And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up,
Jesus answers Nicodemus by pointing back to a strange scene from Israel's desert journey. He tells him that this scene pictures what must happen to Him, and that "must" carries the whole verse.
The story is in Numbers 21, and one writer applies it straight to the reader.
The sons of Jacob were dying in the desert from the poisonous bite of the snakes, just as you are from the bite of sin. A bronze snake was made and lifted up on a pole, and when one who was bitten looked at the snake he lived (Numbers 21:6-9). In the lifted-up Son of Man you have what the bronze snake pictured in advance. Now you look to Christ. On that cross He was bearing the judgment of all who believe on Him.
Earlier in the conversation Jesus said a man must be born again. Here He adds a second necessity, and the two belong together.
A second Man has entered the scene. There are two men and two musts. As to the first man, he must be born again, and as to the second Man, He must be lifted up. In a word, the cross is the great solution of the difficulty, the divine answer to the "How?" ... Why must He? Because I must have new life, and this life is in the Son, but it could only be mine through His death.
God's own nature, not only man's need, made the cross necessary.
The new birth is needed for the kingdom of God, and the cross is just as necessary for eternal life... Man's state was such that it would have been beneath God to give that life without the cross of Christ. The Son of Man was lifted up on that cross, and in Him God dealt with man's evil state in judgment... It might suit man, but it would not suit God, to see everything, pronounce man corrupt, and then let him off with a bare pardon.
The picture puts Christ beside the very thing that poisoned Israel. The bronze snake was a likeness of the killer, not the killer itself.
The bronze snake was in the likeness of the fiery snake that bit the people. The Lord Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was not sinful flesh, or He could not have been our Saviour. Not only is sin atoned for, but sin in the flesh has been condemned in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is the fruit (sins) dealt with, but also the root (the sinful nature). Sins are forgiven. The sinful nature is not forgiven. That could never be. The only thing that will do for sin in the flesh is DEATH.
That very strangeness is where the light comes from.
How good it is that we have an authoritative explanation of something whose obscurity comes from this strange placing of Christ beside the snake. But the cross is indeed the obscurity that lights up everything — the contradiction by which all other things are reconciled.
The phrase is not about honour. It names one particular death and what that death said about Him.
The law of Moses did not use hanging, or crucifixion, as a way of putting someone to death. The Jews used the same word for both. It came after death, to express unusual wickedness and to put a special brand on the one so treated. As a "lifting up from the earth" (John 3:14; John 12:32), it expressed rejection from among men. As a lifting up toward heaven, it might well call for heaven's agreement with that rejection, and so imply the "curse of God" on the sinner.
The title Jesus uses here reaches past one nation.
To Nicodemus He testifies that the Son of Man must be lifted up. This is not for the sake of Israel only, but so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The title Son of Man carries with it universal power and blessing.
The bitten Israelite shows where to look — and where not to look.
The wounded Israelite had simply to look and live. He was to look, not at himself, not at his wounds, not at others around him, but directly and only to God's remedy... The bitten Israelite was shut up to the bronze snake, God's only remedy for him. To look anywhere else was to get nothing; to look at God's provision was to get life.
- Bitten. The starting point is not weakness but poison. Israel was dying from the snake's bite, and every sinner is dying from the bite of sin.
- Must. Two necessities meet at this verse: man must be born again, and the Son of Man must be lifted up. The second is God's answer to the first.
- Likeness. Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but He was not sinful flesh. So the cross deals with the root, the sinful nature, and not only with the fruit.
- Lifted. "Lifted up" names crucifixion, not honour: it expressed rejection from among men and implied the curse of God.
- Look. Life came by looking away from self to God's one remedy. Believing in the lifted-up Son of Man works the same way, and eternal life is for whoever believes.
that every one who believes on him may [not perish, but] have life eternal.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal.
These words are among the best known in the Bible, yet they sit inside an argument that begins with a cross and ends with a choice. The verse names four things: a love, a gift, a condition, and two outcomes.
The verse starts with the word "For". One writer insists we must not cut it loose from the verse just before, which speaks of the Son of Man being lifted up as Moses lifted the snake in the wilderness.
In this same Gospel we read that God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. But we cannot separate those words from what goes before them. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Must is a strong word. No word in any language says more forcefully that something cannot be avoided.
Another writer makes the same point against those who treat this verse as the whole story:
Besides, it is not only said "God so loved the world," but "the Son of Man must be lifted up." There was a necessity laid on Him which He had to bear. It is completely untrue that Scripture says nothing more about it than "God so loved the world."
The word "so" is not vague. Writers measure the love by the gift.
This verse also declares how strong that love is: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." We measure God's love for the world by His gift. He gave the One who alone was the object of His affection — His Only-begotten Son.
Because that gift is the point, the identity of the One given carries weight. The old phrase "only-begotten Son" means the one and only Son. Some say it describes Jesus only as a man. One writer answers that this shrinks the very thing the verse shows:
Some say the term "only-begotten Son" here applies to Christ as Man only, with no reference to the Son's relation to the Father before He came into the world. That view at once dims the greatness of God's love to a guilty world.
A common misreading turns the cross into the thing that persuaded God to love. One writer pushes back. He points to Israel's escape from Egypt, when they put blood on the doorposts of their homes.
The cause was the unfathomable, eternal love of God. For God so loved. Do not suppose that God loved us because Jesus died for us — that He only then began to love us. Did He love Israel in Egypt because they shed the blood and sprinkled it on the doorposts? No, they sprinkled the blood as the token of His love.
This love is not limited to one nation.
Nor does this apply only to Israel. "For God so loved the world." This love is so marvellous that the Father gave His beloved, only-begotten Son as a sacrifice for the whole world. Yet only those who believe in Him can know its value, since it applies to "whoever believes in Him." No one, Jew or Gentile, is shut out except by his own unbelief.
Writers also press for exactness on which relationship is named here. One notes that the verse says God loved the world, and that a different bond is described elsewhere:
It is never said that Christ loved the world, while we have seen that God loved the world; John 3:16.
"Whoever" leaves no one out. Yet one thing is still required.
Notice, this was no longer limited to Israel as a nation. No, "whoever believes in Him." This is a message for you, to you, because it is to everyone who believes. The only limit or distinction is faith — "who believes in Him."
The closing words describe something the believer owns now. The verse also falls into two halves.
In this verse you have God's side of the action, and man's side too. God's side — loving and giving; and man's side, my side and yours — believing and having. Really, my dear friends, the gospel is wonderfully simple. God loving and giving; man believing and having.
One writer describes the moment he saw four words meet in this one sentence:
Until this moment of reading it, the writer had never noticed that this one verse holds all four of our words — life, love, world, believing!
- Cause. Love did not begin at the cross; the cross was love's proof — the blood was "the token of His love," as it was in Egypt.
- Cost. The gift measures the love: God gave the One who alone was the object of His affection.
- Compulsion. "Must" stands beside "so loved" — the Son of Man had to be lifted up, and this verse should not be quoted apart from that cross.
- Compass. "World" reaches past one nation; no one is shut out except by unbelief.
- Condition. Faith is the only limit — and its outcome is present tense: God loving and giving, man believing and having.