IV. THE SAVIOUR LIFTED UP, AND THE LOOK OF FAITH.
"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
iii. 14, 15.
"And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (This he said, signifying what
death he should die.)"-John xii. 32, 33.
IN order to make this subject plain, I will read the passage
referred to-Num. xxi. 6-9. "And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the
people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from
us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, 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. And Moses made a
serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
lived."
This is the transaction to which Christ alluded in the text. The
object in both cases was to save men from the bite of the serpent, its
influence being unchecked, is the death of the body: the effects of sin,
unpardoned and uncleansed from the heart, are the ruin of the soul. Christ is
lifted up, to the end that sinners, believing in Him, may not perish, but may
have eternal life. In such a connection, to perish cannot mean annihilation,
for it must be the antithesis of eternal life, and this is plainly much more
than eternal existence. It must be eternal happiness -- real life in the sense
of exquisite enjoyment. The counterpart of this, eternal misery, is presented
under the term "perish." It is common in the Scriptures to find a
state of endless misery contrasted with one of endless happiness.
We may observe two points of analogy between the brazen serpent
and Christ.
1. Christ must be lifted UP as the serpent was in the
wilderness. From the passage quoted above out of John xii. it is plain that
this refers to His being raised up from the earth upon His cross at His
crucifixion.
2. Christ must be held up as a remedy for sin, even as the
brazen serpent was as a remedy for a poison. It is not uncommon in the Bible to
see sin represented as a malady. For this malady, Christ had healing power. He
professed to be able to forgive sin and to cleanse the soul from its moral
pollution. Continually did He claim to have this power and encourage men to rely
upon Him and to resort to Him for its application. In all His personal
instructions He was careful to hold up Himself as having this power, and as
capable of affording a remedy for sin.
In this respect the serpent of brass was a type of Christ.
Whoever looked upon this serpent was healed. So Christ heals not from
punishment only, for to this the analogy of healing is less pertinent -- but
especially from sinning -- from the heart to sin. He heals the soul and
restores it to health. So it was said by the announcing angel, "Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. His
power avails to cleanse and purify the soul.
Both Christ and the serpent were held up each as a remedy.
and let it be specially noted -- as a full and adequate remedy, The
ancient Hebrews, bitten by fiery serpents, were not to mix up nostrums of their
own devising to help out the cure: it was all-sufficient for them to look up to
the remedy of God's own providing. God would have them understand that the
healing was altogether His own work. The serpent on a pole was the only
external object connected with their cure; to this they were to look, and in
this most simple way -- only by an expecting look, indicative of simple faith,
they received their cure.
Christ is to be lifted up as a present remedy. So was the
serpent. The cure wrought then was present, immediate. It involved no delay.
This serpent was God's appointed remedy. So is Christ, a remedy
appointed of God, sent down from heaven for this express purpose. It was indeed
very wonderful that God should appoint a brazen serpent for such a purpose such
a remedy for such a malady; and not less wonderful is it that Christ should be
lifted up in agony and blood, as a remedy for both the punishment and the
heart-power of sin.
The brazen serpent was a divinely-certified remedy; not a
nostrum gotten up as thousands are, under high-sounding names and flaming
testimonials; but a remedy prepared and brought forth by God Himself, under His
own certificate of its ample healing virtues.
So was Christ. The Father testifies to the perfect adequacy of
Jesus Christ as a remedy for sin.
Jesus Christ must now be held up from the pulpit as one crucified
for the sins of men. His great power to save lay in His atoning, death.
He must not only be held up from the pulpit, but this exhibition
of His person and work must be endorsed, and not contradicted by the experience
of those who behold Him.
Suppose that in Moses' time many who looked were seen to be
still dying; who could have believed the unqualified declaration of Moses, that
"every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live?" So
here in the Gospel and its subjects. Doubtless the Hebrews had before their
eyes many living witnesses who had been bitten and yet bore the scars of those
wounds; but who, by looking, had been healed. Every such case would go to
confirm the faith of the people in God's word and in His own power to save. So
Christ must be represented in His fullness, and this representation should be
powerfully endorsed by the experience of His friends. Christ represents Himself
as one ready and willing to save This, therefore, is the thing to be shown.
This must be sustained by the testimony of His living witnesses, as the first
point of analogy is the lifting up of the object to be looked upon, the
second is this very looking itself.
