Are People Basically Good?

Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

I remember, way back in the day, when I heard the question posed whether mankind (men & women) were basically good or evil by nature. Most people in America today believe that they are basically good. As I learned more and more about the true gospel message, I found that this “basically good” belief  flies in the face of biblical teaching and contradicts human nature.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

In today’s politically correct society, we hesitate to mention the word “sin”. We don’t talk about “right and wrong”. A person doesn’t admit to sinning, but instead uses some softer word. Yesterday, a young man was hopping up on the church roof, when we were walking by. I yelled for him to get down and he promptly did. I explained that what he was doing was wrong, and he replied that he had made a bad choice and acted poorly. That he would be more careful and would not do it again. He crossed a line called sin.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

The Bible expounds on humankind’s basically evil nature. The good old 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word: “Moral evil is any deviation of a moral agent from the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God, or by legitimate human authority; or it is any violation of the plain principles of justice and rectitude.” The Lord Jesus also believed in humanity’s evilness. Jesus said that we are all sinners; hypocrites; filled with evil thoughts – hate, lust, fornication and theft. History confirms humanity’s evil nature. One-third of all human beings who have lived on this planet have died at the hands of their fellow human beings. And look at terrorism today!

1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

We are all sinners. God knows our base, evil nature.  He knows that none of us could ever be good enough to have a relationship with Him, our good and perfect Creator Father. So He made a way for us to spend eternity in heaven by placing all our sinfulness on Jesus Christ and having Him die in our place. Praise God that he hasn’t left us to our own sinful devices but, instead, has forgiven us and imputed to us Christ’s righteousness. By God’s good grace, we have Christ’s basic goodness resident within us.

In Christ, Brian