attempt to get the people to sympathize with Jesus, and spare His life.
Why would Jesus go through unnecessary suffering? 1 Peter 2:24 tells us. Dying on the cross purchased our salvation, but receiving those stripes on His back purchased our physical healing. By His stripes we are healed.
(Psalms 103:2-3) 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
In Luke 5:17-26, a paralytic is let down through the roof and set before Jesus. Jesus tells the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and doctors of the Law present get all huffy, saying, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Luke 5:23-24 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?
24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the one who was paralyzed—”I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.”
Which is easier to say – which requires more divine authority or power – forgiving sins or healing the body? They are both the works of God. Jesus was saying that He would prove He had divine authority to forgive sins by using that same divine authority to heal the man. It blew them away, and they said, “We have seen strange things today.”
Some Christians try to separate Christ’s work of salvation from healing: “You know you can get to heaven with a sick body but you can’t get there without salvation”. That’s very true. In fact, you might even get there quicker with a sick body.
The same Jesus provided the sacrifice for physical healing as well as spiritual healing; it takes faith to receive either.
Great article. Gives food for thought. I found some other scriptures showing the connection between healing, prayer, the forgiveness of sin and being lifted up:
James 5:13 -16
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.