Men looked upon the serpent, expecting divine power to heal
them. Even those ancient men, in that comparatively dark age, understood that
the serpent was only a type, not the very cause in itself of salvation.
So is there something very remarkable in the relation of faith
to healing. Take, for illustration, the case of the woman who had an issue of
blood. She had heard something about Jesus, and somehow had caught the idea
that if she could but touch the hem of His garment, she should be made whole.
See her pressing her way along through the crowd, faint with weakness, pale,
and trembling; if you had seen her you would perhaps have cried out, What would
this poor dying invalid do?
She knew what she was trying to do. At last unnoticed of all,
she reached the spot where the Holy One stood and put forth her feeble hand and
touched His garment. Suddenly He turns Himself and asks, Who was it that
touched me? Somebody touched me: who was it? The disciples, astonished at such
a question, put under such circumstances, reply -- The multitude throng Thee on
every side, and scores are touching Thee every hour; why then ask -- Who
touched me?
The fact was, somebody had touched Him with faith to be healed
thereby, and He knew that the healing virtue had gone forth from Himself to
some believing heart. How beautiful an illustration this of simple faith! And
how wonderful the connection between the faith and the healing!
Just so the Hebrews received that wonderful healing power by
simply looking toward the brazen serpent. No doubt this was a great mystery to
them, yet it was none the less a fact. Let them look; the looking brings the
cure, although not one of them can tell how the healing virtue comes. So
we are really to look to Christ, and in looking, to receive the healing power.
It matters not how little we understand the mode in which the looking
operates to give us the remedy for sin.
This looking to Jesus implies that we look away from ourselves.
There is to be no mixing up of quack medicines along with the great remedy.
Such a course is always sure to fail. Thousands fail in just this way, forever
trying to be healed partly by their own stupid, self-willed works, as well as
partly by Jesus Christ. There must be no looking to man or to any of man's
doings or man's help. All dependence must be on Christ alone. As this is true
in reference to pardon, so is it also in reference to sanctification. This is
done by faith in Christ. It is only through and by faith that you get that
divine influence which sanctifies the soul -- the Spirit of God; and this in
some of its forms of action was the power that healed the Hebrews in the
wilderness.
Looking to Christ implies looking away from ourselves in the sense
of not relying at all on our own works for the cure desired, not even on works
of faith. The looking is toward Christ alone as our all-prevalent,
all-sufficient and present remedy.
There is a constant tendency in Christians to depend on their
own doings, and not on simple faith in Christ. The woman of the blood-issue
seems to have toiled many years to find relief before she came to Christ; had
no doubt tried everybody's prescriptions, and taxed her own ingenuity bee sides
to its utmost capacity, but all was of no avail. At last she heard of Jesus. He
was said to do many wonderful works. She said within herself -- This must be
the promised Messiah -- who was to "bear our sicknesses" and heal all
the maladies of men. O let me rush to Him, for if I may but touch the hem of
His garment, I shall be whole. She did not stop to philosophize upon the mode
of the cure; she leaned on no man's philosophy, and had none of her own; she
simply said -- I have heard of One who is mighty to save, and I flee to Him.
So of being healed of our sins. Despairing of all help in
ourselves or in any other name than Christ's, and assured there is virtue in
Him to work out the cure, we expect it of Him and come to Him to obtain
it.
Several times within the last few years, when persons have come
to me with the question, Can I anyhow be saved from my sins -- actually saved,
so as not to fall again into the same sins, and under the same temptations?
I have said -- Have you ever tried looking to Jesus? O yes.
But have you expected that you should be actually saved from sin
by looking to Jesus, and be filled with faith, love, and holiness? No; I did
not expect that.
Now, suppose a man had looked at the brazen serpent for the
purpose of speculation. He has no faith in what God says about being cured by
looking, but he is inclined to try it. He will look a little and watch his
feelings to see how it affects him. He does not believe God's word, yet since
he does not absolutely know but it may be true, he will condescend to
try it. This is no looking at all in the sense of our text. It would not
have cured the bitten Israelite; it can. not heal the poor sinner. There is no
faith in it.
Sinners must look to Christ with both desire and design to be
saved. Salvation is the object for which they look.
Suppose one had looked towards the brazen serpent, but with no
willingness or purpose to be cured. This could do him no good. Nor can it do
sinners any good to think of Christ otherwise than as a Saviour, and a
Saviour for their own sins.
