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The title of this message is borrowed from a gospel hymn written by the 19th century hymn writer, Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876):
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Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life;
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty
Teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life;
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
Wonderful words of life.

It was the Lord Jesus Christ when here in this world who spoke ‘wonderful words of life’ to a Jewish leader called Nicodemus who had come to him one night in Jerusalem while He was there for Passover in the early days of His ministry. Jesus had just told Nicodemus, clearly and unequivocally:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” – John 3:3.

Nicodemas was confused. He thought of a natural birth and asked:

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” – John 3:4.

Evidently he had no idea what the Lord Jesus meant. He was speaking of a spiritual birth that is, being born of the Spirit of God – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” – John 3:6 said Jesus. Just as a natural birth demonstrates the reality and beauty of physical life so in spiritual birth new and divine life is imparted by the Holy Spirit of God to the one who believes in the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus calls this ‘eternal life’.  So He says to Nicodemus:

14 ​“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”.
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​At this point in the conversation, Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus how that He is the source of eternal life and that the cost of giving it freely would be His death on the Cross which He refers to as being “lifted up”.
The kingdom of God is, among all that it is, a kingdom of life. To be part of it and share in its blessing and live according to its righteousness we too must be born again and this spiritual birth takes place the moment we believe in the Son of God. Without the gift of eternal life I cannot be part of or in God’s kingdom no matter how good I think I am in myself.

Does it matter if I’m not? The Lord Jesus makes it clear that if we are not in God’s kingdom we will perish in our sins. He states the alternative to eternal life in His words of assurance when He says: “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”. Perishing, dying in our sins is our greatest danger. Millions have recited the majestic words of what is called the ‘Lord’s prayer’, which as it addresses God, says: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – Matt 6:10. The kingdom is coming and those not part of it, the Bible makes clear, will ultimately perish under divine judgment. 

In these ‘wonderful words of life’ there are three things that the Lord Jesus tells Nicodemus and through him, us:

I. The Necessity of an Uplifted Saviour – God’s Answer for Perishing Souls vs 14-15
II. The Immensity of Divine Love – God’s Reason for Giving His Son v 16
III. The Opportunity of Salvation for All – God’s Purpose for All People v 17
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I will spend most time on the first heading and follow with a brief consideration of the other two.

I. The Necessity of an Uplifted Saviour – God’s Answer for Perishing Souls vs 14-15
>The Significance of the Serpent
The Lord Jesus refers to a story from the Old Testament found in the book of Numbers 21 vs 4-9 regarding an incident of rebellion and salvation as the people of Israel journeyed to the Promised Land. Nicodemus would have known this story well. There are five things in this story relevant to the truth of the gospel and which furnish us with the background to the Saviour’s words.  
It is best therefore to read the story!

​4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

​→The five Features of the Story
1. Sin: The people rebelled against the LORD by complaining about their circumstances and despising His provision (Num 21:4-5). The essence of sin can be simply defined as rebellion against God.
2. Judgment: The LORD judged the people for their rebellion by sending poisonous snakes whose bite meant death and many indeed died (Num 21:6). While death is a sentence ‘passed upon all men’ because of sin that came into the world through the first man Adam (Rom 5:12), a reality over which we have no control, there are specific times in history, as this story shows, when God has specifically judged people in time and removed them from the world for their open rebellion against Him. Christ coming into the world ushered in the age of grace and the time of the universal offer of salvation, but the Bible warns us that judgment will come after death for all who die in unbelief (Heb 9:27) and that it is coming at the end of the age (Matt 13:47-50; Jude vs 14-15). The take away point here is, sin will eventually be met with God’s judgment.
3. Repentance: The people having faced the consequences of their sin confessed their wrong and sought mercy (Num 21:7). How deep their repentance was is open to question, but God is truly merciful as His response shows.
4. Salvation: The LORD provided salvation by means of a bronze serpent lifted up in the camp of Israel on a pole. He didn’t remove the poisonous snakes, they remained for however long, but He provided a means of life in a scene of death (Num 21:8). This is the truth at the heart of the gospel. In the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, God has provided a means of life in a world of death. We can have assurance on our day of death and hope as we face eternity. 
5. Promise: The LORD promised ‘life through a look’ at the bronze serpent by those bitten. His word is ever true (Num 21:9). He promises eternal life to those who look in faith to a Saviour who was lifted up first on a Cross and then by resurrection and ascension has been lifted up to highest glory. The Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God, is always the object and focus of a person’s faith.

