What
God Continues To Do For
Us Through Jesus! Part I
"For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life" Romans 5:10.
The focus
of the last meditation was on God's reconciliation of the
world to Himself through the death of Jesus on the cross of
Calvary. Now, having been reconciled to God, what is it that
He continues to do for us through the life of Jesus?
Let's
look at what Jesus shared with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews,
when He came to get acquainted with Jesus one evening. Nicodemus
recognized that there was something different about Jesus,
so he came to Him and said, "Rabbi, we know that You
are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs
that you do unless God is with him."
Christ's
response to Nicodemus was rather strange. There was no small
talk, Jesus cut right to the core of the relationship between
God and those who inherit eternal life when He said to Nicodemus,
"Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God!"
Nicodemus
replied, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
Jesus
answered, "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.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound
of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes,
So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus
said, "How can this be?"
Jesus
answered, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not
know these things? …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. 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. God did not send His Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he
who does not believe is condemned, because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God…
"Light
has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing
evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest
his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes
to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they
have been done in God." The above reference comes from
John 3:1-21.
Christ's
message to Nicodemus included being born anew by the Spirit
of God, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Then He
talks about Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness,
and applied it to Himself when He said, "even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life." What was that
all about?
Jesus
was talking about the serpent that Moses lifted up in the
wilderness more than a thousand years earlier. Nicodemus would
have known this story that we find in Numbers 21. As the Children
of Israel traveled through the wilderness they became discouraged
and complained against God and Moses, and against the manna
that God provided to them daily to sustain their lives, which
they referred to as "worthless bread". The Bible
records that fiery serpents came in among the people and many
of the people of Israel died.
Some
of the people came to Moses and asked for his intercession
with the Lord that the Lord would take away the serpents from
among them. "So Moses prayed for the people. Then the
Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a
pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he
looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and
put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone,
when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived'" Numbers
21:7-9.
God did
not remove the snakes from the camp of Israel, but instead
used the figure of a snake on a pole for the people to look
at and live! A snake is a symbol of Satan and of sin. Why
would God use the symbol of a poisonous snake for the people
to look at and live?
Consider
this! "For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him" 2 Corinthians 5:21. Jesus was made to be
sin for the whole human race at the cross. On the cross, Jesus
represented that snake on the pole when He died for you and
me.
However,
the Children of Israel, to be saved, were instructed to look
at that snake and they would live. That snake on the pole
represented the sacrifice for their sins that God would provide.
The snakes were not removed immediately from the camp of Israel;
just as we are not removed from the environments of sin where
we live. However, as the Children of Israel were to look at
that snake on a pole and they would live, so we are to keep
our eyes on what Jesus has done for us on the cross of Calvary,
where He took upon Himself our sins and buried them forever
so that we might live the life that Jesus came to share with
everyone who would put their faith and trust in Him.
The Children
of Israel could not have understood all the meaning of this
at the time. However, Jesus explained it to Nicodemus and
through him to us. Two or three years later, Nicodemus witnessed
Christ's crucifixion on the cross of Calvary and became a
believer. It is recorded that he participated with Joseph
of Arimathea who took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips
of linen with the spices, "a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about a hundred pounds" provided by Nicodemus (John 19:38-40).
What
a transference. When we are bitten by the snakes of sin, we
are to look at the sacrifice that God gave to the world to
save sinners, and we will live. That sacrifice is not an image
to worship. That sacrifice was resurrected and "He is
also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through
Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them"
Hebrews 7:25.
Jesus
lives for you and me! When we know we have sinned, when we
have been bitten by sin, we can look to Jesus and ask for
His forgiveness, and our sins are cast away from us, "You
will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" Micah
7:19. And we are not to go fishing for them again. We are
to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, on what He did for us at
Calvary, and on what He continues to do for us throughout
life. When we seek His Presence to be with us every day, we
receive the new birth experience spoken of by Jesus to Nicodemus.
Jesus
is the antidote for the venom of the snakes of sin in our
lives. He takes our sins upon Himself and shares with us His
righteousness. "And it shall be that everyone who is
bitten, when he looks at it, shall live" Numbers 21:8.
To be
continued…
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