The Bronze Snake

⁴ They set out from Mount Hor along the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, but the people became very impatient along the way. ⁵ The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Look, there is no food! There is no water! And we are disgusted by this worthless food!”^[a]

⁶ The Lord sent venomous^[b] snakes among the people, and the snakes bit the people. As a result many people from Israel died. ⁷ The people went to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord to take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed on behalf of the people.

⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” ⁹ Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole. If a snake had bitten anyone, if that person looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but^[a] have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ The one who believes in him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the basis for the judgment: The light has come into the world, yet people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ In fact, everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, or else his deeds would be exposed. ²¹ But the one who does what is true comes toward the light, in order that his deeds may be seen as having been done in connection with God.”

Made Alive in Christ by Grace

2 You were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.

³ Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.

⁴ But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶ He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ⁷ He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.