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 Picture Behind the 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.
Two "Musts"
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.
Why a Snake?
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.
What "Lifted Up" Means
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.
"Son of Man" — a Title Wider Than Israel
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 Look That Saves
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.
Summary
- 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.