JESUS PUT SIN BACK ON THE TREE
From the very beginning, God has always worked through trees. In the Garden of Eden, there stood “the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). God gave Adam and Eve clear instruction: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17).
But Adam didn’t listen. He reached out his hand and took what God had forbidden. When he did, he didn’t just take a bite of fruit—he took sin off the tree and brought it into himself. That one act of disobedience changed everything. “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Adam’s decision transferred sin from the outside world to the inside of him. We have all proven that we are the “children of Adam” by doing exactly what he did in rebelling against God.
Jesus came to undo what Adam had done—to take the sin that man pulled down from the tree and nail it back where it belonged. Peter tells us, “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
What a powerful reversal! Adam took from the tree and brought death. Jesus gave Himself on the tree and brought life. The first Adam reached out in disobedience, but the second Adam stretched out His arms in obedience. Paul wrote, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
Think about that: what started with a hand reaching up to a forbidden branch ended with hands stretched wide on a Roman cross. Adam reached for something that wasn’t his. Jesus let go of everything that was His. Adam took. Jesus gave.
Jesus didn’t just carry sin—He became sin for us. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore the full weight of humanity’s rebellion and nailed it to that cross. That’s why Paul said, “Having forgiven you all trespasses, He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13–14).
When Jesus hung there, He wasn’t just dying—He was restoring. The curse that began with Adam was being broken. Paul wrote, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13).
In the Garden, a tree brought death. On Calvary, a tree brought life. In Eden, man hid from God behind the trees. At the cross, God revealed Himself on one. The tree that once represented rebellion became the very instrument of redemption.
When Jesus finally said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He wasn’t just talking about His suffering being over. He was declaring that sin’s power was broken, that everything Adam lost had been restored. The work was complete. The sin that was taken off the tree in Genesis was put back on the tree in the Gospels.
So what does that mean for you and me today? It means we don’t have to carry what Jesus already carried. The curse doesn’t belong to us anymore. The guilt, shame, and condemnation that Adam brought into the world were all lifted off our shoulders and nailed to that wooden cross.
Jesus put sin back on the tree so that you could walk in freedom beneath it. He didn’t just change your destiny—He changed your identity. Now, through faith in Him, you can eat freely from the tree of life again.
Revelation gives us a glimpse of that final restoration: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).
From the garden to the cross, and from the cross to eternity, God’s story with trees comes full circle. The first tree brought sin into man, but the second tree took sin out of man. And the final tree—the tree of life—will stand forever as a symbol of what Jesus accomplished.
So today, live like someone redeemed. The fruit of sin no longer defines you. The tree of death has become the tree of life. Jesus put sin back on the tree—so you can live free.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
