More on John 3

If you really believe in Holy Scripture, then you know that our faith in Yeshua the Messiah as the Son of and way to the heavenly Father is the exclusive path to the kingdom of heaven. Bluntly put, there is absolutely no other way that anyone is going to receive eternal life outside of faith in Yeshua as Yahweh's Son. Yeshua put it this way:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." [John 3:14-15]

In this Scriptural account Yeshua was speaking to the man Nicodemus, a ruler of the Judahites (John 3:1). Yeshua even referred to Nicodemus as a "master" of Israel, meaning that he was a teacher of the people of Israel; he knew about the Scriptures. I'm certain that Nicodemus knew of the episode in Numbers 21 concerning the fiery serpents that were sent to bite the people of Israel. When the Israelites became discouraged in the wilderness and complained about being taken away from Egypt and brought into the wilderness, Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people and much of the people of Israel perished (Numbers 21:4-6). After a request from the people, Moses did pray to Yahweh for the removal of the serpents and Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, "Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live." (Numbers 21:8)

Numbers 21:9 states that Moses did as Yahweh had commanded and those Israelites that obeyed Yahweh by looking upon the serpent lived. This was a condition that had to be obeyed in order for any Israelite who had been bitten to stay alive. It wasn't a might, it was a must. Those Israelites who refused to look at the serpent on the pole would perish, and this is what Yeshua is speaking of in John 3:14-15.

Just as that serpent was lifted upon by Moses in the wilderness, in the same way the Son of man must be lifted up and beheld by the people. Whoever believes in the Son of man will not perish (like those in Israel who did not look at the serpent) but have life eternal. Once again, the two accounts work in the same way. Just as the Israelites had to look at the serpent to "escape" , so also must a person believe in Yeshua to not perish. The teaching of Scriptures is exclusive, not inclusive as many in modern Christendom are promoting. If you truly believe the Bible, then you should not make non-believers feel comfortable about their different faiths or non-faiths. You should be concerned about persuading them (2 Corinthians 5:11) to believe in the person and work of Yeshua the anointed one.


Matthew Janzen