阅读经文 

在伊甸园里，分别善恶树代表了人们在做错事时可能做出的选择——与任何良善、真实、可爱的事物相反。 看着亚当和夏娃选择吃那棵树上的果子，这种伏笔真让人揪心。这也指向了将来神的百姓做出罪恶决定的所有时刻。正如圣经中其他故事显明的，有些人为了满足自己的欲望和利益，做了他们自己认为对的事。而另一些人信靠和顺服神，做真正对的事情。

我们在读经中面临的一个挑战是，我们要意识到虽然人被造时是好的，但他们还是会做恶事；虽然人们会做错事，但这不意味着他们里面没有善。因为我们都是按着神的形像被造的，而神是良善的。但我们每个人都可能会悖逆得罪神，破坏我们与神及周围一切的关系。

我们将看到，有些情况是模糊的，有多层意义。然而，罪的所有细微差别和复杂性最终都要面对耶稣为我们死在十字架上。我们不是不断地经历因吃了分别善恶树上的果子而带来的隔阂，而是因着耶稣在十字架之树上献上生命这一礼物，我们已经与神和好了。藉着祂的死，耶稣为我们带来和好，修复和更新。

In the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented the possible choices people could make to do the wrong thing—the opposite of whatever was good, true, and lovely. It's a gut-wrenching type of foreshadowing to see Adam and Eve make the choice to eat from that tree, and this points to all the times when God's people would make sinful decisions in the future. As other stories in the Bible show, some people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes, to satisfy their own appetites and interests, while others trusted in God and obeyed, doing what was right.

One of the challenges we face as we read the Bible is to realize that even though people were created good, they were able to do evil, and even though people can be bad, that doesn't mean they don't have any good in them. For we are all created in God's image, which is good, but every one of us can disobey and sin against God, breaking our relationship with him and with everything around us.

As we will see, sometimes situations are murky and have layers of meaning. However, all the nuances and complexities of sin are finally confronted in Jesus' death for our sake on the cross. Instead of continually experiencing the estrangement brought about by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are reconciled with God by Jesus' gift of his own life on the tree of the cross. Through his death, Jesus brought us reconciliation, restoration, and renewal.