The above verses teach us to look to Christ for salvation and sanctification. This is wonderful to know because anybody can look! No matter how far we've been in sin, nor how weakened we've become beacuse of it, we can look! We don’t have to lift a finger to look! We don’t have to go to seminary to learn how to look! Even a little child can look!
But in order to look in a productive way, we must know where to look. Our students need to know where to focus their eyes and attention. They are no doubt very wrapped up in their own story, we must lift their head and focus their eyes on the story of the cross.
In the story of the snake-bitten Israelites, they needed to turn to the uplifted pole with the snake on it, and look! Anyone who turned and looked was saved. And Jesus uses that story to teach how we are both saved, and sanctified today. We who are bitten by the serpent of sin are dying from it, but if we turn to the cross and look, that is, believe in Him Who died for us, we are saved and will live forever, and we are set free from sin's penalty and power. As we are looking there at the cross, we are learning how washing at the cross cleanses us from sin, washing away the previous lies we believed, cleansing our consciences and our hearts.
It may have seemed strange, illogical even, to look to an uplifted snake on a pole to be cured from snakebite. Even so it doesn’t seem logical to invite our students to turn and look at an uplifted Savior on a cross to heal their marriage, to cure them from pornography, overeating and laziness, wrong media usage, depression, etc. But it is the true and real cure, the lasting cure, the cure that changes hearts and lives. This is far more powerful than worldly methods, 12-step groups, and psychological principles.
The 2 Corinthians 3 passage teaches us that it is by looking, or contemplating the glory of the Lord that we are transformed into His image. The glory of the Lord is revealed in Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-3) and most specifically at the cross (Hebrews 1:3). So if we are saved and changed by looking and contemplating the glory of the Lord at the cross, then our role as mentors here at Setting Captives Free is to uplift the cross to our students and call them to look at it, contemplate it, consider it, believe it and wash in it. Ask your student questions and hear their answers, and learn how to "bridge" their story to the message of the cross.
Looking at the cross, really seeing it, learning how to wash at the cross absolutely transforms the heart! And that is what our students really need, and what we desire for them-transformed hearts. Hearts that are smitten and humbled because of their sin. Hearts that are uplifted and loved by Jesus Who died to remove their sin. Hearts that become full of Jesus' love for them!
“All our troubles ultimately emanate from our ignorance of God. . . .You will never know God as Father except by Jesus Christ, and in particular, by his death upon the cross. . . . Look there, gaze, meditate, survey the wondrous cross. And then you will see something of him.”—Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Once we get a view of Jesus everything changes. To view the cross aright leads to changes in our lives. As an example, please notice how Psalm 22 leads to Psalm 24 in the following way: Jesus was surrounded by a crowd that opened wide their mouths at Him like a roaring lion (Psalm 22:13), devouring Him so that you could live! His bones were all out of joint when He hung on the cross (Psalm 22:14), so that you would be would be healed and made whole. His heart had melted within Him and was poured out like water (Psalm 22:14-15), so that you could receive a new heart. His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth (Psalm 22:15), so that your thirst would be quenched eternally. His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:16) for the wrong yours have done, to completely forgive your every sin and break its power in your life. This view of the cross in Psalm 22 leads us to open wide the gates of our hearts that the Prince of Peace, the Lord of glory might come in (Psalm 24:7-10). The cross unlocks the gates of the heart, and opens them wide for Jesus. Psalm 22 leads to Psalm 23 and 24 and is an amazing transformation. And this powerful transformation can only happen as we call our students to look! Look at the cross and begin to wash! Look at the resurrection and experience its power! It is stunning and amazing what we will see happen at the cross if we just look.
“At the cross, God and sinners meet — and a reconciliation takes place. Here, man drops the weapons of rebellion — and God lays aside the sword of divine displeasure. Here, the works of Satan are destroyed — and the gates of paradise are thrown open. Here, the creditor is discharged, his every crime is atoned for — and everlasting righteousness is completed! Here, God is "just, and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus." - James Smith
And so hopefully our role here is clarified today, that we as mentors are in the role of Moses in the Numbers 21 story: we are to uplift the pole and invite others to look, even as we look with them! Our aim with our students is always at the heart. We ask probing, loving questions to draw motivations out of their heart (Proverbs 20:15), because we want to reach their heart with the gospel, and then we show them how we, ourselves are looking and washing at the cross and invite them to do the same thing.
Question 3. How can you “uplift the pole” and invite others to look? What are your thoughts?
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