In the Old Testament portion of the Bible we read where the people of Israel faced just a situation. In Numbers, chapter 21, the people of Israel rebelled against God and Moses, and as retribution God sent poisonous serpents among the people, and as they were bitten they died. In God’s mercy He provided a cure for the snake bite by instructing Moses to make a brass serpent like the ones biting the people. After the brass serpent was made, Moses put it on a pole and lifted it up, and those who were bitten by a snake, if they would look to the uplifted brass serpent they would live. This was an act of obedience and faith by the one bitten.

The New Testament tells of One Who was lifted up for all to behold and to be healed. This healing, however, is not from a snake bite, but rather from the ravages of sin. You see, we all inherited Adam’s sin nature (Ro. 5:12), and out of (or because of) that sin nature we commit the acts of sin. None of us are exempt - we are all sinners doing the acts of sin (Ro. 3:10-18), the wages of which are physical and spiritual death (Ro. 6:23), judgment (He. 10:27), and eternal damnation in hell for those who die without receiving Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. Our problem is similar to the one that the people in Numbers 21 had - we can’t do anything to save ourselves. We are like two men in quicksand - neither can save the other, and the more self-effort struggle is applied, the deeper we sink. So what are we to do then? Hear the Word of God in John 3:14-16, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This simply means that any person who will repent of his sins and believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood and died on the Cross of Calvary as the full and final payment for the sin debt that we owe, and receive Him as personal Saviour, that person will be saved for all eternity. Spiritual healing and deliverance from the grasp of sin is possible, today, right now - but only through salvation in Jesus Christ. The “old” way of life and habits are to be let go, because the repentant sinner has become a new creation in Christ. Hear again God’s Word, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new.” (2 Co. 5:17) Once a person receives Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, he is not perfect, just forgiven, having the responsibility to live for Christ (2 Co. 5:15; 1 Co. 6:19-20).