John 3:14 and the Old Testament

John 3:16-17, perhaps the most known verse in all of Scripture, is often amputated from its preface: 3:14-15.  The whole sequence in its entirety reads as such:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through Him." (John 3:14-17).

The striking thing about this passage is that taken as a whole, it is clear that Jesus is intimately tied to the Old Testament Scripture.  In a real sense, John is clear that understanding who Jesus is and what He has done requires that we know the Old Testament.

Unfortunately, many Christians woefully neglect this fact.  There is a tragic tendency in modern Christianity to sever the New Testament from the Old; just think of all the Bibles printed with just the New Testament and Psalms.

In truth, much of the New Testament will be enigmatic if not outright incomprehensible apart from an understanding of the Old Testament.  Matthew, Romans, John, Ephesians, Hebrews, Revelation demand that we read them with Old-Testament-tinted lenses in order that we understand what these writers were really saying.  Think of the aforementioned passage and antecedent precursor that it alludes to:

"And the people spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loather this worthless food.'  then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.  And teh people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.  Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people.  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.'  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."  (Num 21:5-9).

Therefore, if ever we feel as if understanding the New Testament is hindered, one may need to turn the book several hundred years into the past in order to see the richness of Scripture more fully.  Also, let us make a concerted effort to read the Old Testament for this very reason so as to be prepared to engage the New.