Nicodemus was still puzzled and asked, “How can these things be?” The Lord Jesus said in return, “You are the teacher of Israel, and you don’t know these things?” Then the Lord spoke to him regarding a prefigure or type of redemption found in the Old Testament.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” When Jesus said this, Nicodemus was clear. When the children of Israel spoke against the Lord and against Moses, “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died” (Num. 21:6). The people then came to Moses and asked him to pray that the Lord would take the serpents away. Moses prayed for them, and God showed Moses the way of salvation, telling him to make a serpent of brass and to put it upon a pole (Num. 21:8-9). When the people who had been poisoned by the fiery serpents looked upon the serpent of brass, they lived (Num. 21:9).
In John 3:14, the Lord Jesus applied that picture to Himself, saying that He, the Son of Man, would be lifted up as the brass serpent was lifted up by Moses. Please notice that the Lord here refers to Himself as the Son of Man, not as the Son of God. The Lord was telling Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, you appear to be a gentleman, but you must realize that you are actually a serpent. Regardless of how gentle you are, you have a serpentine nature within you. You have been poisoned. You were poisoned in Adam. When Adam was poisoned by the serpent, you were there. You were born of that poisoned nature, and so your nature is also serpentine.” Nicodemus never realized this before. Likewise, very few people today realize that they are serpents. Do you like to have this said of you? If you were to tell an unbeliever that he is not only a sinner, but also a serpent, he would be highly offended. No, Nicodemus had never thought that he had a serpentine nature. However, the Lord Jesus, the best preacher, indicated a great deal by one brief sentence, telling Nicodemus that he was a serpent.
In John 1:29, John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” In 3:14, the Lord Jesus likens Himself, not as the Lamb of God, but as a brass serpent. The Lamb of God deals with sin, but the brass serpent destroys the old serpent. Our trouble as fallen people is not only with sin, but also with the serpent. Although Christians have heard many messages on the Lamb of God, they have not heard very many on the brass serpent as the type of Christ.
When the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross, He was in the form of a serpent. This is a hard saying and it needs some explanation. Romans 8:3 says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” This verse tells us that Christ was made in the likeness of the flesh of sin. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that Christ was made sin for us. What a strong word this is! What does it mean? When Satan in the serpent tempted Adam to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and to take his concept, Satan, as the old serpent, injected his nature into man. That serpentine nature was injected into man’s body. Although the human body was created by God as something good, when Satan’s serpentine nature was injected into it, it was transmuted into the flesh. The body is something good created by God, but the flesh is something bad, being the body transmuted by the poison of the serpent. The term “body” is good, but the term “flesh” is bad. But what about John 1:14 which says that, “The Word became flesh”? Is the flesh there good or bad? When Christ became flesh, did He become something good or bad? Be careful of your answer. John 3:14 indicates and guarantees that when Christ became flesh, He did not actually become something bad, and Romans 8:3 says that He was in “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” which likeness is equal to the form of the brass serpent. It had the form of the serpent without the poison of the serpent. Christ was made in “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” but He had no participation in the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). Christ became the flesh of sin in form, not in actuality. Look at the serpent made of brass. In form, appearance, and likeness, it looks like a real serpent; however, it has no poison in it. It has the serpentine appearance, but it does not have the serpentine nature. Likewise, Christ became the flesh of sin in appearance, in likeness. In appearance, He was exactly the same as a sinful man, but within Him there was no sinful nature. Although He was made sin, He knew no sin. He was only in the form, in the likeness, of the flesh of sin.