By The Rev. Ron Purkey
Guest Columnist

Read John 3:1-36

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The Rev. Ron Purkey

First, The serpent on the pole (John 3:14-18). The story in Numbers 21:4-9 was certainly familiar to Nicodemus. It is a story of sin, for the nation rebelled against God and had to be punished.
God sent fiery serpents that bit the people so that many died. It is also a story of grace, for Moses interceded for the people and God provided a remedy. He told Moses to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole for all to see. Any stricken person who looked at the serpent would immediately be healed. So, it is also a story of faith: when the people looked by faith, they were saved.

The verb lifted up has a dual meaning: to be crucified (John 8:28; 12:32-34) and to be glorified and exalted. In his Gospel, John points out that our Lord’s crucifixion was actually the means of his glorification (John 12:23 & following). The cross was not the end of Christ’s glory; it was the means of his glory (Acts 2:33).

Much as the serpent was lifted up on that pole, so the Son of God (Jesus Christ) would be lifted up on a cross. Why? To save us from sin and death. In the camp of Israel, the solution to the “serpent problem” was not in killing the serpents, making medicine, pretending they were not there, passing “anti-serpent” laws, or climbing the pole. The answer was in looking by faith at the uplifted serpent.

The whole world has been bitten by sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God sent his son to die, not only for Israel, but for a whole world. How is a person born from above? How is he or she saved from eternal perishing? By believing on Jesus Christ; by looking to him in faith.

Second, The light and darkness (John 3:19-21). Please notice that Nicodemus finally did “come to the light.” He was in the “midnight of confusion” (John 3:1-21), but eventually he came out into the “sunlight of confession” when he identified with Christ at Calvary (John 19:38-42). He realized that the uplifted Savior was indeed the Son of God.

This is one of the major images used in this Gospel (John 1:4-13). Why will sinners not come into the “light of life”? Because some love the darkness! They want to persist in their evil deeds, and this keeps them from coming to the light; for the closer the sinner gets to the light, the more his sins are exposed. It is not “intellectual problems” that keep people from trusting Christ; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light.

Third, Faith in Christ is the only means of salvation. Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ?

Read Ron Purkey’s Bible study outlines free at rcpbibleoutlines.com. Purkey has been an ordained Baptist minister for 50 years.