As I write, I am overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon Coast, where my family is staying for a few days. The windows are open, and I can see the beautiful white waves billowing up and hear them crashing down on the rocks below. The smell of the ocean air is so fresh and invigorating, and I love to watch the seagulls dive and swoop over the sandy beach and then fly away with their favorite catch. It is a beautiful view here in this place accompanied by all the ocean sounds and smells. It is such a delight; some might call it cathartic!
But is it really cathartic (i.e., therapeutic, refreshing, healing, liberating)? Many people use the word "cathartic" for a temporal experience, such as our current stay at the beach; by that, they usually mean that the experience has been both calming to their nerves and healing for their souls. Well, as much as I enjoy it here in this calm and peaceful setting, and while I agree that it is indeed calming to the nerves, I would have to say that no external environment is ever truly healing for the soul. If it were, everyone who lives here in the Northwest on or near the ocean would have no unrest in their souls, no troubling conscience, no fear of God's wrath, and no sense of impurity in their souls. On the other hand, those who live in other parts of the world where there is no ocean would be defiled, agitated, and all at unrest.
The soul-stirring hymn, "It is Well with My Soul" was written by a brokenhearted Horatio Spafford as he was sailing to Europe to meet up with his grieving wife, who had survived the shipwreck that took the life of their daughters. As his ship sailed near the place where his daughters were lost at sea, he wrote these words:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well; it is well, with my soul.
https://hymnary.org/text/when_peace_like_a_river_attendeth_my_way
But why was there peace attending Horatio's way? Why was it well with his soul? Another verse provides us the answer:
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
https://hymnary.org/text/when_peace_like_a_river_attendeth_my_way
It was well with his soul, and it is well with mine, because of the cross! When we grasp the fact that our sin, "not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross," we are both healed and liberated in our souls. When we understand that we bear our sin no more because Jesus took it all on the cross. At the cross of Christ, we are restored to wholeness, comforted in our sorrows, and set free from sin!
No, it is not an environment that brings true healing and liberation to the soul. At the moment, I have a beautiful view and sights, sounds, and smells I am enjoying, but it is not truly cathartic.
True healing for the soul comes directly from the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is truly the "tree of life," for, in it, we see Jesus dying our death and providing us life. At this tree of life, there is a great exchange that happens as Jesus takes my wretchedness and provides me with His righteousness.
In the book of Revelation, a description of heaven is provided in great detail. Part of that description is about the tree of life, its location, and its function:
“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. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” Revelation 22:1-3
Question 3. How does this tree of life compare with and illustrate the function of the cross?
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