Scripture Reading: John 3:9-16, 22-36
The title of this chapter is “The Serpent and the Bride.” It may seem strange to put these two matters together. How can the serpent go together with the bride? What does such a title mean? This title is absolutely not related to anything religious or ethical. It is very common, of course, to speak of a bridegroom and a bride. But who would link together the serpent and the bride? Nevertheless, chapter 3 of John speaks of both the serpent and the bride. We all know that in this chapter we have Nicodemus, the matter of regeneration by the Spirit, and the “golden” verse, John 3:16. However, I wonder how many Christians have paid adequate attention to the words serpent and bride found in verses 14 and 29.
John 3:14 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The Lord seemed to be saying to Nicodemus, “You are a teacher of Israel, and surely you must have taught the story in Numbers 21. According to that chapter, the children of Israel were bitten by serpents. The serpentine nature got into them. In the sight of God, they all became serpentine. As they were dying from the poison of the serpent, they cried out to Moses, and he prayed to God for them. God told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and lift it up upon a pole.” In the Old Testament to be lifted up in such a way denotes judgment by God and before God. Hence, for the bronze serpent to be lifted up on a pole indicates that it was judged by God. We know from Numbers 21:9 that “if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
The bronze serpent was the same as a real serpent in form but not in nature. It had the form of a serpent, but it did not have the poisonous nature of a serpent. The bronze serpent was a substitute for all the children of Israel who had been bitten by the fiery serpents and who had become serpentine. Therefore, all the children of Israel were judged by God when their substitute, the bronze serpent, was lifted up on the pole and judged by Him. Furthermore, as we have pointed out, whoever looked upon that bronze serpent was made alive. The Bible does not say that the children of Israel were healed by looking at the bronze serpent; it says that they were made alive. In the sight of God, they were not sick; they were dead. This was the reason they became alive by looking at the uplifted bronze serpent.
In John 3:14 the Lord pointed out to Nicodemus, an elderly religionist who taught the Bible to God’s people, that as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness for the children of Israel who had been bitten by the serpent, so He, the Son of Man, would be lifted up in order that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life. Verse 15 is the completion of verse 14: “That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.” The word that at the beginning of verse 15 indicates that the result of the Lord’s being lifted up as the Son of Man is eternal life for everyone who believes. Verse 16 begins with the word for. This indicates that 3:16 is an explanation of verses 14 and 15. It explains the fact that, in the sight of God, the Lord Jesus was lifted up as our Substitute to bear God’s judgment for us so that we may look at Him and receive eternal life. Because in Adam we were bitten by the old serpent, we were dead. But now through Christ as the bronze serpent lifted up on the cross, we may receive eternal life, the life of God.
The serpent is mentioned in John 3 in such a way as to indicate that we, fallen human beings, are all serpentine. We are not only sinners; we are serpentine because we were bitten by the old serpent. To be sure, when Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus that night, he certainly did not have any realization that he was serpentine. He probably regarded himself as a God-seeking and God-fearing man, as a man who tried to please God by keeping the law of God and who taught the Scriptures to the children of Israel. Nicodemus, however, was not satisfied with the law or with the teachings in the Old Testament. He had heard about Jesus the Nazarene and what signs He had done. Nicodemus may have seen some of these signs, and he may also have heard the Lord speak. But he did not dare to come to Him directly, because that would have been a shame for a man of his position. This was the reason Nicodemus came to the Lord at night.
We know that Nicodemus respected the Lord Jesus by the way he spoke to Him in verse 2. Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Among the Jews, rabbi was the highest title that could be given to anyone. Not only did Nicodemus call the Lord a rabbi; he also recognized that He came from God. He knew that as God had sent Moses to the fathers, so He had sent the Lord Jesus to them. Nicodemus seemed to be saying, “The other Pharisees may not respect You, but I do. I respect You as a rabbi sent to us by God. Surely You can give me some better teachings. As a teacher of the Scriptures, I want to receive more teachings, better teachings, higher teachings.” However, the Lord Jesus answered Nicodemus not with teachings but with a clear word about being born again: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). Here the Lord Jesus seemed to be telling Nicodemus, “You come to Me for teachings. But you do not need more teaching — you need to be born again. Nicodemus, you need another birth.”
In speaking with Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus was wise. He did not tell him frankly and directly that he was serpentine. The Lord did not say, “Nicodemus, because you are serpentine, you need to be born again.” First, the Lord told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. Only later did He bring in the matter of the bronze serpent.
In the conversation between Nicodemus and the Lord Jesus, there were two sides, the side of Nicodemus and the side of the Lord. As an elderly man, Nicodemus was religious, ethical, and moral. What he said to the Lord here was natural, religious, moral, ethical, and human.
The Lord’s way of speaking to Nicodemus was not religious, ethical, moral, or human. The Lord told him that it was necessary for him to be born anew. Moses did not teach this. Neither was it taught by Confucius or the Greek philosophers. This word is something beyond religion, ethics, morality, and philosophy.
No doubt, the Lord’s word about being born anew was puzzling to such a religious and ethical person as the elderly Nicodemus. Nicodemus said to the Lord, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). Although the Lord’s word about being born anew was something beyond human thought, the question Nicodemus asked in verse 4 indicates that he brought the Lord’s word down to the human level. He thought that to be born anew required a return to the mother’s womb to be born a second time. But even if such a thing were possible, we would still have our serpentine nature. Being reborn physically would do nothing to change this. As the Lord said in verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “Even if you could go back again and again to your mother’s womb to be born, you would still be flesh.” In the sight of God, this flesh contains the poison of the old serpent. Our flesh is altogether serpentine.
