Bill’s Bytes
August 23rd, 2026
6th & Washington Streets Church of Christ
There is a third great tree in Scripture — a tree that stands in quiet conversation with the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It does not grow in a garden, and it bears no fruit of its own. It is the Tree of Calvary, the tree on which the Son of God was lifted. And in the mystery of God’s wisdom, this tree becomes all three realities at once: the tree of cursing, the tree of wisdom, and the tree of life.
First, Calvary is the tree of cursing. Paul makes this clear when he writes, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). He is quoting Deuteronomy 21:23, where the law declares that a man executed and hung on a tree is under God’s curse. The cross was a place of judgment. Yet Paul goes on to say that Christ “became a curse for us.” The curse that fell on Adam when he reached for the forbidden tree now falls on Christ as He hangs upon the tree of execution. The judgment that exiled humanity from Eden is taken into His own body.
Calvary is also the tree of wisdom. Paul again helps us see this. In 1 Corinthians 1, he says that the cross is “the wisdom of God,” even though the world calls it foolishness. The Tree of Knowledge in Eden offered knowledge apart from God — knowledge grasped rather than received. At Calvary, Christ embodies the opposite: wisdom expressed through obedience, humility, and self‑giving love. Where Adam reached for wisdom on his own terms, Christ submits to the Father’s will even unto death. The cross reveals what true wisdom looks like — not cleverness, not power, not self‑assertion, but the self‑emptying love of God poured out for sinners. At the Tree of Calvary, wisdom is not something we seize; it is Someone who saves.
And finally, Calvary becomes the tree of life. Revelation 22 describes the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, bearing fruit for the healing of the nations. But that tree is accessible only because of the tree that stood on Golgotha. Jesus Himself makes the connection when He says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). The life once mediated through a tree in Eden is now mediated through the crucified Christ. His death becomes our life. His broken body becomes our healing. His blood becomes our cleansing. The tree that once symbolized death becomes the doorway back into the life humanity lost.
In Eden, two trees stood side by side — one offering life, the other testing faith. At Calvary, those realities converge into one tree. The curse is borne. Wisdom is revealed. Life is restored. And through that tree, God freely offers what humanity foolishly gave away.
The story that began with a forbidden tree ends with a redeeming one — and through the Tree of Calvary, the way to the Tree of Life is opened once more.
-Bill
