White Amaryllis from the Mock Gardens – Photo by Robert Mock
"Who Himself bore our Sins in His own Body on the Tree." 1 Peter 2:24
The “Cross” of Yahshua HaMaschiah (Jesus the Messiah) symbolized by His hanging on a lintel beam strapped to a tree, is the revelation of God's judgment on sin. Be careful we do not associate the idea of martyrdom with the Messiah’s death upon a tree. This epic moment was a superb triumph that shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time and eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what YHVH’s Messiah accomplished by being executed upon that tree as one accursed of G-d. Through Him, it was made possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with G-d. He made redemption the foundation of human life; the is, He made a way for every to have fellowship with G-d through blood sacrifice of YHVH’s Messiah.
The death of Yahshua upon a Tree did not just happen. He came for the purpose to die; the Tree upon which He hung was His purpose for His coming for He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).
Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh” from “He made Him …to be sin for us”. The “Incarnation” or the manifestation of the “Image” of G-d in the flesh was not for our Self-realization but for our redemption. Between the Center of Time and Eternity stands the “Accursed Tree” called the “Cross”. It is the answer to the enigma of both and would set the stage for the redemption and the restoration of the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.
It was the stated purpose for Yahshua’s (Jesus’) divine mission; to “find the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” ( ) Out of His ministry, death and resurrection, the pathway for the restoration of Lost Sheep of Israel would begin. Within the reclamation, the Lost Tribers would leave their paganism to become followers of the Jewish Messiah with the Jewish Nazarenes. They would then apostatize and leave their “early love” and mix it with the paganism and become followers of Christian Romanism. Then third, they would free themselves as Protest-ants against apostate Romanism and become the most potent force of Messianism.
It was not the Roman Christians who took the “Good News” around the world. They only sought power and control. It took the Protest-ant Israelite Christians to become messianic emissaries of the Divine to every nation, kingdom, tongue and people. As the prophets have spoke, these Lost Israelites will finally move away from apostate Christianity, with all its corruption and in the days of the Guela, the days of redemption of all Israel, they will return back to the Hebrew-Judaic faith of their forefathers.
The whole meaning of the manifested Messiah has no meaning without the “Tree” upon which He would be executed. We must beware of separating “G-d was manifested in the flesh…” from “He made Him…to be sin for us…” (I Timothy 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21) That “Tree” would not be known as the “Cross of a man, but the “Cross of G-d” yet this “Cross of G-d” cannot be never be realized in human experience because it is an exhibition of the very nature of the Eternal One. When a man confronts that “Tree”, it is not his experience to go through it, but to abide in Life of the One who is the Gateway through which he can come into fellowship with the Divine.
Central to the final redemption and restoration of all mankind will be the “Tree” that became the “Cross of the Messiah”. Here the Eternal One and sinful man come head to head in collision with sin. By that collision, through the Messiah we can enter through the gateway into the pasture or in fellowship and communion with Him.
The centre of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much. The Cross is the point where God and sinful man merge with a crash and the way to life is opened - but the crash is on the heart of God
The whole meaning of the Incarnation is the Cross. Beware of separating God manifest in the flesh from the Son becoming sin. The Incarnation was for the purpose of Redemption. God became incarnate for the purpose of putting away sin; not for the purpose of Self-realization. The Cross is the centre of Time and of Eternity, the answer to the enigmas of both.
“Utmost for His Highest” – Oswald Chambers in Modern Jewish Messianic Verse for the Lost 10 Tribes of the House of Israel