Tuesday, June 20, 2017
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
FAITH'S FOCUS IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED
Jesus spoke these wondrous words to a leading Jewish Bible scholar of His day. With them our Lord emphasized the importance of faith. Nicodemus needed to learn that, despite the spiritual advantages of being born to the nation to whom God gave His holy Word, physical birth as a descendant of Abraham did not bring one automatically into the Kingdom of God. Unless there there is a second, spiritual birth God's kingdom-rule cannot be established in the human heart. And as physical life is a creation of God, so too is spiritual life. As Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again'" (John 3:5-7).
The hallmark of the new spiritual life created by the Holy Spirit through the Word is, of course, faith. And what is the heart of the focus of faith? That's what Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus in the words immediately preceding John 3:16.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).
The Brass Serpent pictures the Savior lifted up in the likeness of the sinner-- providing rescue from death through faith in the promise of God. If John 3:16 is the Gospel in a sentence, here is the same Gospel in a picture-- a picture with clear parallels revealing the saving work of our Savior-God.
Sin of Israel = Our sin
Death by snakebite = Eternal death (the great serpent Satan lurks here)
Brass Serpent = God's provided solution (Jesus looked like part of the problem-- a sinner)
Look of people = Faith (saved not by the brass image but the Word of promise connected to it)
We are saved by Christ-- not from death by snakebite but from death eternal. And this salvation is received by that faith the Spirit works through the message of a Savior lifted up.