What is particularly interesting about the story is the fact that a bronze serpent which looked like and represented the poisonous snakes was placed on a pole and lifted up as a means of life. Being bronze it had endured the fire to be shaped into this likeness. When a bitten Israelite looked they would have immediately recognized the bronze serpent as the symbol of the snakes God had sent in judgment among them for their sin, yet now, though it symbolized judgment and death, raised on a pole it was a means of life by the power of God and according to His promise.

→The Meaning of the Type
This bronze serpent on a pole was a type of Christ crucified. When the Lord Jesus says “Even so” or in like manner He is pointing out that the bronze serpent prefigured or foreshadowed His death, that is how He “the Son of Man must be lifted up”. That day in the wilderness God saw the Cross. He gave an indication through the bronze serpent lifted on a pole of how sin would be ultimately answered for and how eternal life would be guaranteed to all who believe.

As we consider Christ crucified, the reality of the Cross, we ought to immediately recognize that Jesus on the Cross represents and reveals to us the reality of the judgment of God which He was bearing for human sin and guilt. On the Cross He was bearing in His person the judgment our sins deserve and divine justice demands. The very fact that He was lifted up to hang on a Cross by means of nails through His hands and feet was evidence that He was bearing the curse of God’s broken law, which we have all transgressed – ‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith’ (Gal 3:13-14). Moreover, His experience of suffering on the Cross through the daylight and the darkness that led to His cry of forsakenness – “Why?” and then to His word of triumph – “Finished” tells us that He endured the full totality of God’s judgment for us and by the sacrifice of Himself paid the price of eternal redemption and of eternal life (Isa 53:5-6; 2 Cor 5:21).

>The Assurance of Eternal Life

→Time – the urgency of now
The promise for the dying Israelite in the wilderness was to look and live when bitten. When someone was bitten they knew it as the deadly poison coursed through their veins. Time was of the essence. It only took a moment to look, but a moment’s delay could have meant they were a moment too late.

There is always an urgency with the gospel for each of us live on the ‘edge’ of eternity. We are dying men and women. Beyond this life and world are the realities of eternal life or eternal death. The Bible says: ‘the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ – Rom 6:23. It should be obvious to us all by now at this stage of history that the outcome of life on earth is death. Everything living eventually dies which tells us of the universality of the consequences of sin and the fact that we are not permanent in this world neither is anything else, not even the world itself. While great emphasis today is put on saving the planet, and we ought to be good stewards of Creation, we do well to consider the words of scripture addressed to the Creator Himself:

“Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth:
and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.
They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure:
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;
as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed” – Psa 102:25-26 (KJV).

→Faith – the necessity of looking
The LORD told Moses in the wilderness: “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” – Num 21:8. The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life – vs 14-15. The look of a bitten Israelite was a look of faith, faith based upon what God promised believing that what He said would be the case. They looked with their physical eyes to see a physical object. To believe in the Son of Man is also a look of faith, but it’s a look not with physical eyes to a physical object, but a look of faith with one’s mind and heart to an unseen Saviour who is exalted in highest glory. As the American preacher, A W Tozer, said: ‘faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God’ (The Pursuit of God: the Human Thirst for the Divine).

→Promise – the assurance of Christ’s word
Yes, faith is looking with the understanding of the mind. It is doing what the Lord Jesus said with the assurance of the outcome because of the promise of His word. On that the fearful night of judgment in the story of the Exodus when the destroying angel was soon to pass through the land of Egypt, the LORD who had provided the blood of the Lamb as a means of salvation for the firstborn of Israel also assured His people:

“Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” – Exo 12:13.
 
