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John 3:16
Mine! Even
Mine!©
‘…whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
There’s a
story in the book of Numbers that some of you won’t remember. It tells of the
Israelites wandering in the desert. They have been there for a while, and
they’re not happy with things. They have complained before, and they received
water and manna and quail, so they had something to eat and drink, but they were
not happy. They continued wandering, and they continued complaining. Their
memories told them that things had been better back in Egypt when they had been
slaves, so they murmured against God and Moses.
Then God
sent many poisonous snakes to the land, and many of the people died from their
venom. So then they complained to Moses about the snakes saying ‘We have
sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take
away the serpents from us.’ (Num 21: 6) Then God told Moses to make a
serpent and put it on the end of his staff and raise up the staff so that all
the people could gaze on it. When someone was bitten, he or she could look up
at the snake and be healed; they would not die. And it worked!
That’s
quite a colorful story, but it’s a really strange thing that God told Moses to
do—to fashion a serpent, put it on a pole, and hole it up for everyone to see.
Jesus
mentions this story of the bronze serpent to Nicodemus, the Pharisee, when he
called on Jesus one night. Nicodemus told Jesus he knew that Jesus must have
come from God, because of all the good things Jesus was doing. And Jesus told
Nicodemus that he needed to be born again.
Nicodemus
failed to understand what Jesus meant by being born again, so Jesus pointed to
that event in the desert long time back when the Israelites were dying because
of the many poisonous snakes, and God told Moses to make a serpent, affix it to
the stick, and hold it up in the air for all to see. Anyone who was bitten by a
snake could look on the bronze serpent and live.
As I was
thinking about that scene in the wilderness and Moses and the snake, I wondered
why it was that God told Moses to make a snake for the people. What was it
about a snake that would be significant? Why didn’t God tell Moses to make an
apple or a tree or some other animal? How about a duplicate of the Ten
Commandments? What was it about the snake that was important? Or maybe it
didn’t matter.
Then I
remembered the serpent in the garden. We know that story well—Adam and Eve in
the garden. The serpent had insinuated itself into the garden and into Miss
Eve’s presence.
We remember
how the serpent deceived Even with a promise of knowledge. He said,
‘You will not die; for God knows
that when you eat of [the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden] your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
(Gen 3:4-5)
The serpent’s conversation with Eve caused the
First Couple to disobey God’s command about not eating the fruit. When they did
eat it, their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked, and they were
no longer in the same, comfortable position with God that they had enjoyed
before.
The serpent had enticed them to disobey God’s
command, and they fell. They were now enemies of God!
It was the serpents that brought death to those
wandering in the wilderness. Moses sought God’s help and God told Moses to make
the serpent and hold it upon the stick for all to see. The snake which
brought death to them was now bringing health and restoration and life.
Fast-forward to John’s gospel and
Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus was trying to explain to the Pharisee what Jesus was
about to do, and he reached back into the history of the Israelites to that
moment in time with Moses and the Israelites and the serpents. Jesus used the
picture that he knew Nicodemus knew, for he was a teacher of the faith.
Jesus said,
‘And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.’
(John 3:14-15)
The bronze snake represented the
serpents that were killing the Israelites. It was just like those deadly snakes
that were everywhere killing the people. They were dying until they looked on
the bronze serpent, the one raised up, and when they looked on it, they stopped
dying. They were healed of their snake bites.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus that the Son of Man
would be like the bronze snake.
He would be the one who would take on the sins of the world. (People
are dying because of their sin--what happened in the garden--, and Jesus would
take their sin on himself.) When Jesus died, he did not die as one without sin,
although he had been sinless before he arrived at Golgotha. He took on the sin
of the world as he hung there on the cross; he carried all the sin of the world
in himself. He died with all those sins. He took them to their death.
Anyone who looks on Jesus will live
because of his sacrifice.
Jesus took on the sin of the world
when he died on the cross, and his death is the salvation of all who look to him
for healing.
I guess I hadn’t really thought
about it before, that Jesus’ taking on the sin of the world when he died at
Calvary was like the bronze serpent in the wilderness. The people who were
afflicted by the snake bites were healed when they looked upon the bronze
serpent. That is the picture Jesus wanted Nicodemus to remember and to
understand about what Jesus would soon be doing.
