The story of our salvation can be told through trees – three trees to be exact. They are the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, and the tree of the cross. Our hymn this week recounts this story of the three trees.
Verse one: The tree of life with ev’ry good in Eden’s holy orchard stood, and of its fruit so pure and sweet God let the man and woman eat. Yet in this garden also grew another tree, of which they knew; its lovely limbs with fruit adorned against whose eating God had warned.
God told Adam and Eve there were two trees in the middle of the Garden of Eden. They were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There at the foot of one tree, Adam and Eve worshiped as they showed their love for God by being obedient to his command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There at the foot of the other tree, they received the gift of life everlasting. Two important trees, as man and woman sought to live and walk in the presence of their Lord and their God.
Verse two: The stillness of that sacred grove was broken as the serpent strove with tempting voice Eve to beguile and Adam too by sin defile. O day of sadness when the breath of fear and darkness, doubt and death, its awful poison first displayed within the world so newly made.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God as they ate fruit from the forbidden tree. They gave in to the whispers of the evil one as the ancient serpent enticed them. “You will not surely die,” whispered Satan. “You can be like God,” was the devil’s great lie. They listened to the fallen angel instead of their Creator God. Sadness and sin entered God’s new creation. Fear and darkness now reigned. Doubt and death would now consume Adam and Eve and their countless children throughout the ages.
Verse three: What mercy God showed to our race, a plan of rescue by his grace, in sending One from woman’s seed, the One to fill our greatest need— for on a tree uplifted high his only Son for sin would die, would drink the cup of scorn and dread to crush the ancient serpent’s head!
God saw the sin, but he could not overlook the sin. God witnessed that death had entered his creation, but he could not just wish death away. God observed the great need for the human race, and he knew humans could do nothing to fulfill their own great need.
The Lord himself would deal with sin, death, and humanity’s greatest need of a Savior. He made a promise to Adam and Eve and their countless children with his vow to the serpent: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.”
For just as the devil overcame man by a tree, so in turn would the devil be overcome by the Son of Man on a tree. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son. Jesus, God’s Son, comes into our flesh and blood that he might crush the ancient serpent and pay the price demanded by sin. Christ Jesus was born of a woman so he had human flesh and blood. For the price God demanded for salvation was blood – divine blood. Only the blood of the Lamb—the Lamb who has no blemish or spot, who is a perfect sacrifice, a holy and precious offering—only the blood of the Lamb is required ... sacrificed upon a tree.
Verse four: Now from that tree of Jesus’ shame flows life eternal in his name; for all who trust and will believe, salvation’s living fruit receive. And of this fruit so pure and sweet the Lord invites the world to eat, to find within this cross of wood the tree of life with ev’ry good.
The Son of Man must be lifted upon a tree just as the bronze serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness. The tree of the cross — an instrument of torture, suffering, and death — is the tree upon which Jesus is lifted up. On the cross, Jesus suffers and dies. On the cross, his holy and precious blood is shed. On the cross, Jesus lays down his life that our lives might be restored. A perfect sacrifice brings salvation and restoration to the crown of God’s creation. There on the cross, Jesus fulfills his Father’s promise to the serpent.
Jesus turns an instrument of death into a tree of life. Christ Jesus has taken the sins of all the world to the tree and been lifted up for all to see, and from there, he draws all people to himself. Now, we gather at the foot of the cross. The cross has become the new tree of life. We gaze upon the One who became sin for us that we might be saved. He was struck by the serpent’s poison. But at the same time, he crushed the Ancient Serpent’s head.
Upon our death as Christians, we will once again be able to eat from the transplanted tree of life. The apostle John describes the fruit of this tree in the Book of Revelation: “The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1–2). This is the life that has been restored to us – life everlasting, life in the courts of heaven, life in the presence of the Lamb, life that is ours in Christ Jesus. The story of our salvation told through trees.