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Question 7
Tertullian interprets the bronze serpent as “exhibiting the Lord’s cross” where the devil is made a public spectacle; how does this view of the cross as victory over spiritual enemies (Colossians 2:13–15) confront a more individualistic, therapy-shaped view of salvation that focuses mainly on personal guilt and self-improvement?
Another way to ask: If the cross is a victory over spiritual enemies (Colossians 2:13–15), how does that challenge a view of salvation that is mainly about my personal guilt and self-improvement? What changes if salvation is bigger than just “me”?

Direct Answer Based on Chuck’s use of Tertullian and Colossians 2, the cross is not only about my private sins and feelings; it is God’s public victory over Satan and hostile powers. That confronts a therapy-shaped view by re-centering salvation on God’s triumph and rescue, not mainly on self-improvement.

Support from Transcript:

  • Tertullian’s reading: Moses’ bronze serpent “was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the serpent, the devil, was made a show of.”
  • The outcome is rescue: “For he who gazed upon that cross was freed from the bite of the serpents.”
  • Chuck links it to Colossians 2: Christ “made a public spectacle of his enemies by triumphing over them on the cross.”
  • The image emphasizes danger beyond inner guilt: the people were “bitten by poisonous snakes, and were dying.”
  • Chuck’s summary returns to this rescue theme: “only by looking to the cross can we be saved from the deadly poison of the serpent’s bites.”
Discussion Follow-ups When you explain the gospel, do you talk more like a courtroom (guilt) or a battlefield (victory/rescue), and what might be missing if you neglect either?

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