John 3:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Crucifixion took place not because of the weakness of the Crucified One, nor because the Jews triumphed over Him, but because "God loved the world" (Jn 3:16).

For this reason His living temple was subjected to crucifixion: "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

Do you see the cause of the Cross and the salvation that came from it? Do you see the correspondence between the type and the truth?

There the Jews are saved only from temporary death; here believers are saved from eternal death. There the suspended serpent heals from the bites of serpents; here the crucified Jesus heals the wounds of the spiritual serpent.

There the one looking with bodily eyes receives healing; here the one looking with the eyes of the soul is freed from all sins.

There bronze is hung up, representing the likeness of a serpent; here is the body of the Master, fashioned by the Spirit.

There a serpent bit, and a serpent healed. So also here: death destroyed, and death saved. But the serpent that destroyed had venom, while the one that saved had no venom.

So again here: the death that destroyed had sin, as the serpent had venom. But the Master's death was free from every sin, as the bronze serpent was free from venom.

"He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Pet 2:22). This is the same as what Paul says: "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in Himself" (Col 2:15).

As a brave wrestler lifts his opponent into the air, throws him to the ground, and wins a splendid victory, so Christ overthrew the opposing powers before the whole universe.

After healing those wounded in the wilderness, He was hung upon the Cross and freed them from all beasts.

But He did not say, "must be hung," but "must be lifted up." He used an expression more acceptable to the hearer and more closely suited to the type.

On the other hand, He teaches that if the Jews escaped death by looking at the bronze image of the serpent, much more shall we escape the death of the soul by looking upon the Crucified One and believing in Him.

Compare, if you will, the image with the truth. There was the likeness of a serpent, having the form of a serpent but having no venom. So also here the Lord is man, yet free from the venom of sin.

He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, in the likeness of flesh subject to sin, though He Himself is not flesh of sin. Then those who looked escaped bodily death; we escape spiritual death.

Then the one hung up healed from the bites of serpents. Now Christ heals the wounds inflicted by the spiritual dragon.

When you hear, "must be lifted up," understand it as: must be hung up. For He was hung on high so that, having sanctified the earth by walking upon it, He might also sanctify the air.

Understand "to be lifted up" also as "to be glorified." For the Cross truly became the height and glory of Christ. In what He seemed to be condemned, by that He condemned the ruler of this world.

I will explain briefly. Adam died justly, because he sinned. The Lord did not die by a debt of justice, because He did not sin.

Before the Lord's crucifixion, death rightly held dominion over men. But since the Lord proved sinless, what could the devil find in Him that deserved death?

Since He was put to death unjustly, He conquered the one who killed Him. In this way He freed Adam also from the death justly brought upon him as one who had sinned.

There is another way to say it. Two things held dominion over the human race: pleasure and sorrow. The Lord passed through both and proved unconquered.

The tempter first approached Him on the mountain with the offer of pleasure (Mt 4:3, 6, 9). Finding Him unconquerable through this, he used great cunning and brought sorrow upon Him, hoping at least through sorrow to master Him.

For this purpose he stirred up everything against Him: the disciples' denial, the soldiers' mockery, the blasphemy of those passing by, and death from the Jews. Yet even in this he found Him unconquered.

For the sorrow of the Cross could not arouse hatred in the Lord toward those crucifying Him. He continued to love them and prayed for them, saying, "Father, do not count this sin against them" (Lk 23:34).

Do you see how He conquered by the very thing through which He seemed to be conquered? Thus the Cross became both His exaltation and His glory.

Serpents began to attack the Israelites in the wilderness. They fell like ears of grain, terribly struck by the danger that had suddenly overtaken them. With sorrowful voices they called upon God for salvation from above.

Then God, being good and loving toward mankind, commands Moses to raise up for them a bronze serpent. In it He prefigures salvation through faith, since the medicine for the bitten man consisted in looking straight at the serpent.

Thus faith, joined with looking at the serpent, bestowed upon those who looked freedom from death. This is the historical meaning of the narrative (Num 21:6ff.).