Sinners must look to Christ as a remedy for all sin. To wish to
make some exception, sparing some sins, but consenting to abandon others,
indicates rank rebellion of heart, and can never impose on the All-seeing One.
There cannot be honesty in the heart which proposes to itself to seek
deliverance from sin only in part.
Sinners may look to Christ at once -- without the least
delay. They need not wait till they are almost dead under their malady. For the
bitten Israelite, it was of no use to wait and defer his looking to the serpent
till he found himself in the jaws of death. He might have said -- I am wounded
plainly enough, but I do not see as it swells much yet; I do not feel the
poison spreading through my system; I cannot look yet, for my case is not yet
desperate enough; I could not hope to excite the pity of the Lord in my present
condition, and therefore I must wait. I say, there was no need of such delay
then and no use of it. Nor is there any more need or use for it in the sinner's
case now.
We must look to Christ for blessings promised, not to works, but
to faith. It is curious to see how many mistakes are made on this point. Many
will have it that there must be great mental agony, long fasting, many bitter
tears and strong crying for mercy before deliverance can be looked for. They do
not seem to think that all these manifestations of grief and distress are of
not the least avail, because they are not simple faith, nor any part of faith,
nor indeed any help toward faith: nor are they in anywise needed for the make
of acting on the sympathies of the Saviour. It is all as if under the
serpent-plague of the wilderness, men had set their wits at work to get up
quack remedies; fixing up plasters, and ointments, and plying the system with
depletions, cathartics, and purifiers of the blood. All this treatment could
avail nothing; there was but one effective cure, and if a man were only bitten
and knew it, this would be the only preparatory step necessary to his looking
as directed for his cure.
So in the case of the sinner. If he is a sinner and knows
it, this constitutes his preparation and fitness for coming to Jesus. It is all
of no avail that he should go about to get up quack prescriptions, and to mix
up remedies of his own devising with the great Remedy which God has provided.
Yet there is a constant tendency in religious efforts toward this very thing --
toward fixing up and relying upon an indefinite multitude and variety of
spiritual quack remedies. See that sinner. How he toils and agonizes. He would
compass heaven and earth to work out his own salvation, in his own way, to his
own credit, by his own works. See how he worries himself in the multitude of
his own devisings! Commonly before he arrives at simple faith, he finds himself
in the deep mire of despair. Alas, he cries, There can be no hope for me! O! my
soul is lost!
But at last the gleam of a thought breaks through the thick darkness,
"possibly Jesus can help me! If He can, then I shall live, but not
otherwise, for surely there is no help for me but in Him." There he is in
his despair -- bowed in weariness of soul, and worn out with his vain endeavors
to help himself in other ways. He now bethinks himself of help from above.
"There is nothing else I can do but cast myself utterly in all my
hopelessness upon Jesus Christ. Will He receive me? Perhaps He will; and
that is enough for me to know." He thinks on a little further,
"Perhaps, yes, perhaps He will; nay, more, I think He will, for
they tell me He has done so for other sinners. I think He will -- yes, I
know He will -- and here's my guilty heart! I will trust Him -- yea, though He
slay me, I will trust in Him."
Have any of you experienced anything like that?
"Perhaps He will admit my plea.
Perhaps will hear my
prayer."
This is as far as the
sinner can dare to go at first. But soon you hear him crying out -- He says He
will; I must believe Him! Then faith gets hold and rests on promised
faithfulness, and, ere he is aware, his "soul is like the chariots of Amminadab,"
and he finds his bosom full of peace and joy as one on the borders of heaven.
REMARKS.
1. When it is said in John xii., "If I be lifted up, I will
draw all men unto Me," the language is indeed universal in form, but
cannot be construed as strictly universal without being brought into conflict
with Bible truth and known facts. It is indeed only a common mode of speaking
to denote a great multitude. I will draw great numbers -- a vast
"multitude that no man can number." There is nothing here in the
context or in the subject to require the strictly universal interpretation.
2. This expedient of the brazen serpent was no doubt designed to
try the faith of the Israelites. God often put their faith to the test, and
often adapted His providences to educate their faith -- to draw it out
and develop it. Many things did He do to prove them. So now. They had
sinned. Fiery serpents came among them and many were poisoned and dying on
every hand. God said, Make a brazen serpent and set it upon a pole, and raise
it high before the eyes of all the people. Now let the sufferers look on this
serpent and they shall live. This put their faith to the test.
