Numbers 21:5-7; John 3:14; Galatians 3:13
In
the wilderness, the Israelites sinned against God; He sent serpents to
bite them, and many died. They cried to Moses, and God asked him to make
a bronze serpent and hang it on a pole; anyone who is beaten by a
serpent and looks at the bronze serpent hanging on the pole got healed.
Jesus
indicated in John 3:14 that this bronze serpent was a foreshadowing of
Him. The serpent is a symbol of sin and judgment. Jesus Christ became
the fulfillment of what the bronze serpent symbolized. Hanging on the
cross, He became sin, and died for our sins. Just as the simple faith of
looking at the bronze serpent hanging on the pole brought healing to
anyone who was beaten by the serpent in the wilderness, so does the
simple faith of anyone who looks at the cross of Christ bring salvation
from sin. Every malady that sin brings has its cure in the cross when
approached in faith.
To
come into the benefits of anything done on the cross will require the
same thing: simple faith in what was done there by Christ. The door to
the blessings that Christ brought to mankind is looking to Him in faith,
just as the Israelites had to look to the upraised symbol in the
wilderness to be saved from the snake bite.
Toni
