A religious and learned man named Nicodemus came to seek out Jesus one night. Jesus told him that everyone needs to be born again to enter God’s Kingdom (John 3:3). Man died twice after eating fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, spiritually and physically (Gen 2:17, Gen 5:5), therefore for Man to truly live, he would have to be born twice, both physically and spiritually (John 3:5-6).

Jesus compared his ministry with Moses lifting up the bronze snake in the desert (John 3:14-15). In that incident, when the Israelites rebelled against God and Moses, venomous snakes came among the people, biting and killing many of the people. When the people begged for deliverance God instructed Moses to raise up a bronze snake on a pole and those bitten would live if they looked upon the snake.

This remedy symbolizes the many-faceted work of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would be crucified on the Cross for the salvation of all mankind.

The Israelites were under judgment. They were bitten by the snakes and were dying. We too have all been bitten by the snake called SIN. There is no one righteous (Psa 14:3, Rom 3:10), the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb 9:22).

The Snake on the Pole represents sin and the curse, because Satan took the form of the snake when he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (2 Cor 11:3) and God cursed the snake (Gen 3:14) as a result. Bronze in the Bible is used to symbolize judgment, therefore the bronze snake depicts Christ who bore the judgment of sin in our place and became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21). And Jesus was crucified, so that he would take upon himself the curse that results from sin (Gal 3:13).

When bitten by the snakes, the people asked Moses to pray that the snakes be removed (Num 21:7), but God’s method for them to overcome the sting of death was by faith, to look and live. It was available to all and free for everyone, it cost them nothing to look. But no one could look on behalf of another, likewise to be born again people must personally believe in Christ themselves.

God instructed Moses to prepare only ONE bronze snake, and this was the only way of deliverance given to the Israelites. Jesus too is the only way for us to receive salvation (John 8:24, 14:6, Acts 4:12). And just as looking at the bronze snake brought the bitten Israelites immediate healing, so believing in Christ brings us an immediate, complete and eternal salvation. There is no need to begin by believing in Jesus but continue with good works and legalism (Gal 3:1-5) to sustain our salvation.