There are many more passages of Scripture which prophetically describe the crucifixion of the Messiah, detailing in advance His suffering, His death, and His resurrection. Moses said one like himself was coming, a prophet to whom the people must listen (Deuteronomy 18:15), and Stephen points out in Acts 7 that God's people rejected Moses when he tried to help them. Then, at his second coming (after his forty years in the desert), God's people embraced Moses as their leader (Acts 7:25-36). Jesus Himself said that the Scriptures "testify of me" (John 5:39), and on the Emmaus road, He took His troubled and discouraged disciples to God's Word and explained everything in the Scriptures "concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27). The following passages have a direct reference to the cross of Jesus Christ: Genesis 3:15, Exodus 12:1-51, Numbers 21:5-9, Ruth 3-4, Esther 7:10, Job 19:25, Psalm 22, and numerous others. Indeed, the whole of the Old Testament makes up one body of evidence for the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sins and His bodily resurrection from the dead.
So, before we begin considering the biblical record and studying further the "why" of Jesus' death, it is essential to understand that the Old Testament foretold the cross, which was fulfilled and recorded in the New Testament and is historically verifiable by both religious and non-religious writings. The faith of Christians in the death of Christ rests on the revealed truth of God's Word and can be verified historically in numerous ways.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV)
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that real saving faith has "substance" and "evidence" with which to believe. The disciple Thomas doubted, and Jesus provided evidence by presenting the wounds in His pierced hands and side. In the same way, God's Word gives us ample data and proof of Jesus' death on our behalf, and His resurrection from the dead, which can be substantiated and confirmed in numerous ways. This is important because God makes believing in Jesus, and specifically in His death and resurrection, the condition for our salvation:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36
In John 3, we read of an encounter between Jesus and a very prominent religious teacher of that day named Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus that for a man to be saved, he must be born again (John 3:3), which left Nicodemus wondering how that could be. Jesus then referenced the Old Testament Scriptures with which Nicodemus was very familiar, and made an analogy that pointed directly to Jesus' upcoming death on the cross:
“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.” John 3:14-15
Jesus took Nicodemus to a story from the historical past of the nation of Israel. The situation was that the Israelites were complaining against Moses, so God sent serpents among them. The snakes were biting and killing the Israelites, so Moses cried out to God for deliverance. In response to that call for help, God told Moses to erect a pole and place a snake on it, and all who looked at the snake would live. Jesus summarized and applied that historical event to His cross. He said that He, like that serpent, must be lifted, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life (John 3:16).
We will examine this story in detail in another lesson, but, for now, we should understand that the Old Testament points forward to and speaks directly about the cross of Jesus Christ. It does this in story form (like the story of the serpents in Numbers 21) and by direct and clear prophetic statements (like Isaiah 53).
Let’s consider John 3:36 again:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36
John 3:36 tells us that believing in Jesus is that which both removes the wrath of God from us and grants us eternal life. God makes believing in His Son that important. And if believing in Christ is that important, then God in His grace provides us with "substance" and "evidence" to believe; in other words, through His Word, He shows us the "scars in His hands, the hole in His side, the marks on His feet," and instructs us "do not be unbelieving, but believing" (John 20:27).
Question 5. According to John 3:36, what transpires when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ?
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