Red in Nature & Bled in Nurture

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— Genesis 3:22 (NKJV)

         It is funny how some people fixate on calling the forbidden tree the tree of knowledge when the full title is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge of good and evil is our nature passed down to us from ancient times; no child has to be taught to lie, steal, or hurt others. Also, no one has to teach a child the idea of justice: if another kid steals from a kid there will be a cry to restore the stolen toy. We have our predispositions with good in there, but there is an evil that lurks inside of all of us. A poison that ruins the wine of our spirit.
         Yet we are not snakes freshly hatched that have all the instinct and knowledge to live life, we are humans that need the teaching and nurturing of a family. This shapes our behaviour to what is acceptable to those around us. And this is where that drop of poison does its work, we all want to be seen as right. With fresh minds that need to be taught their left hand from their right hand, people throughout time have played god by calling good evil and evil good. While major chunks of good and evil remain intact as good and evil, some predispositions towards evil are made to be good through arguments and unjust exercises of power. Whether large or small, there is something in everyone's life where we have justified ourselves through one reason or another; my favourite to hear is always, "It was just one time." There is such sorrow in the lament that repeats so often in the Bible:

My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
Jeremiah 50:6 (NKJV)

         Who can say they are good without a caveat, or two, or however many it takes? Either through inherited evil or evil learned, we are stained red with our sin. We require a new nature and the right nurturing to be pure and worthy of the tree of life. This is what Christ means, and is repeated by Christians, by "you must be born again." That is what the cross in Christianity represents; the sacrifice to wash the stain of our sin away and give us wine without poison in it.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
[...]And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. John 3:16-17,19-20 (NKJV)

Word Count: 543