John 3:14-21
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Look to Jesus
Look to Jesus
On the morning of January 6, 1850, Charles Spurgeon attended a Primitive Methodist worship service in Colchester because a snowstorm prevented his attending the chapel he intended to worship in. The snow prevented the regular minister from being present. Only a dozen or so people were in attendance that day. A layman who was a shoemaker by trade, entered the pulpit to preach. Spurgeon described the man as “really stupid [the term respectively meant unlearned]. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say.”35 Because of this, the man stayed close to his text without adding superlatives.
The Holy Bible: King James Version (Isaiah Chapter 45:22)
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
The preacher had gone about ten minutes with his delivery and then paused. He looked directly at Spurgeon and said, “Young man, you look very miserable.” The statement arrested Spurgeon’s attention. The preacher continued, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” Spurgeon’s response was “I saw at once the way of salvation.”37 This truth followed him throughout life; he proclaimed it to all he could.
John 3:14
John 3:14
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the man be lifted up.”
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
1. Jesus had been explaining to Nicodemus the necessity of the new birth. By nature, man is dead in trespasses and sins, and in order to obtain life he must be born again. However, before the new birth could take place, before eternal life could be given, something else had to happen. That something else is the “Son of man must be lifted up. Life could only come out of death. This could not be just any death. The atonement could only be made by one in nature with him who sinned and only as man was God’s Son capable of taking upon Himself the sins and the penalties for those sins.
The Jews would probably see being lifted up as being lifted up to the throne of David. But before that could happen, Jesus had to be lifted up on the cross of shame and enduring the judgment of God upon His people's sin. To explain this to Nicodemus, Jesus goes back to Numbers 21. The people were grumbling and complaining against God. God sent fiery serpents among them and a lot of people died. This is clearly an example of us being bitten by sin and dying. The people then cried out Moses for relief and he in turn cried out to God on their behalf. God told Moses to make a serpent of brass, put it on a pole, and tell those that had been bitten to look on the serpent on the pole and they would be healed. Dying sinners need to look on Jesus and in faith believe they will be healed from their sins. A deadly serpent is a real good image of sin. The brass serpent was an image of the actual serpents and Jesus was in the image of sinful flesh Rom 8:3. “And God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made like Him. (2 Cor 5:21).
Notice that the Israelites were told only to look upon the serpent of brass and live. There are seven things that these Israelites were not told to do. 1. They were not told to create their own remedy. The religious leaders then and now are trying to invent spiritual ointments but they have found no cure much like the women in Mark 5:26. 2. They were not told to minister to those that had been bitten to earn relief for themselves. 3. They were not told to fight the serpents. Even if they had fought the snakes and won, it would not have done anything for those that had been bitten. We can fight against sin all of our Christian lives and maybe even win some battles but what about those that have already been bitten. 4. They were not to make an offering to the serpent on the Pole. God did not ask them for a payment in order to receive healing. Pink points out that many say give your heart to Jesus but God has not ask us to give Him anything. Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross and just like the Israelites in the wilderness that were bitten and dying all they had to do was look on that brass serpent and they were healed. All we have to do is look to the cross, we do not have to give God anything, it is a free gift merely to be received (Ephe 2 8-10. 5). They were not told to pray to the serpent. The sentiment here is if you pray hard enough, or long enough or use the right words you can achieve salvation, again it is a gift merely to be received. 6. They were not told to look to Moses. This is a reference to looking to law for salvation. People are looking to obedience of the law for salvation, for their own works to save them. That is not what God said to do. God told them to look at the brass serpent on the pole, nothing else just look. We as bitten sinners are to look at Jesus on the cross, nothing else just Jesus. 7. They were not told to look at their own wounds. We tend to judge our own evil ways. If we repent long enough or hard enough or repent of the right things, we can save ourselves. You have to look to the cross.