But in this event, as in a type, the whole mystery of the Incarnation is also drawn. The serpent indicates tormenting and murderous sin, which oppressed all men on earth, biting the human soul in many ways and pouring in the varied venom of evil.

It was impossible for us to escape the sin that so ruled over us except through help from heaven alone. Therefore God the Word appeared "in the likeness of sinful flesh," in order to condemn "sin in the flesh," as it is written (Rom 8:3).

He also appeared in order to show Himself the Author of eternal salvation for those who direct their gaze toward Him, either by strong faith or by the investigation of divine dogmas.

If the serpent was fixed to a high pole, this undoubtedly indicates the universal glory of Christ, so that He would be unknown to no one. Or it indicates His being lifted up from the earth in the Passion on the Cross, as He Himself says in one place (Jn 12:32).

The mercy of God gave a remedy. This remedy, of course, brought immediate healing, but it also prefigured the Wisdom to come. God says to Moses: "Hang the bronze serpent on a tree in the midst of the wilderness, and say to the people: whoever has been bitten, let him look upon this serpent." And the people who had been bitten looked upon the serpent and were healed.

Such a sign bears witness to the Lord in the Gospel. For when He was conversing with Nicodemus, He said: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish. But have eternal life." This means that whoever has been bitten by the serpents of sins should look upon Christ and receive healing unto the remission of sins.

Therefore, brethren, the very mortality which the Lord received is also necessarily received by the Church, His Body, whose Head is in heaven. Thus the Church undergoes mortality, and this happened through the serpent's persuasion. We owe death to the transgression of the first man. Yet afterward we shall attain eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But when does man come to life and return to the kingdom? At the end of the age.

Thus He accepted death and endured death on the Cross. By this very death, mortals were freed from death. Then the Lord recalls what was done in a figure among the ancients: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life," Jn 3:14-15. A great mystery! Whoever has read it knows it.

Let those now hear who have not read it, and also those who perhaps have forgotten what they read or heard. In the wilderness the people of Israel were attacked by serpents. There was great destruction, the death of many. This was God's punishment, reproving and chastening that people so that they might be corrected.

A great mystery of what was to come was revealed there. The Lord Himself bears witness to this in this passage, so that no one can interpret it otherwise than as the Truth Himself speaks concerning Himself. For the Lord told Moses to make a bronze serpent, raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and direct the people of Israel that if anyone were bitten by a serpent, he should look at that serpent raised on the pole. This was done: people were bitten, looked upon the serpent, and recovered, cf. Num 21:6-9.

What did the biting serpents signify? They are the sins that come from the mortality of the body. And what does the serpent raised on the pole signify? It is the death of the Lord on the Cross. Since death came from the devil, it is depicted in the form of a serpent. The serpent's bite is deadly, but the death of the Lord is life-giving. They had to look upon the serpent so that the serpent could do nothing.

What does this mean? One must look upon death so that death can do nothing. But whose death? The death of life, if one may speak so. The death of life! Yes, that would be a wondrous saying, if one may speak so.

But may one not speak of what had to take place? Shall I not dare to say what the Lord deigned to accomplish for my sake? Is Christ not life? Yet Christ was crucified on the Cross. Is Christ not life? Yet Christ died. But in the death of Christ, death died. For Life, receiving death, trampled down death. The fullness of life swallowed up death. Death was dissolved in the body of Christ. So also shall we say at the resurrection, when we sing triumphantly: "O death, where is your power? O death, where is your sting?" 1 Cor 15:54.

Meanwhile, brethren, that we may be healed from sin, let us fix our eyes upon the crucified Christ. For He says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life," Jn 3:14-15. As those who fixed their gaze upon that serpent did not perish from the bites of serpents, so those who fix their gaze with faith upon the death of Christ are healed from the bites of sins.

Those people were healed from death for temporal life. Here, however, He says: that they may have eternal life. In this lies the difference between the type and the reality. The type promised temporal life, but the reality to which that type referred promises eternal life.

