Now, it is in close connection with the foregoing statement that our Lord expressly teaches that He was the antitype of the brazen serpent. As the Son of God sent forth from the Father, He was, most assuredly, the gift and expression of God’s love to a perishing world. But He was also to be lifted up upon the cross in atonement for sin, for _only_ thus could divine love meet the necessities of the dying sinner. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so _must_ the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The whole human family have felt the serpent’s deadly sting; but the God of all grace has found a remedy in the One who was lifted up on the cursed tree; and now, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, He calls on all those who feel themselves bitten, to look to Jesus for life and peace. Christ is God’s great ordinance, and through Him a full, free, present, and eternal salvation is proclaimed to the sinner—a salvation so complete, so well based, so consistent with all the attributes of the divine character and all the claims of the throne of God, that Satan cannot raise a single question about it. Resurrection is the divine vindication of the work of the cross, and the glory of Him who died thereon, so that the believer may enjoy the most profound repose in reference to sin. God is well pleased in Jesus; and inasmuch as He views all believers in Him, He is well pleased in them also.
And be it noted, faith is the instrument whereby the sinner lays hold of Christ’s salvation. The wounded Israelite had simply to _look and live_—look, not at himself, not at his wounds, not at others around him, but, directly and exclusively, to God’s remedy. If he refused or neglected to look to that, there was nothing for him but death. He was called to fix his earnest gaze upon God’s remedy, which was so placed that all might see it. There was no possible use in looking any where else, for the word was, “_Every one_ that is bitten, _when_ he looketh upon _it_, shall live.” The bitten Israelite was shut up to the brazen serpent; for the brazen serpent was God’s exclusive remedy for the bitten Israelite. To look any where else, was to get nothing: to look at God’s provision, was to get life.
Thus it is now. The sinner is called simply to look to Jesus. He is not told to look to ordinances—to look to churches—to look to men or angels. There is no help in any of these, and therefore he is not called to look to them, but exclusively to Jesus, whose death and resurrection form the eternal foundation of the believer’s peace and hope. God assures him that “whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” This should fully satisfy the heart and conscience. God is satisfied, and so ought we to be. To raise doubt, is to deny the record of God. If an Israelite had said, How do I know that looking to that serpent of brass will restore me? or if he had begun to dwell upon the greatness and hopeless nature of his malady, and to reason upon the apparent uselessness of looking up to God’s ordinance; in short, if any thing, no matter what, had prevented his looking to the brazen serpent, it would have involved a positive rejection of God, and death would have been the inevitable result.
Thus in the case of the sinner, the moment he is enabled to cast a look of faith to Jesus, his sins vanish. The blood of Jesus, like a mighty cleansing stream, flows over his conscience, washes away every stain, and leaves him without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; and all this, too, in the very light of the holiness of God, where not one speck of sin can be tolerated.
But ere closing our meditation on the brazen serpent, it may be well just to observe what we may call the intense individuality which marked the bitten Israelite’s look at the serpent. Each one had to look for himself. No one could look for another. It was a personal question. No one could be saved by proxy. There was life in a look, but the look must be given. There needed to be a personal link—direct individual contact with God’s remedy.