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The Tree of Life


1 Peter 2:21-25 (ESV) 
21  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 
22  He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 
23  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 
24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 
25  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Revelation 22:1-2 (ESV) 
1  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 
2  through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Acts 5:30 (ESV) 
30  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

Four generations of early Christians disciples of each other…
The Apostle John discipled Polycarp.
Polycarp discipled Irenaeus
Irenaeus discipled Hippolytus.
Except for John, most Christians today do not know anything of the others.  I learned a lot of my Christology from Irenaeus.  I learned a lot about commitment from Polycarp, and about teaching from Hippolytus.  Odd names, I'll grant you that;  but each man was considered to be a stalwart of the early church’s leadership and faith.  Each one stood for Christ when it was unpopular to do so.  Each one suffered and died from martyrdom because of their faith in Christ.

Hippolytus was distinguished as a scholar and a preacher.  He published volumes of writings that crossed over from law to apologetics, to theology and the devotional.
Here’s one of these thoughtful meditations on the the cross as the tree of life.

The Cross - the Tree of Life, by Hippolytus (c.170-236)  
The tree is my everlasting salvation.  It is my food, a shared banquet.  Its roots and the spread of its branches are my own roots and extension… Its shade I take for my resting place; in my flight from oppressive heat it is the source of refreshing dew for me… Food for my hunger and wellspring for my thirst, it is also covering for my nakedness, with the spirit of life as its leaves… Fearful of God, I find in it a place of safety; when unsteady a source of stability.  In the face of a struggle, I look to it as a prize; in victory my trophy.
It is Jacob’s ladder, the passage of angels, at whose summit the Lord is affixed.  This tree, the plant of immortality, rears from earth to reach as high as heaven, fixing the Lord between heaven and earth.  It is the foundation and stabilizer of the universe, undergirding the world that we inhabit.  It is the binding force of the world… It is riveted into a unity by the invisible bonds of the Spirit, so that its connection with God can never be severed.  Brushing heaven with its uppermost branches, it remains fixed in the earth, and between the two points, its huge hands completely enfold the stirring of the air.  A single whole, it penetrates all things and all places.

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