Eternal life: Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of God having ordered Moses to make a bronze serpent, mount it on a pole, and enable all who looked at it to be cured of the bites of poisonous snakes as the people trekked through the Egyptian desert. In view of the Jews’ first commandment prohibition against graven images, that was strange. The rabbis explained it by saying that it was not the serpent that gave life but God, who commanded Moses to act in this way. The serpent was only a sign and symbol to point to God.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that, for the salvation of the world, he himself will be lifted up. He means this in a twofold sense: lifted up on the cross and lifted up into glory by his resurrection and ascension. Jesus tells Nicodemus, and us through him, that if we look at Jesus and believe, that can give us eternal life (v 15).
Jesus’ “eternal life” stresses not the duration of life, but its quality. It is the highest life possible: the life of God himself in us. It surrounds and infuses every aspect of our life with peace: peace with people because all are God’s children, peace with life because we live in a friendly universe, and peace with ourselves because of a new insight into and humble acceptance of our weaknesses.