The blood of the lamb kept them safe, the word of God made them sure. So it ever is.
 
2. The Immensity of Divine Love – God’s Reason for Giving His Son v 16

Here is the heart of the gospel. Divine love provided the answer to divine justice. Divine love provided a Saviour for underserving sinners. Divine Love gave the best of heaven for the worst of earth. God’s love is not a sentimental love, it is righteous love and it is holy love. It is love that gives, it is love that blesses, and it is love that endures.

The embrace of God’s love is the world, the extent of His love is demonstrated by the giving of His only unique Son to die for our sins and the experience of God’s love is everlasting life through believing in the Son of God. Hearing about the love of God is one thing, experiencing it is another. In a sense the world has experienced it by the way God has revealed it, but to know the reality of divine love personally we must believe and when we do we will appreciate the assurance, joy and blessing of love that will never let us go nor from which we can never be separated (Rom 8:38-39). D W Whittle wrote:
 
Let us sing of the love of the Lord,
As now to the cross we draw nigh;
Let us sing to the praise of the God of all grace,
For the love that gave Jesus to die.
 
O the love that gave Jesus to die,
The love that gave Jesus to die;
Praise God, it is mine, this love so divine.
The love that gave Jesus to die.
 
O how great was the love that was shown
To us!—we can never tell why--
Not to angels, but men; let us praise Him again
For the love that gave Jesus to die.
 
3. The Opportunity of Salvation for All – God’s Purpose for All People v 17

God’s purpose in sending His Son is clearly expressed in v 17; He did so for the salvation of all. In order that we would never perish in our sins and be under eternal judgment forever. The bible says elsewhere: ‘God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth’ – 1st Timothy 2:3.
 
But then in v 18 we read of God’s condemnation for refusing His Son. Condemnation is what we deserve, but not what God desires for us while self-condemnation is what we bring on ourselves when we refuse to believe in the only begotten Son of God: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”.
 
I’ll conclude with this story. Amelia Hull was born in 1812 into a well to do home in South Devon England, the youngest of eleven children. Her father was a retired army captain and the family lived in Marpool Hall on the outskirts of Exmouth. When Amelia was around twenty an evangelist visited the area and pitched a tent for people in the district to come and hear the preaching of the gospel. One evening Amelia went to the meeting and her heart was touched by the gospel. Her father was angry at learning where she had been when she returned home that evening and forbad her from going again. Amelia was undeterred and returned the next evening to hear the gospel preached from John 3 vs 14-15. She, for herself, believed in the Lord Jesus. Returning home she faced again her father’s fury. He ordered her to appear the next morning at 9 am in the library to be horse whipped as punishment. In her room that night, this young convert to Christ wrote from her heart the words of a beautiful gospel hymn on a piece of paper:
 
There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
  There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
  Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

Oh, why was He there as the Bearer of sin,
  If on Jesus thy guilt was not laid?
Oh, why from His side flowed the sin-cleansing blood,
  If His dying thy debt has not paid?
 
It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,
  But the blood, that redeemeth the soul;
On Him, then, who shed it, thou mayest at once
  Thy weight of iniquities roll.
 
Then doubt not thy welcome, since God has declared
  There remaineth no more to be done;
That once in the end of the world He appeared,
  And completed the work He begun.
 
Then take with rejoicing from Jesus at once
  The life everlasting He gives;
And know with assurance, thou never canst die
  Since Jesus, thy Righteousness, lives.
 
              Look! look! look and live!
              There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
              There is life at this moment for thee.
 
As she arrived at the library the next morning to face again her father’s fury and her appointed fate she handed the piece of paper with the words she’d written to him. Captain William Thomas Hull read them and then sat down with head in hands. He was moved and that morning trusted Christ as his Lord and Saviour too.
 
What depths of truth Amelia had grasped though only just saved. Her words point us to look to Christ who died and rose again so that we could have eternal life.
 
Will you look today?
 
AJC