Life-spark: To defeat death, come to the cross and look up – John 3:13-15
I never have liked snakes. I’ve encountered a few rattlesnakes, and I keep my distance. My wife’s uncle Charlie was bitten by a rattler while fishing the Malheur River in Oregon. His organs began to shut down, and organ failure eventually took his life.
Jesus Christ said He came down from heaven to be lifted up on a cross, just as Moses lifted up a snake in the desert. (John 3:13-14). The snake-bite story is found in Numbers 21:1-9. Plagued with poison vipers, Israelites were dying by the boatload. Moses asked God how to stop the curse, and God told him to make a copper snake and put it on a tall pole. God said “whoever is bitten and looks at it will live.” Snake-bitten people who gazed at the serpent on a pole were saved from a painful death.
On the cross, Jesus was lifted up like that copper serpent. The Bible says He “became sin” for us. Jesus became a snake and a savior at the same time. God the Father looked away from His Son, that snake, as he absorbed our sin and came to represent our iniquity. He took our poison and died in our place.
Many years ago, I became convinced I was poisoned inside, that I was destined for death unless I found an antidote. I came to the cross of Christ and looked up. There I saw the one who offered his veins to the deadly fangs so I could live. “ … the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15, NIV)
That’s how God saves people. He invites them to simply come to the cross and look up. I’m so glad I did that. It gave me a whole new start on a whole new life. It changed my eternal address. It changed me from the inside out, and it continues to transform me. Day by day, as I look up, His death becomes my life.
A life-action. Can you remember what you were like before you came to the cross and looked up? Think thankfully of one inner poison that the Savior took from you.