Remember God told Moses to make the brass serpent so God provided the remedy. God also told Moses to fix the serpent to a pole so everybody could see it and be healed not just certain people. Anybody that would look upon the serpent was healed. You do not have to go the pole, it did not have to come to you it was raised up so everybody could see it. The remedy was provided for everybody. This is a clear example of Faith. Just as the bitten Israelites were healed by a look of faith, so the sinner may be saved by looking to Christ by faith. It is by believing we are saved.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink eBook, Kindle app location 2193-2287)
2. In order to answer Nicodemus’ question from verse 9 “How can these things be?” Jesus goes back in Israel's history to Numbers 21:4-9. This relates the story of how the Israelites grumbled against the Lord and God sent fiery serpents on them to punish them. Once bitten the people would die. The people realizing their mistake ask Moses to pray to God on their behalf that he would take the fiery serpents from them. Moses Prayed to God and God did not remove the fiery serpents but sent them a remedy for the snakebites. God told Moses to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole and when the people look at it, they will be healed. Later on in Israel's history, the brass serpent became an idol and King Hezekiah had to have destroyed (2 Kings 18:4). The Jews were a little confused at being told to make a serpent as it was considered an idol. The Rabbis explained that it was not the serpent that provided the healing, it was God. It meant that you were to look to God for healing So Jesus used this story to illustrate that He must be lifted up like the brass serpent so that once again people will look to Him for healing.
The verb to lift up is hupsoun. It has two meanings, the first to be lifted up on the cross and the other being lifted up to glory at His ascension into Heaven. It is used of the Cross in John 8:28; 12:32. It is used of the Ascension in Acts 2:33; 5:31, Philippians 2:9. These two lifting ups are connected one could not happen without the other.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.134)
3. The thought of being lifted up leads to the thought of being lifted up to heaven from verse 13. This leads to the thought of Jesus being lifted up. God told Moses to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole. This was a cure for a punishment due to disobedience (Num 12:4-9). Sin is the snake that bit us and we are all dying. God sent His Son as a remedy for the snakebite of sin. The next verse tells us what we have to do to receive the remedy.
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 281-282)
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
1. Notice here that the remedy was for everyone that was bitten. No matter how many times he may have been bitten; no matter how far the poison had advanced, if he but looked he should live. It is not sin that can bar the sinner's way to the Savior but unbelief. Some chose not the look, it sounded too good to be true so they died. In verse, 15 we see the marvelous Grace of God in whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. Whosoever! This probably would go better with verse 14 but remember that that man became a lost sinner by a look, for the first thing recorded of Eve in connection with the fall of our parents is that “The woman saw that the tree was good for food (Gen 3:6). Now all that is required for salvation is to look to Jesus. (Isa 45:22). Look for the Savior (Phil 3:20)
Numbers 21: “Everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” Therefore, it is in our text “whoever believeth” nothing is said about the strength or intelligence of the belief, for it is not the character or degree of faith that saves, but Christ Himself. Faith is simply the eye of the soul that looks off unto the Lord Jesus, do not rest then, on your faith, but on the savior Himself.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink eBook, Kindle app location 2287-2324)
2. There are two important expressions to be discussed. The first is “believing in Jesus” which means three things. The first thing it means is believing with all our hearts God is as Jesus declared Him to be. That God loves us, cares for us, and wants to forgive us of our sins. The second thing is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God that in Him is the mind of God. The third thing is that we believe that God is a loving Father because we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that therefore what He says about God is true.
The second great phrase is eternal life. The question to ask is If we have eternal life, what do we have? The answer is we have peace with God, it gives us peace with men, it gives us peace with life, it gives us peace with ourselves and lastly, it makes us certain that the deepest peace on earth is only a shadow of the ultimate peace which is to come.
(The Daily Study Bible Series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.134-137)
3. Jesus was lifted up on a cross just like the serpent in Moses’ day. The Israelites had to look at the serpent to be healed. The lost person has to look to Jesus on the Cross to be healed of their sin sickness. Therefore, it is a look of faith in Jesus Christ that gives eternal life to those who are doomed to die.
