The Ancient Tree

At the heart of the story of the world is the Creator becoming man, to buy back his creation from death. Of course, rebellion and resulting death had been our choice. But in mercy and the unwavering persistence of Love, he came. The curse had to fall on someone…. He took our place.

Galatians 3:13-14: “Christ redeemed us from the curse … by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”

2 Corinthians 5:17-20: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them…. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

Colossians 2:11b-15, 19-22: “May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. ….God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Colossians 3:5-10: “So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires…. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now…, put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”