Pastor Caleb Gordon: Finding hope among a plague of snakes

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” ― Charles Spurgeon

As 2021 drew to a conclusion, I watched as my father slipped away from us due to the icy, cold fingers of death. My brother and I watched helplessly as we could not do anything to change his condition, we had no ability to bring healing and we felt a moment of hopelessness. There has been a lot of talk about the idea of hope as of late in our culture and many have stated that they feel hopeless and desperate in light of the political and cultural things happening in our world. As I write this column, I was reminded of those feelings I had of hopelessness in the hospital, but I’m also reminded of the hope we have in Christ Jesus. Those who are in Christ have this amazing and everlasting hope.

‘For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him 2 Corinthians 5:7-9.

Now, I know and understand that many who read this scoff at the idea of a living Savior who can redeem and save. This honestly breaks my heart. I know that if you’d take a moment to sit down with me and talk to me about this topic of eternal hope, you’d see that my heart’s desire is to see everyone I interact with rescued and redeemed by Jesus Christ.

So for the rest of this article, I want to talk about the HOPE of JESUS!

Romans 4:7-8 says, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Jesus Christ has made a way to be forgiven of all our sinfulness. Every one of us has fallen short and sinned, according to Romans 3:23. We have all broken God’s law, the moral law written in the ten commandments. All of us have lied, stolen, and used God’s holy name as a four-letter curse word at some point in our lives. Because of this, we deserve his judgment, according to Romans 6:23. And that’s just three of the ten commandments. Some might say, “Well Caleb, I’ve only broken a few of them, so therefore it’s not that bad.” James 2:10 says, ‘For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.’ So, in other words, if you break one of the ten, you’re just as guilty of breaking the law as someone who has broken ALL ten. Why? Not because every sin is equal in terms of consequence in this life, but because every sin is of equal offense to a righteous, holy God. God even takes it further. He doesn’t simply look at your actions alone. The Lord looks deeper still to the intention of your heart. God sees all our motives, including my own. Proverbs 16:2 says ‘People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.’ You might not have ever physically murdered anyone, but you might have attempted to murder someone’s character online. That’s why in 1 John 3:15 the scripture says, ‘Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.’ This is what I mean by saying we’ve all fallen short. We’ve all sinned. None are innocent, including me. I’m guilty and I deserve the judgment of God because I’ve sinned. I’ve broken the commands of God. I know, that sounds like bad news, right? But here is the HOPE. Here is the GOOD NEWS!!

Romans 5:8 says, ‘but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’

The hope is that JESUS, the sovereign KING of the universe, humbled himself and took the form of a slave. He was obedient to the point of death on a cross in order to redeem and buy back those who would believe. I know, it seems simple, but that’s the beauty of the Gospel, it is simple.

There is a story in the book of Numbers where a large host of poisonous snakes were sent into the camp of the Israelites because they had sinned and spoken evil against God. Anyone who was bitten by these snakes got hopelessly sick and died. The people came to Moses in Numbers 21:7 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.’ This was really a hopeless situation; it was serious. People were dying. Now, the fact of the matter was that these people were being judged because of their wickedness. They deserved the punishment. That’s the bad news. But God caused the people to recognize the error of their ways and repent of their sinfulness. He provided a way for them to be saved/healed. Look at this in Numbers 21:8-9 8 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[c] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. He didn’t take away the snakes, he provided a way for them to be healed if they happened to be bitten by the snakes. ‘If a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.’ SIMPLE, right? I can imagine some folks in the camp probably scoffed at this idea and said it was too simple, too stupid to work. Because of their scoffing and their refusal to obey, they got bit and ignored what Moses told them, and sadly they died. In the same way, I’m trying to relay some SIMPLE hope. Jesus is the cure for the fatal bite of sin that we all have experienced. Romans 10:11 says “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Furthermore, Romans 10:13 says ‘For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

My plea today is that we all would be like this group in Numbers 21. We would all heed the call to repent and believe the Gospel. That by the grace of God, we would acknowledge the error of our ways and ask Him to forgive us of our sinfulness. 1 John 1:9 tells us If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you see the similarities? God has provided a pathway out of our state of hopelessness if we would just place our trust in Jesus Christ. Repent and believe the Gospel, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

I am praying that you understand my tone in this article today. Even though we’ve never met, I love you! I long to see you forgiven and redeemed. I desire to see you seated in heaven with all the saints of God to enjoy the presence of KING JESUS for all eternity.

So even when we are in the middle of the sea of slithering poisonous snakes in our current culture, there is hope. The hope is to ‘lay aside every weight of sin which clings so close to each of us and then look to JESUS as the founder and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:1). So, as we enter this new year, my hope is that we get our eyes truly fixed on the only One who can bring everlasting hope to our world. Hope has a name, and His name is JESUS CHRIST!

Caleb Gordon is a longtime Bartlesville resident and pastor of the First Baptist Church of Cedar Vale, Kansas.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Pastor Caleb Gordon: Finding hope among a plague of snakes