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
1. Verse 16 explains verse 14. Verse 16 takes us back t the very foundation of everything. God’s great sacrifice on our behalf was provided by love. Christ was God’s love gift. Christ died because God loved men (people), and was determined to save them that believe. The death of Christ was the supreme demonstration of God’s love. The atonement was not the cause, but the effect, of God’s love. “ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
In John, 3:16 there are 7 things told us about God’s love. 1. The tense of God’s love. “God so loved” God loved us before we were his children “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Also “yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer 31:3). 2. The magnitude of His love. “God so loved” so is a very big word here. it attempts to describe the magnitude of God’s love. #. The scope of God’s love. “God so loved the world” this was contrary to Jewish thought. God loved more than just the Israelites; God loved the whole world even gentiles. 4. The nature of God’s love. “God so loved the world that he gave” Love is unselfish, it gives. Real love seeks the highest interest of others. 5. The sacrificial character of God’s love “He gave His only begotten Son” God gave His best. 6. The design of His love. “That whosoever believeth on him should not perish” those that choose to believe are the ones that will not perish. 7. The beneficence of God’s love. “But have everlasting life” this is what God imparts to every one of His own.
If we are ever tempted to doubt God’s love, go back to the Cross.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink eBook, Kindle app location 2324-2361)
2. This verse is the very essence of the Gospel. This text tells us 3 great things. 1. It tells us the initiative in all salvation lies with God. Some try to claim that God had to be persuaded by Jesus to forgive. That God is all about judgment and Jesus had to persuade God to relent, This is simply not true. This text tells us it all started with God. It was God who sent His son, and He sent Him because He loved men. At the back of everything is the love of God. 2. It tells us the mainspring of
God’s being is love. God is not trying to satisfy some yearning for power or even satisfaction. But God did not send His son for His sake, He sent Him for our sake, not to satisfy His power but to satisfy His love. God is the Father that will not be satisfied until all of His wandering children have come home. God does not smash men into submission; He yearns over them and woos them into love. 3. It tells us the width of God’s love. It was the world that God loved. Not just one small nation or group of people but God so loved the world. This is for all people no matter how good or bad they or how rich or how poor, God loves the world, that does not leave anybody out. The author quotes Augustine who said “God loves each one of us as if there is only one of us to love.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.137-138)
3. This is an important summary of the Gospel. This verse shows that God’s motivation toward people is love. It also shows that God’s love is not limited to a few or to one group of people but His love gift is for the whole world. God’s love was expressed the giving of His most priceless gift- His Son (Rom 8:3, 32). The Greek monogene, which means only begotten or only born one. Also used in 1:14,18; 3:18 and 1 John 4:9.
On man’s side the gift is simply to be received not earned (John 1;12-13). A person is saved by believing, by trusting Christ.
`Perish does not mean annihilation but rather a final destiny in Hell apart from God who is life, truth, and joy. The opposite is eternal life which is a new quality of life, which a believer has now as a present possession and will possess it forever (cf. John 10:28; 17:3)
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
VERSE 17
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
1. There is every reason why the world should have been condemned. As bad as things were in Israel in the time of Jesus, they were much worse outside of Israel. Outside of Israel, the knowledge of the true and living God had nearly vanished from the earth. Where God is not known and loved, there is no love among men for their neighbors. When you read the second half of Romans 1, you can see the world deserves judgment. But God , instead of judgment and condemnation sent his son that through him the world “might be saved”. The word “might” here does not mean uncertainty. Instead, it declares the purpose of God in the sending of his son. It has the sense of the world should be saved. Any uncertainty here is on man’s side, not, on God’s side as explained in verse 18.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink eBook, Kindle app location 2361-2374)
2. The author here combines verses 17 through 21, which will make it difficult to separate the commentary into each verse. Here we start to see the paradox of the Gospel between love and judgment. We start seeing that man has a choice. We are confronted with judgment, condemnation and conviction as opposed to God’s love. So the question is how can both things be true?
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.138)
3. Though light cast shadows, its purpose is to illuminate. Though those who choose not to believe are condemned, God’s purpose in sending His Son is to save, not damnation. God does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek 18:23, 32). God desires that everyone be saved (1 Tim 2:4: 2 pet 3:9).
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
VERSE 18
“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
1. For the believer there is “no condemnation” (Rom 8:1) because Christ was condemned in his place. The unbeliever is condemned already; by nature, he is a “child of wrath” (Eph 2:3). “He enters this world with the curse of a sin hating-God upon him. If he hears the Gospel and receives not the Christ, he incurs a new and increased condemnation through his unbelief. How emphatically this proves that the sinner is responsible for his unbelief!”
