Oct 24th | Tree & Cross

Near the beginning there was a tree. The Genesis account reminds us that God is Community and Creator. Father, Son and Spirit brought all things into existence, including humanity. It was God’s grand design that we would enjoy him forever. That we would fully experience him and all that he created. To live in perfect harmony with him in the cosmos. And as the created it was/is important that we don’t clamor to be the Creator. He must always be God and we must always be subject to him. God gives and sustains life. God alone is the judge of good and evil. Therefore, The Tree of Life and  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil are off limits. The center of the garden is God – don’t go there. Don’t eat that fruit. Other than that, we are free to engage the world and fully live!

Well, that didn’t last long. Adam and Eve ate the off-limits fruit, and to this day, you and I continue to eat the fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is, we prefer to be the judge of the world. We’re convinced we see it right and wrong correctly – that we can separate good and evil and that it is our responsibility, then, to bring that clarity to others and subtly demand they change and conform. Throughout scripture we hear the echoes of God: stop eating that fruit! “Don’t judge…don’t condemn!”

But, if our responsibility as Christians is not to “correct the world/others,” then what is it?  What does this verse near the end of James’ letter mean?!? Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. Well, what we learned Sunday,  is to live life in the shadow of the cross rather than through the Tree.

Col 2 God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

John 5 ²⁴“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

What we forget is that, through Jesus, sin has been condemned, and so neither are we condemned…or them! Whomever! What Christians need to remember and what others need to know is that life is not found in doing right, but in receiving forgiveness. Life is found in the shadow of the cross. What Christians need to remember and everyone needs to know is that all of us are trapped without recourse in our sin. The only relief is in the One who could have condemned, but instead became all sin and was himself condemned on another tree. And now says to us, just like he said to her, “Neither do I condemn you.”

If we believe in Jesus, we believe that. If we believe in Jesus, we believe that love is monumentally more powerful than judgment. In fact, the latter brings death and the former brings life.  Living off the fruit of the Tree leads nowhere; The shadow of the Cross is everything. Turning a sinner from error and death doesn’t mean judging and correcting, it means introducing or reminding them of Jesus. It means viewing them the same way Jesus does – without condemnation. And then believing that God can do something amazing from there.

Which seems more powerful: Lovingly communicated correction or Jesus’ message of non-condemnation?

What does 2 Tim 2:25 say that we can hope for in God? Why don’t we trust that?

Who did you judge today?

What can you do tomorrow?