John 3:14

Jesus holds forth ( under a veil) the doctrine of universal atonement by the only begotten Son, John 3:14-17.

14. Moses lifted up the serpent By the light of subsequent revelation we know that this lifting up, shadowed by the serpent, was the lifting up upon the cross. Nicodemus doubtless understood that Jesus was to be held up and manifested to the world; but he did not understand, so prematurely as sceptics think, that Jesus was to die substitutionally for the sinner.

As the sinner is bitten by the infernal serpent, so the people of Israel in the wilderness were bitten by the fiery serpent. As Moses raised up the brazen serpent upon the pole, so Jesus is raised upon the cross. As the brazen serpent was in the likeness of the fiery serpent, which is Satan’s likeness, so Jesus is in the likeness of sinful flesh. As the bitten Jew was required to look at the brazen serpent, so the sinner is required to look by faith to Jesus. But the symbol for Nicodemus did not reveal the death of the Son of man; nor, especially, that the death of the Son of man must take the place of the death of the sinner. So that these words, too, are one of those passages embracing a depth of meaning undiscovered till a later period. See note on Matthew 7:29. The cross and the lifting up were both a matter of manifestation and of sacrifice; the latter was unknown to Nicodemus both are known to us.