When we Repent for being Serpentine we are Qualified to Enjoy Christ as Eternal Life

The Lord Jesus as the Son of Man was lifted up in the form of the serpent on the cross to bear the judgment for the serpent-poisoned people; if we repent of our serpentine nature and believe into Him, He becomes our Substitute and we enjoy eternal life. Hallelujah!

This story in Num. 21:4-9 is quite significant and applicable to our Christian life, for it wasn’t just the children of Israel that were bitten by fiery serpents but we all, the entire mankind, was bitten by the old serpent, Satan.

When Eve engaged in a conversation with the serpent in the garden of Eden, when she got from under the headship of the man and talked to the serpent, the result was not only that she partook of the forbidden tree but that the poison of Satan got into man.

Satan injected his poisonous element into us, and all men are born in sin. So now all human beings are serpentine – whether they are nice and gentle, cultured and refined, and kind and soft, all men are bitten by the serpent and have the poison of sin in their very being.

Even after believing into the Lord, we still have the poisonous nature of Satan in us, in our flesh; sin dwells in our flesh, and the Lord dwells in our spirit.

What is the solution to this?

The Lord Jesus came as the reality of the bronze serpent; He became a man, being in the likeness of the flesh of sin yet without having the sin of the flesh, and He went to the cross.

He brought the serpentine nature of man to the cross and judged it; there He judged Satan, sin, and everything related to the evil one, and He destroyed the devil in the flesh. Hallelujah!

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that all who were bitten by the serpents would look at it and live, so Christ as the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross so that all who repent and believe into Him would receive eternal life and live.

Satan as personified sin dwells in our flesh, deceiving us, working in us, and causing us to do things against our will; many times we sin even though we don’t want to, and we commit sin simply because we live in the flesh.

So Christ became flesh – He put on the flesh without its sin, and He brought this flesh to the cross to terminate it and judge Satan; now in resurrection He is a life-giving Spirit to be received by all those who realise and confess that they are serpentine in nature. Praise the Lord!

Christ was Lifted up on the Cross to bear the Judgment for the Serpent-poisoned People

It is not that we want to sin and set out to sin, but we spontaneously sin because Satan as sin dwells in us; it is not that the children of Israel wanted to sin, but the serpent in them caused them to sin.

So when God judged sin, He didn’t ask Moses to make the shape of a man (who has sinned) and put it on a pole, but a fiery serpent made of bronze and lift it up for all to see.

God judged the serpent, Satan, the real cause of sin; He knows that man sinned, but He also knows that the cause of sin is not man but Satan as sin in man.

Because Satan as sin entered into man, now man is a sinner and commits sins; man has been bitten by the serpent, man has the poisonous nature of the evil one in him, and man sins because of the sin who dwells in him.

So the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man was lifted up in the form of the serpent on the cross to bear the judgement for the serpent-poisoned people; He was lifted up on the cross for the casting out of the old serpent, Satan, the ruler of the world.

In John 12:31-34 He said that now is the judgement of this world, and now has the ruler of this world been cast out; and when He is lifted up from the earth (on the cross), He will draw all men to Himself.

Hallelujah, all believers in Christ have been drawn to Himself as the bronze serpent: we realised that we are serpentine in nature, we lifted up our eyes and saw the Lord on the cross, and we confessed, repented, and believed into Him.

The Lord Jesus as the Son of Man was lifted up, and now He can deliver us, the serpent-poisoned people – from sin, the serpent’s poison (Heb. 2:14; John 12:32-33). By being lifted up on the cross, Christ as the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent destroyed Satan and drew all men to Himself. Hallelujah!

It is us who have sinned and who are sinners, but Christ came to judge sin in the flesh; He came to destroy the real cause of sin, which is Satan.

Christ came to be our Substitute on the cross; we should have been the ones who were judged by God, but He bore our sins on the cross and was judged by God in our stead. This Substitute, Christ, was judged by being identified with us, the people for whom He was substituted.

The cross of Christ indicates that there were two identifications – we were identified with Satan, and Christ identified Himself with us, so that He may redeem us and even impart His life into us.

Now whoever believes into Christ as the One who was lifted up to be condemned in our place has eternal life (John 3:14-16).

