John 3:14-15

“And 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.”

John 3:14-15

Jesus tells us that this serpent on a pole, that the Israelites had to look at in Numbers 21, was representative of how He was to be lifted up on a cross, so that all who look to Him will not perish. For the Israelites, the only way to be saved from the bites of the fiery serpents they were dying from was to look to this serpent on a pole. For us, the only way to be saved from our sin that will kill us, is to look to Jesus on the cross. We cannot look to ourselves. We cannot look to our friends or family. It is Jesus. Nothing else saves. 

The Israelites had to look to the serpent on the pole in faith, they had to believe what God said was true. So too does looking to Jesus require faith, we have to trust that what the what Jesus says is true when He says in the next verse, “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” (John 3:16).

Looking to Jesus, 

David Reeves