The Gift of God is Eternal Life!

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Romans 6:23.

How many times and in how many ways has our Father in heaven attempted to share this message with us and yet many do not understand it. Eternal life is a free gift from God and we may receive it only through Him.

Many times Jesus referred to life that is eternal. He told Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews that "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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" John 3:14-17.

Why did Jesus refer to the snake on a pole during Israel's wandering in the wilderness? For many years I was confused as to the meaning of the Lord telling Moses to place a bronze serpent on a pole, a symbol of sin, for the people of Israel to look at and live. As the Children of Israel traveled through the wilderness they became very discouraged. They complained against God and Moses and against the manna that God provided that sustained 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.

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.

The Lord could have eliminated the serpents from among the people, so why did He use the symbol of a snake on a pole for the people to look at to be saved from the poisonous venom of the snake infested camp of Israel? A snake is a symbol of Satan and sin. Why would God use a poisonous snake as a symbol for the people to look at and live?

Many years later I came across the following text. "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. Wow, Jesus was made to be sin on that cross for you and me. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus represented that snake on the pole when He died for us. He took our sins upon Himself and died a horrible death for you and me. He who had no sin was made to be sin for you and me so that in Him you and I could become like Jesus.

The Children of Israel could never have understood that. They had to trust the word of the Lord who was leading them through the wilderness as we must trust Him and His word today. Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself at the cross and buried them forever by His death, so that in His resurrection, those who yield their lives to Him may receive His life, His Spirit, His character, His righteousness, and be made like Him.

What a transference. As the Israelites, poisoned by the snakes infesting their camp, looked upon the snake on a pole and lived, so we today, in the snake infested environments in which we live may keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and receive His life sustaining grace and His Holy Spirit to lead us through this temporal existence in preparation for the eternal life He has prepared for those who love and trust Him.

Jesus is the antidote for the venom of the snakes of sin in our lives. He takes our sins upon Himself and shares His righteousness with us.

It is recorded that Nicodemus yielded His life to Jesus when He witnessed Christ's sacrifice on the cross. And he participated with Joseph of Arimathea to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. "And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury" John 19:39, 40.

We are not saved by our works good or bad. We are saved by God's grace through faith, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" Ephesians 2:8-10.

Christ's promise is, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" John 10:27, 28.

Eternal life is a gift from God when we seek Him will all our heart, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" John 17:3.