Tomorrow, Sunday, March 18th, 2012 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine (LC-MS): “So Must The Son of Man Be Lifted Up” (John 3:14-15)

Dear Christians,

The Word of the Lord: “[Jesus said:] ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15). It matters in what way we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! That’s why some presentations of Christ — even from some churches — raise concern to say the least. Sometimes Jesus is presented as a magic word or rabbit’s foot; sometimes we are told to “know him” in a very ill-defined way so as to open the window for religious relativism: believe in the “Jesus” of your own making, etc.

In John 3, Jesus provided Nicodemus with a kind of object lesson. As Nicodemus was very confused about Christ’s teaching on being born again, Jesus draws him a picture by taking him back to what must have been a familiar Old Testament account that Nicodemus had probably known since childhood: the Numbers 21 presentation of Moses with the bronze serpent on a pole and the saving of those bitten by the fiery serpents on the ground. Jesus intended to clear things up for Nicodemus; He was showing Nicodemus in what way Christ is to be believed in.

What is eliminated is to believe in Him as in a kind of magic or mystical pass for getting into heaven; or a kind of trust in His good life or moral teachings for us to imitate; or viewing Him as a kind of representative to remind us of a generic and universal “love of God” with no concern of form or content of the faith. These won’t do.

Instead, Jesus said — in so many words — to believe in me for eternal life is to believe in the Son of man, the Savior who was lifted up; who was crucified! The bronze serpent in Numbers 21 that was lifted up had the form and appearance of the poisonous snakes after which it was modeled. Likewise, Jesus was revealed in the form of our sinful flesh and was lifted up on the cross of Calvary. The bronze serpent, however, had no poison and was perfectly harmless, in the same way, Christ — though He took our flesh — had no sin in Him. He was holy and harmless. Indeed, it was a very strange curse that fell on Him while He was crucified! And finally, just as whoever believed God’s promise and looked in faith at the bronze serpent remained alive, so also every sinner that has been poisoned by sin in its various forms, may now look to Jesus the Savior and while trusting in God’s promise, will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

That is, Jesus is teaching us on how and in what way to believe in Him. Believe in the true Christ who was crucified for you; who was lifted up for you. In this being lifted up, He truly took your sin upon Himself; He was truly punished in your place; He truly — in the full legal sense — took your sin and death. Some just cannot accept this. People will say and do say, “It is too unjust; God just couldn’t allow this to happen!” And yet that is exactly what happened and this was how far the Lord went to save you!

Luther would tolerate no compromise on knowing Christ as He truly was…the incarnate Lord who came to be lifted up for you and the full implications of this confirm your salvation as you look to Him and believe. Luther said, “And all the prophets saw this, that Christ was to become the greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrator, blasphemer, etc., there has ever been anywhere in the world.” (AE 26, 277)

And in being lifted up, it meant two things: not only His being lifted up in space and time when He was crucified, but He was also lifted up to be glorified. Yes, even on the cross, because it was there where His atoning blood covered your sin; it was there where you were saved and the Father was glorified: the Son had accomplished that purpose for which He was sent…to save sinners; to save you; to save me!

In Christ,

Dr. Espinosa

• Share