Many have called John 3:16, the Golden Text of the Bible, but we should know why Jesus spoke those words.

As He spoke with a Jewish leader, Jesus told Him,

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14–15).

Then to explain that more, Jesus spoke the Golden Text of the Bible,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The background to His comments are in Numbers 21 when the people complained, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people to punish them for their complaining. When they realized what they had done, the Bible says,

Therefore the 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived (Numbers 21:7–9).

Sin, the confession of that sin, and the request for the removal of the serpents, brought God’s answer of having Moses create the bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and lift it up for all the people to see, foreshadowing the placing of Jesus on a cross that all might go to Him and be saved.