3. It is conceivable that many perished through mere unbelief,
although the provisions for their salvation were most abundant. We, look
at a serpent of brass -- they might say scornfully -- as if there were not
humbugs enough among the rabble, but Moses must give us yet another! Perhaps
some set themselves to philosophizing on the matter. We, they say, will much
sooner trust our tried physicians than these "old wives' fables."
What philosophical connection can any man see between looking upon a piece of
brass and being healed of a serpent's bite?
So, many now blow at the gospel. They wonder how any healing
power can come of Gospel faith. True, they hear some say they are healed, and
that they know the healing power has gone to their very soul, and they cry,
"I looked to Jesus and I was healed and made whole from that very
hour." But they count all this as mere fanatical delusion. They can see
none of their philosophy in it.
But is this fanaticism? Is it any more strange than that
a man bitten of poisonous serpents should be healed by looking at God's command
on a brazen serpent?
4. Many are stumbled by the simplicity of the Gospel. They want
something more intelligible! They want to see through it. They will not trust
what they cannot explain. It is on this ground that many stumble at the
doctrine of sanctification by faith in Christ. It is so simple their philosophy
cannot see through it.
Yet the analogy afforded in our text is complete. Men are to
look to Jesus that they may not perish, but may have eternal life. And
who does not know that eternal life involves entire sanctification?
5. The natural man always seeks for some way of salvation that
shall be altogether creditable to himself He wants to work out some form of
self-righteousness and does not know about trusting in Christ alone. It does
not seem to him natural or philosophical.
6. There is a wonderful and most alarming state of things in
many churches abroad: almost no Christ in their experience. It is most
manifest that He holds an exceedingly small space in their hearts. So far from
knowing what salvation is as a thing to be attained by simply believing in
Christ, they can only give you an experience of this sort. How did you become a
Christian? I just made up my mind to serve the Lord. Is that all? That's all.
Do you know what it is to receive eternal life by simply looking to Jesus?
Don't know as I understand that. Then you are not a Christian. Christianity,
from beginning to end, is received from Christ by simple faith. Thus, and only
thus, does the pardon of sin come to the soul, and thus only can come that
peace of God, passing all understanding, which lives in the soul with faith and
love. Thus sanctification comes through faith in Christ.
What, then, shall we think of that religion which leaves Christ
out of view?
Many are looking for some wonderful sign or token, not
understanding that it is by faith they are to be brought completely into
sympathy with Christ and into participation with His own life. By faith Christ
unites them to Himself. Faith working by love, draws them into living union
with His own moral being. All this is done by the mind's simply looking to
Christ in faith.
When the serpent was up, no doubt many perished because they
would not accept and act upon so simple a plan of remedy. Many perished because
they did not and would not realize their danger. If they saw men cured, they
would say -- We don't believe it was done by the brazen serpent on the pole.
Those men were not much poisoned -- would not have died anyhow. They assume
that those who ascribe their cure to the power of God are mistaken.
Many perished also from delay. They waited to see whether they
were in danger of dying. And still they waited -- till they were so bedizened
and crazed, they could only lie down and die.
So now in regard to the Gospel. Some are occupied with other
matters more important just now, and of course they must delay. Many are
influenced by others' opinions. They hear many stories. Such a man looked and
yet lost his life. Another man did not look and yet was saved. So men have
different opinions about their professedly Christian neighbors, and this
stumbles many. They hear that some set out strong for religion, but seem to
fail. They looked as they thought, but all in vain. Perhaps it was so; for they
might have looked without real faith. Some will philosophize till they make
themselves believe it is all a delusion to look. They think they see many
pretend to look and appear to look, who yet find no healing. Who can believe
where there are so many stumbling-blocks?
These discouraging appearances drove some into despair in the
wilderness, we may suppose; and certainly we see that the same causes produce
these effects here in the case of sinners. Some think they have committed the
unpardonable sin. They class themselves among those who "having been once
enlightened," "there remains for them no more sacrifice for sins, but
a certain looking for of vengeance and fiery indignation." Some are sure
it is too late for them now. Their heart is hard as the nether mill-stone. All
is dark and desolate as the grave. See him; his very look is that of a lost
soul! Ah, some of you are perhaps reasoning and disbelieving in this very way!
