Truth is Immortal

As a member of the Summit Church, I attend a Summit Life Group on Wednesday evenings. It has been a great experience and I highly recommend getting involved in one. While there are several things I enjoy about our group, here are two that stand out. First, our group is diverse. We have people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. We have married and unmarried. For a time we had couples with children and couples without children but that changed as we recently added three new members to group. We now have three babies who hang out with us. We come from different walks of life. This is what church is supposed to be about.

All of this diversity brings me to the second thing I enjoy about our group. We study the Bible together and because we are diverse, we have different questions and perspectives about biblical passages. Recently, we studied John 3 and ended up taking a closer look at John 3:14-15 (And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.) Jesus makes a reference to Numbers 21:4-9 so we looked it up and tried to see the parallels between the two accounts.

Why was Jesus using this Old Testament account as a picture of his crucifixion? Several members asked excellent questions to the group that caused me to think carefully. The serpents represent sin and its effects. The pole pictures the cross and looking at the bronzed serpent is analogous to faith in Jesus, the One who was lifted up, i.e., died on the cross. My problem was figuring out part of the analogy; the people were to look to the bronze serpent for healing but the serpent was the source of the original problem. When people see Jesus on the cross and believe they are healed spiritually but He is not the soure of the original problem. The serpents poisoned people and brought forth death; Jesus did not. If, however, the serpents is a picture of sin then 2 Corinthians 5:21 fits: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Never thought of that before.

Would I have thought about this without being in a diverse Summit Life Group?

Filed under: Summit