The Lord was patient with Nicodemus and went on to say in verse 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” We have seen that water is the central concept of the ministry of John the Baptist, that is, to terminate those of the old creation. Spirit is the central concept of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, that is, to germinate people in the new creation. These two main concepts put together are the whole concept of the matter of regeneration. Regeneration is the termination of those of the old creation with all their deeds and their germination in the new creation with the divine life.
In 3:5 the Lord was saying to Nicodemus, “You need to be buried in the water spoken of by John the Baptist in his ministry. John did not come to teach you how to keep the law of Moses; he came to bury you. Do you know why John wanted to bury you? It is because you are dead, you are a corpse, and a corpse needs to be buried. John the Baptist said that he would immerse you in water and bury you there but that after him another One would come to baptize you with the Spirit. The water is for burying you, and the Spirit is for raising you up. John came to bury you in water, and I came to raise you up so that you may be a new person, a person resurrected by the Spirit of life.”
It seems that Nicodemus understood the Lord’s word at least to a certain extent. Therefore, he went on to ask in verse 9, “How can these things be?” In answer to Nicodemus’s question, the Lord said that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The Lord went on to say that whoever believes into Him as the uplifted Son of Man will receive eternal life. Then He explained that this is the real manifestation of God’s love to the world.
The Lord’s word to Nicodemus in verses 14 and 15 implied that for Nicodemus to be regenerated, to be born anew, he would need to realize that he was serpentine. The Lord seemed to be telling him, “Nicodemus, you are one of those who have been bitten by the serpent, just as the children of Israel were bitten by fiery serpents in the wilderness. Therefore, you should not regard yourself as good. You need to see that you are serpentine. In the sight of God, Nicodemus, you are a serpent, one of the offspring of that old serpent in Genesis 3. You need Me to be your Substitute, to be the bronze serpent judged by God so that you may be redeemed and have the ground to believe into Me to receive the divine life, in order that you may be reborn to become another person, a new man.”
According to 3:14, Christ became a bronze serpent. Once again I say that He was a serpent in form, but He did not have the poisonous nature of a serpent. We, however, actually are serpentine, for in our fallen nature we are children of the old serpent, the devil (1 John 3:10). For this reason, in Matthew 12:34 the Lord Jesus called the Pharisees the “offspring of vipers.” In Matthew 23:33 He called them serpents and a brood of vipers, the offspring of the most poisonous kind of serpents. The Lord was telling the Pharisees that they were little vipers. Furthermore in John 8:44 He said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks it out of his own possessions; for he is a liar and the father of it.” Because the devil is the father of sinners, sinners are children of the devil. The devil is the old serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), and sinners also are serpents, the offspring of vipers. Therefore, in the sight of God, in our fallen nature we are not merely sinful — we are serpentine.
In chapter 3 of John we not only have the serpent; we also have the bride. In verse 29 John the Baptist said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” Who is this bride? The bride is the composition, the aggregate, of all the regenerated ones. The totality of all those who have been regenerated is the bride of Christ. We all are part of Christ’s bride, and this bride is His increase (v. 30).
In 3:26 the disciples of John the Baptist came to him and said, “Rabbi, He who was with you across the Jordan, of whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” John’s disciples were made jealous by the fact that so many of his followers were coming to the Lord Jesus. As part of his answer to his disciples, John the Baptist said concerning Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (v. 30). The increase in this verse is the bride in the previous verse, and the bride is a living composition of all the regenerated ones. This means that in this chapter regeneration is not only to bring the divine life into the believers but is also to make them the corporate bride for Christ’s increase. As Adam was increased in Eve, so Christ is increased in His bride.
Some Christian teachers understand verse 30 in a natural, human way. They think that John the Baptist’s word means that Christ must be everything and that we should be nothing. This interpretation is incorrect. As we have indicated, the increase in verse 30 refers to the bride in verse 29. By being the bronze serpent bearing God’s judgment, Christ has opened the way for us to believe into Him and receive Him so that we may be regenerated to become His increase. As those who believe into Christ, we are all members of His Body. This is Christ’s increase. When Christ was on earth, He was the individual Christ. Now there is the corporate Christ, and this corporate Christ is the increase of the individual Christ. This corporate Christ is the church, the Body, and the bride. Therefore, in John 3 we can clearly see the serpent and the bride.
In 3:31-36 we have a very high revelation of Christ. These verses speak of the immeasurable Christ, the One who comes from above and who is above all, who speaks the words of God and gives the Spirit not by measure, and the One to whom the Father has given all things. This is the universal Christ, the immeasurable Christ.
The intention of this chapter in the Gospel of John is to show us that this unlimited Christ must have a universal increase, and He is in the process of gaining this increase today. Wherever we go, Christ is present by the Spirit He gives without measure. Verse 34 says definitely, “He gives the Spirit not by measure.” This is the Spirit He gives to His Body, the church. The Spirit given by Christ to His Body is immeasurable. Every one of the millions of persons who believes in the Lord Jesus has received the Spirit, the immeasurable Spirit. This immeasurable Spirit produces a universal increase for the unlimited Christ. I would call your attention to the three adjectives used in the previous sentence: immeasurable, universal, unlimited. I use the word immeasurable to describe the Spirit, the word universal to describe the increase, and the word unlimited to describe Christ. The unlimited Christ gives the immeasurable Spirit in order to produce a universal increase.
Christ and His bride, His increase, form a universal couple. In the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, we see this couple. The Lamb, Christ, is the Husband, and the New Jerusalem is the bride. In John 3 we have the serpent and the bride. Ultimately, in the book of Revelation we see that Satan as the old serpent will be entirely dealt with (20:2, 10) and that the bride of Christ as the New Jerusalem will be brought forth in full (21:2, 10-27).
