How Was the Brazen Serpent a Type?
"As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up." These were the Saviour's words. Jesus' death on the cross was an uplifting, and in this sense it is compared to the uplifting of the brazen serpent. In both cases the remedy is divinely provided and there is another striking similarity: As death came to the Israelites in the wilderness by the serpent's sting and life came by the uplifting of a serpent, so, in redemption, by man came death, and by the death of the God-man in the likeness of sinful flesh comes life eternal. In the first instance the cure was effected by directing the eye to the uplifted serpent; in the other, it takes place when the eye of faith is fixed upon the uplifted Christ
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