And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. John 3:14 KJV
In
the wilderness, when 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, and anyone who is
beaten by a serpent that 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 on the cross. The serpent is a symbol of sin, and the bronze pole, a
symbol of judgment. Jesus Christ became the fulfilment of what the
bronze serpent symbolized. Hanging on the cross, He became sin, and died
for our sins. But notice that what hung on the pole was not a serpent,
but a bronze made like a serpent. In the same way, Jesus was made sin
for us on the cross, He had no sin in Him. He that knew no sin was made
sin for us.
Just
as the simple faith of looking at the bronze serpent hanging on the
pole (devoid of any manner of work) brought healing to anyone who was
beaten by the serpent in the wilderness, so does the simple faith of
anyone who looks to the cross of Christ (devoid of any manner of work),
bring salvation from sin. But
Jesus did provide more than salvation from sin on the cross, He brought
other blessings too. On the cross, He brought solution to everything
that sin brought about. These included sickness and disease, poverty and
lack, curses, sorrow etc.
To
come into the benefits of anything done on the cross will require the
same thing: simple faith in what was done 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 of the serpent
in the wilderness and lived.
Toni
