Monday, August 1, 2005
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.
BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD
There are 110 varieties of oak tree -- west of the Mississippi. Trees are different, not only in outward characteristics like leaves and bark, but also in their woods -- and therefore in their uses and applications. The Creator's wisdom and love are clearly evident here.
In our text Peter talks about the Lord's greatest act of wisdom and love, and the greatest use ever of the wood of any tree. The Creator of all things becomes man, is born into our human family so that He might bear our sins in his body on the tree.
Bear here clearly means "be answerable for," but what about the word for "tree"? What kind of tree was Christ's cross made from? There are legends, of course, but we don't know. And it probably doesn't matter. For when we look more closely at the exact wording of the Apostle here we find he doesn't actually use the word for tree, but a word for "wood."
This Scripture makes plain that Jesus was our Substitute and also calls to mind the many Old Testament sacrifices that were laid on the Altar of Burnt Offering in the Temple courtyard. Those daily offerings of lambs and calves substituted the blood, the death, of another -- for that of the sinner. But, while those divinely appointed sacrifices were placed on the altar and offered in the place of the sinner, it was not because they could pay for sin, but because God accepted their sacrifice in view of and in lieu of a Sacrifice to come.
All those lambs sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering pictured in advance the sacrifice of the Messiah, the Lamb of God, that would truly pay for human sin-guilt.
But none of the Old Testament sin sacrifices were laid directly on the altar. They were slain and bled out -- and burnt. So every sacrifice was laid on the wood that had been cut and piled on the altar. Jesus our sacrifice carried our sins to the cross; to the place of sacrifice. There He willingly allowed Himself to be nailed to the wood of that altar. He himself bore our sins in his body on the wood.
