What happened on the cross to Jesus was that God made him snake-like.

The snake in the garden embodied rebellion and sin.

Jesus became evil for us.

He made him to be sin.

So that when he died, he died for that sin, which was yours and mine, not his.

I think it's possible to talk about the cross in ways that feel familiar and maybe even a little too familiar.

But then you hear the language Jesus uses in John 3, verses 1 to to 15 and it fills you with fresh wonder.

I'm your host, Dan Kroover.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper explains how Jesus took on what was ours

so that we could receive what was his. The sermon was originally delivered at

Bethlehem Baptist Church on April 5, 2009. With verse 13, he shifts from being a witness to being the son of man.

He's not any longer going to talk about what needs to happen in Nicodemus, like I might do.

He's going to talk about what he's going to do that makes the new birth possible. Jesus is shifting from,

this needs to happen in you. He's shifting from describing the process. It's by the spirit.

It's like water. It's like wind blowing. It's like another birth.

It brings life.

He's describing a process.

And then after verse 13, he's describing the action of the son of man in history.

That's very significant.

There are more obs to the new birth than the deadness of the human heart. And they must be dealt with in history by the Son of God

before the Holy Spirit can deal with the deadness in the human heart.

So Jesus is going to talk to him about this.

...