In addition to my posts #
43 and #
49, I would like to bring your attention on John 3:14. I did not find any reference made by
Nigel Tomes on this wonderful verse while contending with Brother Witness Lee's teaching regarding this thread. Perhaps, it was not touched by
Nigel Tomes since this particular verse will turn upside-down his thesis on his writing titled "THE ENEMY WITHIN—SATAN IN THE BELIEVER’S BODY— LSM’s UNORTHODOX SATANOLOGY".
John 3:14 was addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ to Nicodemus who was a teacher and zealous Jew in his time. John 3:14 is as much applicable to us as in Nicodemus time. Likewise, John 3:14 was in reference of the Scripture in Numbers 21:9. Here in this discussion we have both the New Testament and the Old Testament interpreting the Word with the Word. I would like to take the liberty in saying that the Lord Jesus was allegorizing in this instance, and perhaps, it is more accurate to say that the Lord Jesus was directly revealing a mystery in typology.
I just pray that we may have an open spirit while reading the following teachings of Brother Witness Lee like the true Bereans of the Bible. My spirit rejoices in the Lord for knowing this interpretation by Brother Witness Lee on John 3:14.
Quote:
John 3 : 14
14 And as Moses lifted up the 1serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
141 This chapter deals with regeneration. Regeneration, on one hand, brings the divine life with the divine nature into us. On the other hand, regeneration terminates the evil nature of Satan in our flesh. In Gen. 3 Satan, the serpent, injected his nature into man's flesh. When the children of Israel sinned against God, they were bitten by serpents (Num. 21:4-9). God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on their behalf for God's judgment, that by looking upon that bronze serpent all might live. That was a type. Here, in this verse, the Lord Jesus applied that type to Himself, indicating that when He was in the flesh, He was in "the likeness of the flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:3), which likeness is equal to the form of the bronze serpent. The bronze serpent had the form of the serpent but was without the serpent's poison. Christ was made in "the likeness of the flesh of sin," but He did not participate in any way in the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). When He was lifted up in the flesh on the cross, by His death Satan, the old serpent, was dealt with (12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt with. When a man is regenerated with the divine life in Christ, his satanic nature is annulled. Because of this, in this portion of the Word, when the Lord revealed the matter of regeneration to Nicodemus, He specifically mentioned this point. Nicodemus might have considered himself a moral and good man. But the Lord's word in this verse implied that regardless of how good Nicodemus might have been outwardly, he had the serpentine nature of Satan inwardly. As a descendant of Adam, he had been poisoned by the old serpent, and the serpent's nature was within him. He needed the Lord not only to be the Lamb of God to take away his sin (1:29) but also to be in the form of the serpent that his serpentine nature might be dealt with on the cross and that he might have eternal life. In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this is the changing of death into life.
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Quote:
The Serpent
Therefore, the Lord referred to the type of the brass serpent lifted up on a pole by Moses (Num. 21:9). The Lord seemed to be saying to him, "Your fathers were all bitten by poisonous serpents, and the poison of the serpents entered into them. Your fathers became serpents in the eyes of God. Because they were dying, Moses prayed to God on their behalf, and God told Moses to lift up a brass serpent on a pole to bear His judgment upon the poisoned Israelites. Everyone who had been poisoned by the serpents and who looked to the brass serpent lifted up on the pole lived." Many of the Israelites did this, and their lives were preserved. This is a type of regeneration. The Lord seemed to be telling Nicodemus, "Don't consider yourself as a gentleman. You must realize that you are one of the people who has been poisoned by the serpent and that you have the serpentine nature within you. Apparently you are a man; actually you are a serpent. In the eyes of God you are one of the serpents. Although you are a serpent, I have come to die for you. I shall die on the cross in the form of the serpent. When I am on the cross, in the eyes of God I shall not only be a substitute for sinners; I shall be judged there by God in the form of the serpent. The only difference is that the real serpent has poison, but I shall only be in the form of the serpent. I do not have the nature and the poison of the serpent. I have come in the likeness of the flesh of sin, in the form of the serpent, to die for all of you who have been poisoned by the serpent."
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