Look to Me and Live!

Why are there so many hypocritical Christians? (oh, and I'm not one of them! ha!)

How can anyone believe in a God that condemns? 

How can some just believe in a God that loves?

How can I have faith in a faithless world?

I don't know pat answers to these questions, but I do know a God who speaks through His word over and over again.  Same stories, different "I get it!" moments.  Different not because He is, but because I am ever changing, ever coming to a knowledge of the truth.  

One such moment happened today as I grappled with those questions thrown at me.  I didn't have answers, but I did get a clearer picture of one biblical event with apparent answers to every question - the one where Moses is told to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.  (Numbers 21:8)  

First off, the Israelites were the hypocritical followers.  They said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul hates this light bread;" or, "now that I'm following you, I can't have anything that satisfies my old appetite!"  Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many died.  It was commented that, "yeah, see, that's the God I'm talkin' about:  the one that punishes all the time!" and I thought, "yeah, and that's just the problem with punishment, it infers that I can do the time, pay the crime, but in reality, I can't!  Death is at my doorstep - not punishment.  There is nothing, no nothing, I can do to save my life -  once bitten, I die; it's not punishment, folks, it's death.  

But God had a remedy:  make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole - look at it, and LIVE!  

Didn't Christ in John 3:14 compare His death to this very act??? 
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

 I thought, "isn't it strange that He didn't say, 'as Moses lifted up the staff with the serpent on it, I must be lifted up?'"  No!  He compared himself to the serpent!  Because the first step of the cross is to look upon our sin! Which by the way is drawing us to look....  We can't run away; we can't hide.  We must face it!  We must understand that SIN IS DEATH.  I can't paint a pretty picture that, "oh, God is love...."  No, He demands we look upon our sin and.....LIVE!  The opposite of what we'd think:  if I hadn't faced my sin, I'd DIE!  

Now I can philosophize this and become your psychotherapist and say, "you must face your weaknesses," much like the first step of AA is "My name is >>>> and I am an alcoholic," but that is not enough.  And that is why so many people are stuck on feeling condemned, run away from God because they feel condemned, or never have victory over their sin...all they've recognized is sin,  not the Savior who became sin for us.  Thus, when we first come to that place of seeing sin for what it is, many shrink and feel condemned like so many do, and die. ... or we can recognize that he took my sin upon Himself - becoming sin for me. 

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21 That is where belief comes in.  Faith.  He has become sin.  He has freed me from death.  He is a God who loves.  I am not condemned. 

"Look to me and live!"

Faith in a faithless world. Life amongst the dead. Will you be deathly satisfied with the sin.....or safely delivered with the Savior?