The advent of a wholly new teaching.
Nicodemus asks in surprise, "How can these things be?" And Jesus, with equal surprise, asks how a teacher in Israel can be ignorant of them. Then he discloses a new scheme of truth.
I. THE NEW TEACHING "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." Mark:
1. Its nature. "That we do know."
2. Its source. "That we have seen." Man believes, for he must here walk by faith, not by sight; but Jesus sees. He has seen heaven, and knows all heavenly realities by immediate intuition.
3. It is truth to be openly declared. "We speak … we testify." Jesus and his disciples are witnesses to the truth.
4. Yet it was rejected by the rabbinical teachers. "And ye receive not our testimony."
II. FAITH IS NEEDED FOR THE RECEPTION OF THIS NEW TEACHING. "If I told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" There is an evident contrast between two classes of truths.
1. Earthly things.
2. Heavenly things. These are the secrets of Heaven which are to be received on the word of Christ. The knowledge of earthly things will initiate us into the knowledge of heavenly things. Evidently our Lord classes among heavenly things the revelation he makes in the following verses respecting the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
III. THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW TEACHING. "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven." Jesus knows heavenly things because heaven is his native home.
1. These words imply the Incarnation of the Son of God; for they imply his pre-existence.
2. They imply his possession of two natures in one Person; for he who is the Son of man as to his human nature, is in heaven in his Divine nature.
3. They imply that during his human life he received an immediate intuition of heavenly things.
4. They imply that heaven is a place as well as a state.
The revelation of the Divine plan of salvation.
Redemption is the essential content of revelation. The Incarnation carries with it the necessity of the Crucifixion.
I. THE NATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SYMBOL HERE PRESENTED TO OUR VIEW. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
1. This refers to the last miracle wrought by Moses on the borders of the promised land. (Numbers 21:7.)
2. The Israelites were to see in it the sovereign hand of God, and not to ascribe the efficacy of the cure to the mere outward symbol—the brazen serpent—apart from Divine power.
3. They were to see in the whole incident, not a mere effective comparison, but a preparatory type—a figure of "good things to come," exhibiting
II. THE WORK OF CHRIST. "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
1. Consider the meaning of this expression.
2. There was a Divine necessity for the death of Christ. "The Son of man must be lifted up."
III. THE DESIGN OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. "That whosoever believeth in him should have eternal life." Mark the various points of comparison between the type and the antitype.
1. The poison of the serpents in the wilderness represents the deadly nature of sin. That poison was death; so sin is death.
2. The gaze of the stricken Israelites answers to the look of faith. "There was life in a look."
3. The brazen serpent answers to Christ the Son of man. We admit none of the fancies of divines respecting this matter. The one point of analogy was in the "lifting up." Jesus is the Object to be looked at by faith; and, as such, is seen
4. The healing of the Israelites answers to that eternal life which is the result of faith. Thus the death of Christ is indispensable to the life of believers. And it stands in causal connection with eternal life as their inheritance. This passage proves not, as some divines say, that life is first, and that the acceptance of the sinner flows from the life; but that acceptance flows from Christ's death, and that life issues out of the acceptance.