[March 19th, 1868.]
Nicodemus was a type of the better class of educated Jews. He believed in the Scriptures. He was devout and serious. He was solicitous to attain the knowledge of the truth. He was open to conviction and free from the self-righteous and proud spirit of the Pharisees. Yet he was in darkness. He had been brought up in Judaism, as then understood, a system which assumed that salvation belonged exclusively to the Jews. If men of other nations were to be saved, they must become Jews by being born again. The natural descendants of Abraham needed no regeneration. This he evidently believed, and yet he clearly was convinced that something more was necessary, than being a Jew and external conformity to the Mosaic law. He was more than a mere formalist. In this state of mind he came to Christ. His coming at all was a proof of his sense of ignorance, of his desire for instruction and of his candor; as also of his reverence for Christ. His coming by night was a probable intimation of his timidity, and of the weakness of his faith in Christ as one who had come from God. Our Lord met him with kindness, and adapted his discourse to his state of mind. The two fundamental errors of Judaism were, 1. That natural descent from Abraham, or at least external union with the chosen people was essential to salvation, and 2. That works,—what a man does and what he is, his inward state,—was the ground of his acceptance with God. Our Lord teaches, 1. That an inward spiritual change was essentially necessary to salvation, as much for the Jew as for the Gentile. 2. That the true method of acceptance or of justification was not by works but by faith; that men are to be saved in a manner analogous to that in which the Hebrews bitten by the serpents were healed.
The points of analogy are mainly these. 1. The serpent was lifted up, suspended on a pole in the sight of the people; so Christ was to be lifted up, suspended on the cross in the sight of all men. To be lifted up is not to be understood of Christ’s exaltation, as some explain it in order to get rid of the idea of his sacrificial death. a. Because “to be lifted up” was in the Aramaic dialect and probably in the Hellenistic, almost as definite as the expression with us to be “hanged,” or “crucified.” Malefactors among the Jews were hung upon a tree, if not before, at least after death. b. The analogy forbids that interpretation. The serpent was not exalted in the sense of being honored. c. Christ elsewhere uses the word in the same sense. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth,” signifying by what death he should die. The people understood him, and therefore said “We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever; and how sayest thou, the Son of man must be lifted up?” That is, publicly put to death by suspension on the cross. Christ told Nicodemus that he was to be crucified, that as the serpent was lifted up, so was he to be publicly executed.
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The design of the elevation of the serpent was the salvation of the people from temporal death, and their restoration to health and all the enjoyments of life. So the design of Christ’s being lifted up was to save his people from perdition, and to secure for them eternal life.
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In both cases the means was indispensable to the end. There was no other means by which the people could be healed but by the elevation of the serpent. This God had ordained. None other could be substituted in its place. To reject or neglect this was to reject the only means of cure. So Christ’s death is the only means of salvation. If that be unknown, neglected or rejected, the soul perishes. Men have attempted a thousand substitutes, but all in vain. As they cannot see the fitness of the means to the end, they refuse to embrace it and so perish. If the Hebrews had asked how can a brazen serpent heal the bite of a living serpent, and refused to avail themselves of the means of life, until they could see the causal connection between the events, they would have died. And so it is with sinners.
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The condition of cure was merely looking,—the simplest thing in the world,—adapted to all, to the old and to the young, to the ignorant and to the wise; to the good and to the bad, to the rich and to the poor. This condition alone was required. Nothing subsequent, no pledge or engagement as to future conduct. So in the case of Christ. We have only to look, not with the eye of the body but of the soul. This includes, a. Knowledge or apprehension of the subject. b.
Conviction of its being the appointed means of cure. c. Trust in its saving efficacy. This method of salvation is therefore adapted to all men, of every class.
- The nature of the cure. The bitten Hebrew was freed from the venom of the serpent, rescued from death, restored to activity and life. So we are freed from the venom of sin, and from its condemnation, and receive a new, imperishable and eternal life.
This teaches us:
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That the gospel method of salvation is perfectly gratuitous. It excludes all idea of merit.
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It has its ground and source outside of ourselves.
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It shows that no man co-operates in his regeneration or first reconciliation with God. It is not partly his work and partly the work of God.
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No preparation for healing is possible or necessary. “Just as I am.”
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The Hebrew’s cure was instantaneous and final. So, in one sense, is ours. But in another it is gradual. We need to look again and again, to keep always looking, and looking only unto Jesus.
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We learn how we are to direct sinners.
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