IN HIM YOU LIVE
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (John 3:14).
The Bible tells us in Numbers 21 how the children of Israel, as a result of their rebellion and unbelief, were bitten by venomous serpents and many of them died. As a result, they came to Moses and pleaded with him to pray to the Lord to take away the serpents.
Moses prayed for the people, and God instructed him to make a fiery serpent of bronze and set it on a pole. He told Moses that anyone who had been bitten could look at the bronze serpent to be healed. Moses obeyed God’s command, fashioned the bronze serpent, and raised it on the pole. Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a snake looked at the bronze serpent, they lived. All they had to do was “look” and they lived.
In John 3:14, Jesus drew a parallel between the bronze serpent that Moses lifted in the wilderness and His own crucifixion. Just as the Israelites were healed from venomous snake bites by looking at the bronze serpent, He indicated that He had to be lifted up on the cross so that all who believed in Him would receive eternal life: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14 NKJV).
The old songwriter, William A. Ogden, captured this truth in the hymn: “Look and live.” Look at Jesus on the Cross taking your place, taking away your sorrow, pain, disappointment, sickness and failure. But beyond the Cross, see that He lives and because He lives, you live. In Him, you have eternal life—the organic and existential attributes of divinity.
The apostle John, by the Spirit, referring to the Lord Jesus, said, “the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:2 NKJV). No wonder the Bible says in Acts 17:28, “For in Him we live and move and have our being….” 1 John 5:11-12 NKJV, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life….” In Him you have life. Blessed be God!
PRAYER
Dear Father, thank you for in Christ I live and move and have my being. I fix my gaze on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. I walk in the reality of His finished work—triumphing over sickness, failure and death. I have eternal life, and I walk in strength and victory today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY:
Numbers 21:8-9, Isaiah 45:22, 1 John 5:11-13 NKJV
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: 1 Corinthians 3, Psalms 109-112
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 17:11-19, 1 Samuel 3
