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John 3:14-15 • Sin for Us - Randy Boldt
John 3:14-15 • Sin for Us
by Randy Boldt - Crosspointe Ministries (TheJohnProject.com)
-------------------------
In John 3 verses 14 and 15, we reach the basecamp from which we will summit the towering peaks of verses 16 and 17. But here, Jesus continues His conversation with Nicodemus and reminds him of something that he would have been very familiar with as a Hebrew scholar and Jewish leader – the story of when Moses, in the wilderness, raised a pole with an emblem of a poisonous serpent on it.
You see, the Children of Israel, because of fear, had refused to enter the Promised Land – the place that God had promised them as their inheritance. As a result, they began what would become forty years of wandering in the wilderness. But instead of acknowledging their own faithlessness, they started to blame God for their circumstances. And this unleashed a judgment upon them. Poisonous serpents were causing people to die.
But God was unwilling to leave them in that predicament even though they brought it on themselves. He instructed Moses to raise a standard so that anyone who would look at it – that serpent on a pole, the thing that looked exactly like what was killing them – would be rescued. They would be healed. They would be recovered.
So, when Jesus said, “Nicodemus, I’m going to have to be lifted up in a similar way,” He was talking about His cross. He was saying, “By doing this, I’m going to create the opportunity for people to not perish but have everlasting life.”
He was referring to the fact that He would be made sin for us. That’s what 2 Corinthians tells us. He was made to look like my sin and your sin. He took on the darkest, blackest, most wicked condition of humankind, and bore it to the cross. So that we – you and me for whom the cross was our just reward – could be made free, rescued, recovered, redeemed, have everlasting life.
I am in awe today of a God Who loves me so much that He was willing to take on my sin – to become sin for me – so that I no longer have to bear it.
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By Crosspointe MinistriesJohn 3:14-15 • Sin for Us
by Randy Boldt - Crosspointe Ministries (TheJohnProject.com)
-------------------------
In John 3 verses 14 and 15, we reach the basecamp from which we will summit the towering peaks of verses 16 and 17. But here, Jesus continues His conversation with Nicodemus and reminds him of something that he would have been very familiar with as a Hebrew scholar and Jewish leader – the story of when Moses, in the wilderness, raised a pole with an emblem of a poisonous serpent on it.
You see, the Children of Israel, because of fear, had refused to enter the Promised Land – the place that God had promised them as their inheritance. As a result, they began what would become forty years of wandering in the wilderness. But instead of acknowledging their own faithlessness, they started to blame God for their circumstances. And this unleashed a judgment upon them. Poisonous serpents were causing people to die.
But God was unwilling to leave them in that predicament even though they brought it on themselves. He instructed Moses to raise a standard so that anyone who would look at it – that serpent on a pole, the thing that looked exactly like what was killing them – would be rescued. They would be healed. They would be recovered.
So, when Jesus said, “Nicodemus, I’m going to have to be lifted up in a similar way,” He was talking about His cross. He was saying, “By doing this, I’m going to create the opportunity for people to not perish but have everlasting life.”
He was referring to the fact that He would be made sin for us. That’s what 2 Corinthians tells us. He was made to look like my sin and your sin. He took on the darkest, blackest, most wicked condition of humankind, and bore it to the cross. So that we – you and me for whom the cross was our just reward – could be made free, rescued, recovered, redeemed, have everlasting life.
I am in awe today of a God Who loves me so much that He was willing to take on my sin – to become sin for me – so that I no longer have to bear it.