Two Trees

What does the Cross and a tree have in common? Here’s another question? Why did Jesus die on the Cross? You are absolutely correct! Jesus died on the Cross to take away our sins. Peter said, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” It was on the Cross that Jesus bore our sins. When we are saved we die to sin and live our lives in righteousness.

I think of another tree when I hear that Jesus died on a tree to save us from sin. Another question, what was it that first got us in trouble with God? Did it have anything to do with a tree? You are right again. The tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden produced a fruit that God told Adam and Eve not to eat. What kind of fruit  was it? It wasn’t an apple, or a pear, or a fig, nor was it any fruit that we might buy at a fruit stand. It was forbidden fruit. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit we are all under the curse of sin. How did that forbidden fruit get us in trouble? We didn’t eat it. How could we? Forbidden doesn’t exist today, you might protest.

Oh but does exist, and man eats it everyday. We inherited the sin nature from Adam which makes us crave that fruit. Our carnal hearts desire the things of this world. We are prone to discredit the word of God. Man twisted the truths of scripture to accommodate their fancy. And every time we disobey God we take a big bite out of the Forbidden Fruit. That lovely tree bearing the forbidden fruit in the Garden was used by Satan to twist God’s word, to discredit him, and make him out to be a killjoy. Jesus, however, suffered and died on that cruel tree, the one on Calvary,  to offer God’s grace and his forgiveness to us so that we might be saved from death and given eternal life. I thank God that he gave us that second tree.