This was typified by the bronze serpent spoken of in Numbers 21:4-9. In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus Himself said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The Lord as the Son of Man was a serpent, but only a serpent in form, in likeness, not a serpent in poison.
Romans 8:3 says that Christ bore the likeness of the flesh of sin. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh.” Because flesh is a negative term, the Chinese translators dared not translate this literally. Their translation of the word flesh in this verse is the word for body. But the Bible tells us definitely that Christ as the Word of God became flesh. Then Paul in Romans 8:3 gave us a definition of what this means. Christ as the Word of God became flesh in the likeness of the flesh of sin.
By reading the Bible carefully, we can see that there are three big, ugly things involved with the flesh. These three things are sin, Satan, and the world, the cosmos, the satanic system. The flesh, sin, Satan, and the world are four-in-one. God is triune, three-in-one. Now Satan has become four-in-one. Sin and the world came from Satan, and Satan today is in our flesh. We have pointed out that Christ became a man in the likeness of the flesh of sin. This fact indicates that He was indirectly involved with sin, Satan, and the world, yet not in reality, just in the likeness.
Paul, who was very strong in the deeper truths, said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” John said that Christ as God became flesh, and Paul had the boldness to say that God made Christ sin. Christ is the One who knows no sin. He had nothing to do with sin, but God made this One, who had nothing to do with sin, sin.
We can see a picture of this in Numbers 21:4-9 with the children of Israel in the wilderness. They offended God and He sent serpents among them to bite them. When they cried out to God, He told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Everyone who looked upon this bronze serpent would live. This bronze serpent was in the form of the biting serpent but without the poison. Such a serpent in the form of a serpent but without the poison became their savior, their deliverer. This bronze serpent delivered them from the poison by imparting life to them.
In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus revealed that He was the reality of that bronze serpent in the wilderness, indicating that when He was in the flesh, He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, which likeness is equal to the form of the bronze serpent, which did not have the poison of the serpent. Verse 15 goes on to say that whoever believes into Him will receive eternal life.
God’s making Christ sin is a very deep and bothering point in the entire Bible. His being made sin includes all sins. During the last three hours of His death on the cross, in the eyes of God Christ was made sin, so He was judged by God and even forsaken by God (Matt. 27:45-46 and note 451). God made Him sin to die for us sinners in the form, the likeness, of the serpent, without the poison of the serpent. If He had had the poison, He could not have been our Redeemer. Also, if He had not been in the likeness of the serpent, He could not have been our Redeemer. He had to be a serpent in the likeness of a serpent but without the poison; then He could be our Redeemer.
I hope that by this simple explanation we can realize that Christ became flesh to be indirectly involved with sin only in the likeness of the flesh of sin but not in the reality. He bore the likeness of the serpent (the likeness of the flesh of sin), without the poison of the serpent (Rom. 8:3b). In this sense, His becoming flesh caused Him to be indirectly related to sin, Satan, and the world. His becoming related to sin is seen in 2 Corinthians 5:21. His being related to Satan is seen in Hebrews 2:14. This verse shows that Christ destroyed Satan by partaking of blood and flesh. By becoming the flesh, Christ crucified, destroyed, Satan on the cross. When God judged Christ on the cross, Satan was destroyed in the flesh. Then John 12:31 tells us that when Christ was judged by God on the cross, the world was also judged. By that one death, that one crucifixion on the cross, four things were cleared up: the flesh (the fallen man), sin, Satan, and the world. When we speak of Christ’s human nature, we have to understand all of these points.