There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
All Commentaries on John 3:1 Go To John 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
s14,15.—And as Moses, &c. Christ proceeds to instruct Nicodemus; (for as in the verses preceding He has taught him that He is God, so now He teaches him that He has been made man), that being crucified for man"s redemption He will merit that every one who believeth in Him, and trusts for salvation to the merit of His death, shall obtain it. For thus Christ is wont, when speaking concerning Himself, to unite things human to things Divine, and things lowly to things glorious. As though He said, "Whosoever is bitten by the serpents of sins, let him look to Christ, and he shall have healing by the remission of sins," as Pope Adrian I. says in his first epistle to Charles the Great. The same proves that the use of images is lawful from this serpent. He adds, The figure afforded temporal life; the thing itself, of which it was the figure, life eternal."
Christ refers to the history of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which is given in the21chapter of Numbers. Upon this history S. Augustine comments as follows (de peccat. merit, lib1 , c32). "The serpent lifted up is the death of Christ. By the serpent came death, for he persuaded man to sin. Now the Lord took upon His flesh, not the poison of the serpent, which is sin, but death, that there might be in the likeness of flesh the penalty of sin without its fault, that thus both the penalty and the fault might be done away." And Theophylact says, "In that brazen serpent was the appearance indeed of the noxious creature, but not its poison: so in Christ was the likeness of sinful flesh, but no sin."
Most fully does S. Chrysostom draw out the analogies between the brazen serpent and Christ. He says, "Lest any one should say, "How are those who believe in the Crucified One able to be saved, when he did not deliver Himself from death?"" He brings forward the ancient history. For if the Jews by looking at the image of a brazen serpent were freed from death, how much greater benefit will they enjoy who look to the Crucified Redeemer? For by the one the Jews escaped temporal death: by the other believers escape everlasting death. There the suspended serpent healed the wounds which the serpents had made: here Jesus, nailed to the cross, healed the wounds inflicted by the incorporeal serpent (the devil). There those who looked with their bodily eyes obtained the healing of the body: here those who look with their spiritual eyes obtain the remission of all their sins. There a serpent bit, and a serpent healed: here death destroyed, and death hath saved. In the one case the serpent which destroyed was full of poison, and delivered no one from poison. And in the other case the death which destroyeth had sin, as the serpent had poison: but the Lord"s death was free from all sin, just as the brazen serpent had no poison. You see how the figure answers to the reality.
Lifted up: i.e, set up upon a lofty pole. The Hebrew in Numbers xxi9 , adds al nes, i.e, upon a standard. This may have been a long spear with an ensign raised like a standard. For this was a type and figure of the standard of the cross of Christ, to which He Himself calls His faithful ones, like soldiers. This spear with the brazen serpent suspended from it Moses reared up upon the tabernacle, which was in the midst of the camp in the wilderness, and served the Hebrews in the room of a temple. So Justin, towards the end of his "Second Apology." By this was signified that the cross of Christ should be fixed in His temples, and adored by all the faithful as the standard and trophy of the Christian faith and religion.
S. Chrysostom asks, Why did He not here say suspended rather than lifted up, or exalted? And he replies, "That it might neither give a sense of shame to His hearer, nor be different from the type." From all that has been said it will appear how foolish is Calvin"s interpretation, that this lifting up of Christ is not His crucifixion, but the preaching of His Gospel.
That every one who believeth: and obeys His laws, or who believes in Him, not with a bare and unformed faith, but a faith formed by love. Hath eternal life, by grace, repentance, and good works, which Christ from the cross inspires for this end, that a man may deserve and attain to life, happiness, and eternal glory.