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink eBook, Kindle app location 2374)
2. This is the time when a person hears the gospel and has to make a choice. People make a conscientious choice whether to believe or not to believe.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.139)
3. The instrumental means of salvation is believing in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. However, people who reject the light are in darkness (1:5; 8:12) and are therefore already under God’s judgment. They stand condemned. They are just like the people back in Numbers 21: 4-9 who willfully rejected the remedy. They died simply because they would not look at the brazen serpent just like the sinner that willfully refuses to look to Christ. A believer in Christ is under no condemnation (Rom 8:1); he will not be condemned (John 5:24).
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
VERSE 19
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
1. Here is the cause of man’s unbelief. Man loves the darkness, and therefore hates the light. Not only are people in the dark but they love the darkness. The reason they love the darkness and hate the light is because their deeds are evil and they want to keep on doing them.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink, eBook, Kindle app location 2374-2386)
2. We have seen in the prior verse that people have a choice to believe or not to believe. Now we are starting to see why people choose not to believe. People like committing their evil deeds so they prefer to stay in darkness. Nobody likes to be told that the things they are doing are wrong so they simply ignore the truth.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.139)
3. Men love darkness because of what it hides. They want to continue in their evil deeds. A believer is also a sinner (though a redeemed one) but he confesses his sin and responds to God (1 John 1:6-7). In one sense, man’s love of darkness is his love for idols.
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
VERSE 20
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
1. People do not want to come to the light because their deeds will be revealed, this why men do not read the scriptures. God’s word would condemn them.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink, eBook, Kindle app location 2386)
2. People try to hide in the darkness. If you have something to hide, you try to stay in the darkness so that nobody can see what you are trying to hide. Just because nobody can see, it does not mean that it is not there. If you are engaged in an evil task, you do not want it to be seen.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.140)
3. Just as light shows things that are otherwise unseen, so Christ the light exposes people's deeds as evil. The word for evil here is phaula, which means worthless. Unbelievers have no ultimate meaning of life, no worthy motivation, no adequate goal, and a destiny of doom. He fears that if he comes to the light his deeds will be seen as worthless, and he would need to turn from them.
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS
VERSE 21
“But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
1. “Cometh to the truth” describes what is characteristic of every believer. “Cometh” is in the perfect tense, which means he comes again and again to the light of God’s word in order to learn God’s mind and quit doing the things he should not be doing and instead doing what is pleasing to God.
(The Gospel of John, A.W. Pink, eBook, Kindle app location 2386)
2. People who see the light and go toward the light have chosen to believe. They want their deeds revealed so that can quit doing their evil deeds and start focusing on the deeds that God would approve of.
(The Daily Study Bible series, the Gospel of John revised edition, William Barclay P.140)
3. Jesus is like a magnet. His people are drawn to Him and welcome His revelation. Though the light rebukes their sin, they respond in repentance and faith. They live by the truth (cf. 2 John 1-2, 4; 3 John 1, 40. By regeneration, they live differently than their former lives of darkness. Now their lives are by faith in Jesus and His word. In addition, the Spirit working in their lives, gives them new power, goals, and interests (2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:10).
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament P. 282)
EXEGESIS PERSONAL OPINION
1. VERSE 14: Jesus is answering Nicodemus's question from verse 9 which was “How can these things be? This is relating back to verses 3 and 7 where Jesus says, “ye must be born again.” Jesus says “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up:” This is relating back to the event that happened in Numbers 21:4-9 in which the children of Israel were grumbling and complaining against God and Moses. So God sent fiery serpents on them that bit them and the people were dying. The people realized that they had sinned and ask Moses to intercede on their behalf. Moses prayed to God and God had Moses make a brass serpent and raise it up on a pole so that everybody could see it. When somebody was bitten by one of the fiery serpents all they had to do was look at the serpent on the pole and they would be healed.
The story of the brazen serpent is a clear picture of Christ on the Cross. Man has been bitten by the fiery serpent of sin and is dying (Rom 6: 23; 3:23) God provided a remedy, all we have to do is look to Jesus being lifted up on the Cross and we will be healed. I do need to point out that lifted up has a double meaning, which is Jesus being lifted up on the Cross and be lifted up to glory in the ascension. One could not occur without the other.
