Christ crucified, is our sin liaid upon Him, and Him counted as a sinner, and treated as a sinner, and punished as a sinner, for our redemption. In fact we see on the cross our sins punished, crucified, borne, and carried by our Redeemer.
(d.) Finally, as the one way by which Israehtes obtained relief from the brazen serpent, was by looking at it, so the one way to get benefit from Christ, is to look at him by faith. The feeblest look brought cure to an Israelite, and the weakest faith, if true and sincere, brings salvation to sinners.
It should be carefully noted, that it seems impossible to recor- cile this verse with that modern divinity which can see nothing in Christ's death but a great act of self-sacrifice, and which denies Christ's substitution for us on the cross, and the imputa- tion of our sins to Him. Such divinity withers upsuch a verse as this entirely, and cuts out the life, heart, and marrow of its meaning. Unless words are most violently wrested from their ordinary signification, the illustration before us points directly towards two great truths of the Gospel. One of them is that Christ's death upon the cross was meant to have a medicinal, health-conferring effect upon our souls, and that there was some- thing in it fiir above a mere martyr's example. The other truth is, that when Christ died upon the cross. He was dealt with as our Substitute and Representative, and punished, through the imputation of our sins, in our place. The thing that Israel saw on the pole, and from which thny got health, was an image of the very serpent that bit them. The object that Christians should see on the cross, is a Divine Person, made sin and a curse for them, and allowing that very sin that has poisoned the world to be imputed to Him, and laid upon His head. — It is easy work to sneer at the words " vicarious sacrifice," and " imputed merit," as nowhere to be found in Scripture. But it is not so easy to disprove the fact that the " ideas" are constantly to be met with in the Bible.
The use of the brazen serpent in this verse, as an ilhistration of Christ's death and its purpose, must not be abused, and made an excuse for turning every incident of the history of Israel in the wilderness into an allegory. It is very important not to attach an allegorical meaning to Bible facts without authority. Such things as the manna, the smitten rock, and the brazen serpent, are allegorized for us by the Holy Ghost. But where the Holy Ghost has not pointed out any allegory, we ought to be very cautious in our as-ertions that allegory exists. Bucer's remarks on this subject deserve reading.
16. — [That whosoever believeth... not perish.. .life.] In this verse our Lord declares to Nicodemus the great end and purpose for which the Son of man was to be " lifted up" on the cross, and the way