Christ the sinless one, made into the image of sinners

Numbers 33:41-42 (ESV)
And they set out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. [42] And they set out from Zalmonah and camped at Punon.

It was during this part of the journey that Israel sinned against God again, and God sent among them fiery serpents to destroy them. But when the people repented and asked Moses to pray that the serpents may be taken away, God gave them a strange method indeed for them to be healed:
Numbers 21:8-9 (ESV)
And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." [9] So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

We know that idolatry is forbidden by God, and that God forbid that Israel make an image of the likeness of anything, as it is clearly written in the second of the ten commandments:
Exodus 20:4 (ESV)
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

But why is it that God commands Moses to "Make a fiery serpent"? The answer is clearly given in the New Testament. It was the sign and a prophesy that God's Son would likewise make Himself in the likeness of a sinful human being that He may be slain by God as a substitute offering:
Philippians 2:6-8 (ESV)
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus Christ was in the form of God. He was like the material bronze. Now, bronze is nothing like a serpent. The two are of different forms. They have nothing in common. Bronze is a metal, a material used to make armor and utensils and such. A serpent is an animal, a reptile, a vile, violent and cunning creature. Such is the vastness of the difference between the Son of God and sinful man. This is why the Son of God is holy, so different to us, separated from sinners. Jesus Christ is in His nature GOD, perfectly pure and righteous. But we are by nature sinful creatures, a brood of vipers, who speak lies as serpents spit poison:
Matthew 23:33 (ESV)
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Psalm 58:3-4 (ESV)
The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. [4] They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

But the only way that the bronze could have anything in common with serpents is if it is moulded and made into the image of the serpent. This is what Jesus Christ did in becoming a man. He took upon Himself the nature of man, made Himself as nothing, and made Himself a man. He became a likeness of sinful man. He was like the Bronze Serpent. He never stopped being Bronze, that is, He never stopped being God. Yet He was also fully Man. Just as the Bronze Serpent had no poison inside it, Jesus Christ, though He was made into the likeness of a sinner, never had sin in Him. He was like us, in that He was a man, but He was also not like us in that He had no sin, and that He was God. That is why Jesus preferred to call Himself a Son of Man, though He was the Son of God. Read this passage:
John 3:13-18 (ESV)
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. [16] "For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Above passage clearly shows why the Son of God became a man. He came to be set on a pole like the Bronze Serpent was. He came to be nailed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. He came to take our place in being cursed on the tree instead of us. We were the brood of serpents who were hating and biting one another. We are the ones who had sinned against God, and therefore the condemnation had come upon us all. But Christ was the one who was nailed on the cross, the one whose form is God, the one in whom was no poison of sin. But God moulded Him as the shape of sinful man, and crushed Him as a satisfaction for His wrath against our sins. God was pleased to crush His own Son, that He may make a way for us to be forgiven. This is the Gospel.

Everyone who has sinned has been bitten by the father of serpents: Satan. We have sinned against God through him. We are all born children of the devil, and we all inherit the lies and the sin from him. We all have been cursed by this disease called sin from the moment Adam chose to believe in the Father of Lies. But God graciously gives us time before we die forever from this bite from the devil. God makes us to be in pain momentarily, that we may seek after a way of salvation from this sting of death which is sin. We are bitten, and God gives a chance for us in this temporary life to be saved before the poison invades our entire soul and we perish forever. This life that we live now is that time we who are bitten have a chance to be healed, and live forever. We are all born condemned, and hell-bound, not only that we have sinned, but that we also inherit the guilt of Adam that passed on from generation to generation. We are all like inmates in a prison awaiting the death sentence to be carried out. We are all doomed with the fire of hell that awaits us.

But the Good News is that God has made a way for us to be saved: "Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned". Just as whoever looked at the Bronze Serpent lived, whoever gazes at the Jesus Christ crucified by faith shall be saved. If anyone hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for sins, and believes in that message of the cross, that person shall be saved and have eternal life. The sin of that person shall be reckoned as crucified upon Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ shall be applied to that person.

By this faith we become a new creation, and we are made again into Christ's image. We are no longer children of the serpent, but the children of God. We are made again into the likeness of Him. Since our Saviour was so kind to make Himself into our evil image for our sake, it is fitting that, we, who were originally made to be His image, give ourselves to Him, that He may mould us into His beautiful image. Because Christ is the Image of the invisible God, to be moulded into Christ's image, is to be moulded into God's image. Let us offer ourselves to Him as the clay to the Potter.

It is interesting to note here that in Numbers 21 it did not say that God took away the serpents from Israel's midst. But rather it could be that God left the serpents in their midst. But if anyone was bitten at anytime, they could simply look to the Bronze Serpent and be healed and not die. Likewise it is with the Christian. Sin is still there. And its desire is to have us and to bite us and kill us. But we have the Jesus Christ crucified following us every time. His Cross was our everlasting offering toward God. Though we try hard not to be bitten, and no matter how careful we are, we may still be bitten by sin again. But we have the Gospel of Jesus with us. When we believe on Christ, repenting of our sins, we are healed and restored again. We shall never be destroyed from the bite of the devil, for Christ has been crucified for us. We however ought to forever believe that the Gospel will work for us. The Cross of Jesus will work every time. Every time we are bitten, every time we look at Christ dying by faith we will not die. But if we say to ourselves 'It worked last time, but will it work this time?' and we don't look at the Cross in unbelief, we will surely die in our guilt. But when we confess our sins and gaze at Jesus nailed on the tree, we will be forgiven and cleansed, every time.

But not that we can take God's grace for granted. If we indulge in sin, and try to charm these adders called sin which cannot be charmed, and we are bitten, we may die before we can see the Bronze Serpent. Let us not put Him to test:
1 Corinthians 10:9 (ESV)
We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,
This should be clear warning for us "some were destroyed by the serpents". Some have actually died before even being able to look at the bronze serpent. Let us remember how some have died and gone to hell and never had the grace to believe in Jesus. How then can we misuse God's grace and continue in sin? We cannot crucify the Lord afresh. It is interesting that this bronze serpent actually became an idol that was worshipped in later history:
2 Kings 18:4 (ESV)
He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
We can also make the cross itself an idol if we use it in the sense that it gives us license to sin. But see how the bronze serpent was destroyed when it was used as an idol. God will not give salvation to those who love sin more than His Son. Before such a man can look at the cross, God will take the cross away from his sight that he may never be saved, if that man presumes on God's grace. We must also realize if we are bitten by too many snakes of sin, we may be in so much pain that we may never bee able to open our eyes at all because of our pain:
Matthew 13:15 (ESV)
For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.''
When we look at the cross, let's appreciate what God has done, and let us stop sinning in light of what He has done. If we have gazed once at Jesus, let us never stop gazing at Him for all of eternity, lest we be distracted by other things, lest we be bitten again by sin, our enemy.