Many neglected because they thought they were getting better.
They saw some change of symptoms, as they supposed. So with sinners; they feel
better for going to meeting, and indeed there is so much improvement, they take
it they are undoubtedly doing well.
Many of the ancient Hebrews may have refused to look because
they had no good hope; because, indeed, they were full of doubts. If you had
been there you would have found a great variety of conflicting views, often
even between brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, parents and children.
Some ridicule; some are mad; some wont believe anyhow. And must I say it --
some sinners who ought to be seeking Christ are deterred by reasons fully as
frivolous and foolish as these.
It is easy for us all to see the analogy between the manner of
looking and the reasons for not looking at the brazen serpent and to Christ the
Saviour. I need not push the analogy into its minute particulars any further.
But the question for you all now is: Do you really believe that as "Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so is the Son of man lifted up,
that whosever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal
life." Do you understand the simple remedy of faith? Perhaps you ask --
What were they to believe? This, that if they really looked at the brazen
serpent on the pole, they should certainly experience the needed healing. It
was God's certified remedy, and they were so to regard it. And what are you now
to believe? That Christ is the great antitype of that serpent lifted up in the
wilderness, and that you are to receive from Him by simple faith all the
blessings of a full and free salvation. By simple faith, I say, and do
you understand this? Do I hear you say to these things -- What, may I, a
sinner, just fix my eye in simple faith on Jesus? Who -- who may do this? Is it
I? How can it be that I should have this privilege?
I see here today the faces of some whom I saw last fall in the
meetings for inquiry. What have you been doing? Have you been trying to work
yourselves into some certain state of mind? Are you wishing intensely that you
could only feel so and so -- according to some ideal you have in your mind? Do
you understand that you are really to look by faith, and let this look of faith
be to you as the touch of the poor woman with an issue of blood was to her
dying body, believing that if you look in simple trust He surely will receive you,
and give you His divine love and peace and life and light, and really make them
pulsate through your whole moral being? Do you believe it? Nay, don't you see
that you do not believe it? Oh, but you say, "It is a great
mystery!" I am not going to explain it, nor shall I presume that I can do
so, any more than I can explain how that woman was healed by touching
the hem of the Saviour's garment. The touch in this case and the looking in
that, are only the means, the media, by which the power is to be received. The manner
in which God operates is a thing of small consequence to us; let us
be satisfied that we know what we must do to secure the operations of His
divine Spirit in all things that pertain to life and godliness.
You have doubtless had confused notions of the way of salvation,
perhaps contriving and speculating, and working upon your own feelings. Now you
pray, and having prayed, you say, Now let me watch and see if this prayer has
given me salvation! This course is much as if the Hebrew people when bitten by
serpents and commanded to look to the serpent of brass, had gone about to apply
here a plaster, there a blister, and then a probe, all the time losing sight of
just that one thing which God told them would infallibly cure. Oh! why
should men forget, and why not understand that all good needed by us comes from
God to simple faith? When we see any want, there is Christ, to be received by
faith alone; and His promises leave no want unprovided for.
Now, if this is the way of salvation, how wonderful that sinners
should look every other way but toward Christ, and should put forth all other
sorts of effort except the effort to look at once in simple faith to their
Saviour! How often do we see them discouraged and confounded, toiling so hard
and so utterly in vain. No wonder they should be so greatly misled. Go round
among the churches and ask. Did you ever expect to be saved from sin in
this world? No; but you expect to be saved at death. Inasmuch as He has been
quite unsuccessful in His efforts to sanctify your soul during your life, you
think He will send death on in season to help the work through!
Can you believe this?
While Christians disown the glorious doctrine of sanctification
by faith in Christ, present, and according to each man's faith so done to him.
it cannot be expected that they will teach sinners with intelligible clearness
how to look to Christ in simple faith for pardon. Knowing so little of the
power of faith in their own experience, how can they teach others effectively,
or even truthfully? Thus blind leading blind, it is no wonder that both are
found together where the Bible proverb represents both the leaders and the led
as terminating their mutual relations,
There seems to be no remedy for such a finality except for
professing Christians to become the light of the world; and for this end, to
learn the meaning and know the experience of simple faith. Faith once learned,
they will experience its transforming power, and be able to teach others the
way of life.