The history of this serpent is as follows. Once in the wilderness, serpents were destroying the Israelites by their bites. Therefore God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it upon a tree, so that those who were bitten might look at it and remain alive (Num 21:8-9).

The bronze serpent served as a type of the firm body of Jesus Christ, inaccessible to sin. This serpent, having no venom, served as a type of Jesus Christ, Who has no venom of sin.

Raised upon a tree, it was a type of Him Who was raised upon the wood of the Cross. Giving life to those bitten by serpents who looked upon it, it was a type of Him Who grants eternal life to those bitten by spiritual serpents and looking to Him with faith.

Because of this likeness the Evangelist said, "Moses lifted up the serpent," and so forth. Then he indicates the reason for this lifting up.

As Moses lifted up the serpent so that those who looked upon it might preserve their life, so Jesus Christ was lifted up so that those who look upon Him, that is, those who believe, may have eternal life.

There it was a serpent, because serpents had bitten. Here it is a man, because men had been bitten.

Since there the harm came from serpents, through a serpent came healing. Here, since death entered the world through man, through man also comes life, and through a dead man comes the death of that which brings death.

By the words, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life," he clearly showed that He Whose death gives eternal life to others is undoubtedly God. He dies as man and gives life as God.

He also showed that the One Who does not permit others to perish can Himself never perish. Therefore the Cross is the source of eternal life.

This, however, reason does not easily accept. But faith accepts it, strengthening the weakness of reason. Hence the benefit of faith is evident.

Moses did this. When serpents bit the Israelites, they looked at the bronze serpent and did not die, but were healed: "And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it upon a standard. And it came to pass, when a serpent bit a man, that he looked at the bronze serpent and lived" (Num 21:9).

Behold a sign and type worthy of great wonder. The creeping serpent that bit the Israelites in Edom signified the noetic serpent, that is, the devil. He wounded the first parents of the human race in Eden, and to this day wounds their descendants.

The bronze that depicted the serpent signified the Son and Word of God, Who took the form of a servant and was found in appearance as a man (Phil 2:7).

The bronze serpent was raised upon a standard; the God-man Jesus was nailed to the Cross. The one who looked upon the bronze serpent raised upon the standard was healed of the serpent's bite.

So the one who believes in the God-man hanging on the tree is cleansed from the bite of the noetic serpent.

The one who looked upon the bronze serpent did not die, but remained alive in this temporal life. So the one who believes in the God-man Jesus does not perish, that is, is not condemned to torment, but has eternal life.

By God's command the serpent was raised upon the standard. So by the good pleasure of God the Father, Jesus was raised upon the Cross.

Do you see how great a likeness the type has to the reality typified? For this reason Jesus said: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

Since He said, "the Son of Man must be lifted up," that is, must be lifted up on the Cross, He therefore showed in the following words the reason why He had to be lifted up.

Referring to Moses' hanging of the bronze serpent, which was known to Nicodemus, and to the healing effect of a single look at it, Jesus Christ said: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

The words "must be lifted up" mean the forthcoming lifting up of Jesus Christ upon the Cross, His crucifixion.

These words are used in precisely this sense in other places of the Gospel. For example, John cites the words of Jesus Christ addressed to the Jews: "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself."

The Evangelist John explains that "He said this, signifying by what death He would die" (Jn 12:32-33).

As Moses lifted up the bronze image of the serpent upon a standard, so that everyone perishing from serpent venom might receive healing, so Christ the Messiah had to be crucified on the Cross. Thus everyone who believes in Him would enter the Kingdom of God and have eternal life.

Perdition, in contrast to eternal life, is the same as eternal death, in separation from the source of life, God. Unbelief leads to it.

Faith in the redeeming sacrifice of the Messiah leads to eternal life in union with the source of life, God. Therefore faith in this redeeming sacrifice is the necessary condition on man's part for participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah through regeneration.

But if anything contradicted the sensuous Judaism of that time in its view of the person of the Messiah and His Kingdom, it was precisely the idea of a suffering Messiah.