2. VERSE 15: God has provided the remedy but how we get it? Jesus gives us the answer in verse 15. “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Just like the people who were dying from the snake bites had to look at the serpent on the pole, we as sinners have to look at Jesus on the Cross. Jesus Himself tells us plainly that we have to believe in Him. There are not any kind of works attached, simply believe in Him. Jesus also said whosoever believeth, this anybody that will believe. It does not matter how bad you have been or how poor you are, there are no distinctions to keep you from being saved. Whosoever means exactly what it says. There is not one person in all of God’s creation that God will not save if they will believe in Him. I would also add here the seven things that are not required that Arthur Pink listed. There is only one requirement on our part and that is to believe on Jesus. The word believe occurs 98 times in the Gospel of John and 5 times in this group of verses.
It is important to note that believing is more than simple head knowledge. This is about laying your very life in the hand of Jesus and trusting that what he says is true. You have to believe the very next verse, which is the Gospel in a nutshell as many people call it.
3. VERSE 16: This is probably the most famous; most quoted and most memorized verse in the entire Bible. This to me is the Central Integrating Thought of the whole Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, it all points back to John 3:16. Jesus in this verse is explaining verse 14. It tells us why God would send His Son to die on the Cross. “For God so loved the world” This the supreme love of all time. God loved us so much that he gave His most precious gift, His one and only Son. I cannot imagine anybody loving somebody else so much that they would sacrifice their one and only Son. This is an act of love beyond human comprehension. The tricky part is not saying that God’s love saved us but because of His great love, He gave his only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins. It is by grace that we are saved (Eph 2:8-10)
Again Jesus tells us who He is willing to save and what is required to receive salvation “Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Again, I would point out that there are not any kind of works attached to this. It is not about what we do or who we are, it is about what Jesus has done for us.
I would like to mention there is some controversy over the words only begotten. I think the main point to remember is that we really do not have any kind of word to describe the unique special relationship that Jesus has with God. Only begotten is an attempt but it does have some problems the biggest of which is that to some people this implies a natural conception. In addition, some people use only begotten to imply that Jesus was created. Neither of these two things is true and this is one of the reasons you have to read the Bible as a whole and not lift verses or words out by themselves.
4. VERSE 17: In verse 17, we see that thankfully God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. Condemnation is like being charged with first-degree murder, being found guilty, and being sentenced to death all at once. There are no appeals and the sentence is to be carried out immediately. It is clear that this is what the world deserves but thankfully, because of God’s love Jesus came so that the world through Him might be saved. Might does not mean that God is indecisive about saving us. His mind is made up. He paid the sin debt for us. The “might” refers to man's choice to believe or not.
5. VERSE 18: This verse shows a contrast or comparison between those that believe and those that choose not to believe. The first statement is very clear, if you believe on Jesus you are not condemned. That does not mean that you are not guilty, we are all guilty, we have all been convicted and sentenced to death but the difference here is that Jesus has given us a pardon. The pardon is a free gift to us. It was not a free gift to Jesus, it cost Him His life.
Then we see those that are condemned already are because they have not believed in the only begotten Son of God. This verse makes it clear to me that the sin that sends people to hell is not believing in Jesus. Jesus is reaching His hand out to people offering them a free pardon but they reject the free pardon. In a sense they are calling Jesus a liar, they do not believe what He is saying is true. This also makes it clear to me, that believing or not believing is a choice.
6. VERSE 19: This verse tells us the reason that some choose darkness over light. It is because they love the darkness. They love the darkness because their deeds were evil. Some people enjoy their evil ways and they will not give them up even though it means spending eternity in hell.
7. VERSE 20: For those that do evil actually hate the light and they choose not to go to the light. They do not want to go to the light because they will be convicted of their evil ways and would have to give the things they think they love. People do not like to be told what they are doing is wrong so they simply try to avoid the truth.
8. VERSE 21: The opposite of the last two verses is verse 21. Here we have believers that keep going back to the light. They read their Bibles so that God can reveal their evil deeds so that they can repent and try not to do them anymore. Not only that, but they also go to the light to see the kind of deeds that God would want them to do so that they can live a life Holy and pleasing to Him. We want to please God not because we have to, but because we want to.