We need a “bronze serpent” to be our Substitute to bear God’s judgement for us, to redeem us, and to release His saving, divine life into our being. If we see this we will thank the Lord and praise Him, and we will tell Him,

Thank You Lord Jesus for being lifted up on the cross to bear the judgment on our behalf. We are the serpent-poisoned people who are born in sin and spontaneously sin, but You came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and You were crucified as our Substitute on the cross. Thank You Lord for dying for us. Thank You for bearing God’s judgement in our stead. Thank You for judging Satan on the cross; You judged him and destroyed him through Your death. Hallelujah for Christ as the Son of Man who died as our Substitute on the cross!

When we Repent and Admit we are Serpentine, we are Qualified to Experience Christ as the Eternal Life and Enjoy Him

Christ as the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross; He bore our sins on the tree, He was judged by God in our place, and now whoever believes into Him may have eternal life.

The reason that Christ was lifted up on the cross as the bronze serpent is that God loved the world so much that He sent His only Begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish but would have eternal life.

When we repent and admit that we are serpentine, we are qualified to experience Christ as the eternal life and enjoy Him.

We must realize that Christ was made sin for us and died on the cross as the reality of the bronze serpent so that the serpentine nature within us might be judged.

If we realize that we are sinful people, serpentine beings, sin-producing factories, and we confess this, this dear Christ, the incarnated God, will immediately become our sin offering and enter into us to give us eternal life.

This is the way for us to partake of the incarnated God for our enjoyment.

To repent doesn’t mean to improve ourselves, promise to do better, better ourselves, or forsake the evil and turn to the good; to repent is to have a change of mind issuing in regret, and to have a turn in purpose, turning to God.

We need to repent not only initially when we are saved but all throughout our Christian life. Daily we need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, I am serpentine. Thank You for being the bronze serpent lifted up on the cross to be judged in my place. Oh Lord, I confess that I’m sinful; I realise that I have the serpentine nature in my flesh, and spontaneously sin. Thank You for coming as the One who did not know sin yet who was made sin for me. Thank You for dying on the cross to condemn sin. I take You Lord as my sin offering. I believe into You.

To repent is to have a change of mind issuing in regret, and to have a turn from all things to God Himself (Acts 26:20; 14:15; 1 Thes. 1:9).

In our experience repentance is not a once-for-all matter but a daily experience; John the Baptist preached repentance (Matt. 3:2; Mark 1:4), and in the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord Jesus tells us again and again to repent (2:5, 16, 21-22; 3:3, 19).

When the Lord Jesus came out to minister, He said, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).

Again and again in the book of Acts the disciples preached the gospel and told people to repent. We need to repent and have a change of mind, turning from anything other than God to God Himself, and we will have seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19-20).

God set Christ as a Leader and Savior to give repentance to us; repentance is a gift of God, and the Lord rules over the whole world with its environment to make it fit for us to receive Him as our salvation and Savior.

Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now charges all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).

We need to repent and do the first works, never leaving the Lord as our first love but always giving Him the first place in our being (Rev. 2:5).

We need to repent for setting idols in our heart; we need to repent from allowing other people and things to replace Christ as the first One in us (Rev. 2:21-22; Ezek. 44:3).

We need to repent for being lukewarm and proud of what we know and have; we need to be boiling hot for the Lord and come to Him in a fresh way to gain the Triune God.

What a great blessing it is for us to know that, as the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent, Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin to die on the cross as our replacement and Substitute in order for us to be regenerated and have eternal life!

May we daily realise that we are serpentine in nature and admit this before the Lord, and may we repent and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we admit that we are serpentine in our nature, for the poison of sin and the evil nature of Satan is in our flesh. We turn to You, Lord, and we believe into You, for You are the One who came as the bronze serpent and died as our Replacement and Substitute on the cross. Oh, what a blessing it is to know that Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin to die on the cross as our Replacement and Substitute in order for us to be regenerated and have eternal life! Amen, Lord, we confess, we repent, and we believe into You to receive and enjoy the eternal life!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Când ne pocăim de faptul că suntem șerpești, suntem calificați să-L savurăm pe Cristos ca viață eternă.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 2, ”The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 6, Christ as Typified by the Bronze Serpent.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Thou art the serpent made of brass, / Who saveth us from evil; / Thou on the tree wast lifted up, / To crush for us the devil. (Hymns #187)
  # God has not overlooked our sin, / But judged it once for all; / His righteous fury, not on us, / But on His Lamb did fall. / A new and living way is made— / We stand on legal ground; / Our Surety and our Substitute / Has pardon for us found. (Hymns #1126)
  # For God so loved the world / That He gave His only begotten Son, / That everyone who believes into Him / Would not perish, / But would have eternal life. (Scripture song)