It was the thought that He would appear not in the outward majesty and glory of a king, but would lay the foundation of His Kingdom by His sufferings and death. He would offer Himself as a sacrifice to God for the redemption of mankind.

Yet this was not the only thing that conflicted with their ideas at that time. In Christ's speech there were also other such ideas, namely that everyone who believes in the Messiah as Son of God and Redeemer will have eternal life.

Everyone: therefore there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. They are equal with respect to the right to participate in the Kingdom of the Messiah.

Therefore this Kingdom is universal. It is not limited only to the borders of the ancient theocracy, as the Jews dreamed, thinking of their exclusive, or at least preferential, rights.

Believing: therefore the right to participate in the Kingdom of the Messiah does not consist in fleshly descent from Abraham or in imaginary righteousness from works of the law. It consists in faith in the Messiah, that is, in acknowledging Him as He portrays Himself.

If the Jews do not show this faith, all will be deprived of participation in the Kingdom of the Messiah. The Gentiles will enter it if they believe. Indeed, as the prophet John said, God can raise up children to Abraham from stones (Mt 3:9).

But first, this would not lead the Pharisee Nicodemus out of his mistaken opinion about the Messiah as a glorious earthly king. It would confirm him in error.

Second, verse 16 clearly speaks of God's love for the world, which gave the Son of God over to death for the salvation of men.

Third, even the Jews understood such sayings of the Savior in no other way than as referring to His death, without excluding the thought of its saving fruits (Jn 12:32, 34).

Fourth, the Evangelist himself explains his own words in the same way in other places (Jn 12:33; Jn 8:28).

Perhaps only the allusion to Jonah, Mt 12:40, was spoken somewhat earlier, though, as we think, later than the conversation with Nicodemus.

In verse 19 of the second chapter, the Lord had already spoken, though still veiledly, of the destruction of "the living temple of His body," as John Chrysostom says. Now He speaks more clearly, though still not with complete openness, as He later spoke to the disciples, about His lifting up. He likens it to the healing serpent raised in the wilderness by Moses, Num 21:7 and following. A single look upon it healed those wounded by the serpents of the wilderness.

The serpent was the likeness of death, which was taking possession of sinful Israel. Yet the Lord God commands that a look upon the image of death should heal. For this reason the serpent serves as a type foretelling the great events to come. We, looking upon death taking possession of the complete man dying on the Cross, know that God was inseparably united with this man. Therefore, in His humanity He conquered death, and made us partakers of His Resurrection and eternal life. "By His wound we were healed," 1 Pet 2:24.

Therefore, looking with faith upon this great mystery of death, we too are healed. For the Lord, saying that according to the type of the ancient serpent the Son of Man must be lifted up, adds: "that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." The verb "to be lifted up" has, for the time being, a meaning not yet fully clear and definite to the disciples. In the Greek text the verb ὑψωθῆαι is used. In the Latin Vulgate the verb is exaltari; in the Biblia Sacra, extollere. In both Slavonic and Russian translations, all these words have a double meaning. This became clear to the disciples only later, in a twofold sense corresponding to the two natures or essences of the God-man.

Lifted up in the flesh upon the Cross, and tasting death as man, He, as God, conquered death and raised man with Himself to heaven in soul and body. Compare Gregory the Theologian to Cledonius, and also Athanasius the Great against Apollinaris. Therefore He, almighty God in His humanity, was also highly exalted by God, who gave Him the name above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth," Phil 2:9-10.

Jesus was the earthly name of the Son of Man, and the glory of this name was the salvation of those who believe in Him, almighty God who assumed flesh, cf. Jn 12:32-33. Thus in the conversation with Nicodemus the Lord set forth four things. First, the necessity of gracious regeneration by water and the Spirit. Second, the dogma of the Son of God, who came down from heaven and assumed human flesh. Third, the coming suffering and death of the God-man. Fourth, the promise that everyone who believes in the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man, shall not perish but have eternal life.

Eternal life is joyful life beyond the grave in the Lord. Eternal condemnation, however, is the second eternal death, Rev 21:8.