John 3: 14-15
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
This verse is a personal favorite of mine. It encompasses the breadth and width of Jesus’ work on the cross and explains the childlike simplicity of the path to eternal life.
The story that Jesus refers to is found in Numbers 21: 4-9. It is a short story but rich in detail. The people of Israel are doing time in the desert for 40 years because they refused to trust God the first time he brought them to the Promised Land. Life in the desert was hard, and there were plenty of opportunities to complain. Many did, and on the occasion of this story, God’s response was to send venomous snakes among the people. When they were bitten by the snakes, they would die.
When the people repented, God did not take the snakes away but instead provided a cure for the bite of the snake. Verse 8 says, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’” Salvation from the snake bites was as simple as looking up to the snake on a pole that Moses had made.
Q: Sometimes people are prone to make things complicated that really should be simple. Religion can be like that, too. Based on what Jesus is telling Nicodemus, how complicated is it to obtain eternal life through Jesus?
Quite simple, Look to Jesus for our salvation. Repent and accept free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Difficult for man, Each must accept their helpless position to make themselves righteous before God.
From what I understand before Jesus came on the scene there were so many rules and regulations you had to abide by in order to be in the sect group and if doing those things they thought would gain them access to the kingdom then that’s what they did,..Jesus is just starting to break the news to the Pharisee’s and everyone else on the scene that He is the only way through to the kingdom of God,..
Sending a man to the moon is hard. Breathing, for most of us, is easy. Believing in Jesus is both. The important thing I see in scripture is that God knows the heart. He knows whether we truly believe or not. Here on earth, since we cannot see into each other’s hearts, we sometimes resort to other measures of belief, but at best these can only be approximations or reflections of what is in the heart. Only God knows for certain and in the final analysis that is, I think, all that matters.
It was after they were bitten they were to look up. Something had gotten into them when they were bitten.
Isn’t that the problem with us, ‘something has gotten into us’.
Before we willingly look up ( to Jesus) we often come to a earthly life of the serpent. Downtrodden, broken, sad, and or lost defines our condition. Fortunately, the cross that held Jesus wasn’t that high off the ground. Even though he is in heaven, he is close enough to hear our prayer – Jesus, help. Be MY savior.
He knows our heart. He hears our crying and joy. He knows us as his children. How can you say no to the absolute true love of a Father.
Duane points us to the answer to your question: We have to be willing to look up! 🙂 When we do, we see Jesus and through Him, our Father’s love.