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I. The Lamb of God
II. The brass serpent
Having lived an excellent human life for thirty-three and a half years after His incarnation, the Lord Jesus went to the cross. Crucifixion was the cruelest and most shameful way to die in those days. Yet we should not consider the Lord's death as a sad and tragic event. His death was the greatest and most wonderful death in the entire universe. In fact, the cross was the goal of Christ's incarnation and human living. On one hand the Lord was crucified by men, but on the other hand He went to the cross willingly in order to accomplish God's eternal purpose (John 10:15; Heb. 12:2). The cross was where He accomplished all His work of redemption so that man might be brought back to God.
You probably know that Christ was crucified for our sins. That is wonderful, but His death accomplished much more than that. In order to see this, we will take the next two lessons to look at five things that the Lord was when He died on the cross. The Bible tells us that He died as the Lamb of God, the brass serpent, the last Adam, the peacemaker, and the grain of wheat.
In John 1:29 when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he proclaimed to everyone: "Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!" When man fell from God, God righteously had to require man to pay for those sins by the shedding of blood (by giving his life). But because of His love, God told the people they could substitute lambs and other cattle as sacrifices for their sins. By doing that, the people were spared from God's judgment.
Those Old Testament sacrifices were types (symbols) of Christ. God required those sacrificial lambs to be without spot or blemish (Exo. 12:5). We saw in Lesson Fifteen that He was indeed without spot or blemish. Christ came as the real Lamb of God. Before, the people had to offer the sacrifices over and over again. Their sins were not actually taken away; they were merely covered up (Heb. 10:11). But behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sins! Jesus offered Himself once for all (Heb. 9:28; 10:10, 12) for the forgiveness of all (Matt. 26:28). Because we have committed many sins, God requires the shedding of our blood. But Christ shed His blood for us. By believing in the Lord Jesus, we are completely forgiven of our sins and are freed from God's penalty of death!
God's intention is that we walk in holiness, but we still sin. Sinning can frustrate our fellowship with the Lord, but Christ's death as the Lamb of God fully takes care of this problem. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous that He may forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). God is absolutely righteous. Because Christ already died for us, He must instantly forgive us when we confess our sins. Afterward, we should not feel guilty. If we do, that is the Devil's lie. We should tell him, "Devil, you are a liar. I am cleansed by the Lamb's blood. I can fully enjoy the Lord!" This is how we can enjoy Christ's death as the Lamb of God.
When Adam ate of the forbidden tree in Genesis 3, Satan, the old serpent, injected his evil nature into man. Our nature was poisoned with Satan's nature and we became sinful, serpentine. This is why we often behave the way we do — like snakes. We also see this behavior all around us.
In the Old Testament, when the children of Israel sinned against God, many of them were bitten by serpents and died. When they cried out to Moses, the Lord told him to lift up a brass serpent on a pole. Everyone who looked at that serpent was forgiven, healed, and kept alive (Num. 21:4-9). In John 3:14 the Lord said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." This means that when the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was lifted up as the brass serpent. He died so that the serpent might be destroyed. As the Lamb, He died on the cross to take away our sin. But as the brass serpent, He died on the cross to destroy the old serpent, Satan, the Devil (Heb. 2:14).
The brass serpent had only the likeness of a serpent. It did not have the poisonous nature. In the same way, Christ was made in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3) yet He had no sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). When Christ destroyed Satan, He also did away with the satanic nature in our flesh.
Satan is also the ruler of the world. The world is the system all around us which distracts us from God; it is the kingdom of darkness. Because Christ destroyed Satan, He also destroyed the world, his evil kingdom. As the brass serpent, Christ terminated Satan, our satanic nature, and the world.
That is Christ's finished work. We, however, still are bothered every day by our sinful flesh and the world. The world is always trying to draw us away from the Lord by stirring up the lust of our flesh. So, we must apply Christ as the brass serpent to our daily experience. Galatians 5:24 says that "they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts." Romans 8:13 says that by the Spirit we can put to death the practices of our body.
Take watching television as an example. You might realize that many things on television are unhealthy and dirty for our minds. You may also know that it can be a waste of your time. Yet, you may have experienced an uncontrollable urge to watch it, even against your parents' wishes. That desire comes from the stirring up of the passions and lusts of your flesh. How can you be saved from it? You can be saved by turning to the Lord, who is the Spirit in your spirit. The Spirit contains everything Christ did, including His death as the brass serpent. When you call on Him, the Spirit comes with Christ's crucifixion to kill your flesh. This is how we put to death the practices of our body by the Spirit. This is how we terminate the lusts and passions of the flesh. You may fail sometimes — that is why we have the blood. But do not use that as an excuse to sin. We all need to call on the dear Lord's name to crucify the flesh. What a shame to the Devil! His efforts to use the world to attract our flesh will only cause us to call on the Lord even more! Hallelujah! Christ is the Victor!