Keep this in mind as we move into
the rest of the scripture lesson.
‘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.’
(3:16)
Those words may be some of the best known words
in the Bible—
for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him may not perish, but have everlasting life.
God so loved the world…God created
our world and made it good, like all that God makes.
God so loved the world…that God
sent the Son.
I actually think that God planned
all along to send the Son into the world to be incarnate in this world, which
means that He connects the world with God.
God so loved the world… God
created our world, and it is good, like all that God makes. God so loved the
world…that God sent the Son.
I actually think that God planned
all along to send the Son into the world to be incarnate in this world, which
means that he
connects the world with God. In
Christ we have the complete connection of God and creation. Whatever happens
to Christ happens to creation.
God so loved the world, that he sent his only Begotten Son.
God sent the Son into the world to save us. I have to believe that God
knew from before the beginning that the creatures made in God’s image would fail
and be at enmity to God. Yet IN SPITE of this failure, God sent the Son.
God so loved the world that God sent the Son to become the salvation of all
who look to him.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son, so that whosoever
believeth in him.
God
sent the Son to take on the sins of the world, to take them to the cross and die
with them. So that whosoever believes in him…
Believing in Jesus the Christ is
first looking to him—turning to him, trusting him.
Like
those who had been bitten in the wilderness by the deadly poisonous snakes, we,
too, are dying in our sin, before we look to Jesus. We haven’t been bitten by a
poisonous snake, but we are dying nonetheless from our sins. We need a
redeemer. One who is able to take away our sin.
God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth…
That WHOSOEVER is important. Whosoever means anyone who…. Anyone who
believes. It doesn’t matter your age, your sex, your color, your station in
life, or any other distinction, when you believe in Jesus you benefit from his
sacrifice.
I like Jesus’ words we read in St. Matthew, when Jesus was instituting the
LORD’s Supper, and he took the cup, and gave thanks over it and gave it to his
disciples to drink, saying, ‘this is my blood
of the covenant, which is poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus
said the blood was about to be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Some people would rather hear the word ‘all’ instead of ‘many’, but I like the
word many, because it indicates that each person for whom Jesus poured out his
blood was an individual, one of many, but still an individual. Poured out for
many. That means for you and for me.
Whosoever believeth in him…
Almost
three centuries ago a young Anglican priest was in a terrible state. John
Wesley, the priest, was well educated. He had been to Oxford and flourished as
an academic there. He took holy orders and became a priest. He understood a
lot about faith in Christ. He came from parents who were strong Christian
leaders. He father, Samuel Wesley, was an Anglican priest. His mother,
Suzanna, came from a long history of Non-Conformist Protestants. Wesley learned
about faith in Jesus from them.
But I
wonder if Wesley had not missed a critical detail in his early training?
You
see, when he went to the Moravian Bible study at the church on Aldersgate Street
one evening in May in 1738, he was not a happy man. He had just returned from a
year in Savannah, Georgia, where he had had much difficulty.
He
returned to London after a year, depressed and frustrated. One evening he wrote
in his Journal these words. “In the evening
I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading
Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine,
while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through
faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in
Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away
my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Do you
see it? It sounds like at that moment Wesley finally recognized Christ’s work
on the cross for him personally. He no longer was using the faith of his
parents or his teachers, he owned it himself: ‘I was given assurance that
Christ had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and
death.’
Isn’t
that what each of us needs to have? We need to have faith ourselves and not the
faith of someone else. We can’t lean on someone else’s faith forever. We need
to come to the saving knowledge of Christ being our redeemer. He, personally,
is our savior.
Each of
us must look on the cross and know that Jesus took our sin and died for each of
us. It is not enough for us to rely on the faith of our fathers or our mothers
or someone else we admire. We need to know that the faith we have is faith that
has our names on it.
We
need to be able to say, “I trust in Christ alone for salvation; I know that He
has take away my sins, even mine, and had saved me from the law of sin and
death.
Copyright © 2009 Marjorie Palmer. All Rights Reserved. No portion of
this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written
permission of the author.
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