Are we all basically good?

Brought up the son of an Evangelical Pastor, I heard and learned the words of Romans 3:23 from a very early age ("For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." - KJV) I believed, as the passage speaks, that all people fall short of God’s glory, fall short of the lofty goals that He has for us, and concluded that this was not only true of one small segment of society but of the entire human race. However, I was faced with an alternative thought pattern as I progressed through life, one that I had a difficult time discerning and an even more difficult time refuting. The statement that sets forth this thought pattern and philosophy is the idea that all humans are basically good, even from birth (those innocent little babies), along with its counterpart: Humans are not really sinners.

It is an attractive notion indeed that all human beings are basically good. The proponents of this position often illustrate their perspective in a very “Christian” way by claiming that we are all made in the image of God and He doesn’t make any junk. This makes the idea seem much more scripturally appealing and less offensive than the more exclusive, more radical approach of describing us all as sinners. Thus, I fell into the spell of this anti-Biblical philosophy while thinking that I was remaining true to the character and nature of God.

Sin is such an ugly word! Such is the nature of that which is false by reason of being something other than the truth, without necessarily being an obvious falsehood on its face. In other words, this is a logical falsehood. A statement which is logically false is a statement that fails the logic test. In this case, it is logically improbable that one who is basically good would do any evil, yet there is obviously evil in the world. Also, one who is basically good should not need a Savior to deliver him from himself. If this were true, then Jesus died in vain.

One of the problems with this approach to defining the nature and character of man is that it sets man up for failure. A person who believes that he starts out as a basically good individual must ask honestly why Christ would have died. It is this view of man that necessitates either that Jesus’ death for all was unnecessary or that His death was only for some, not for all. Jesus said it best when he said that He did not “come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:12-13; KJV) This arose out of His statement to the Pharisees about those who are well not having any need for a doctor. If some need a Savior and some need a Deliverer, then some may not need either; they may be good enough on their own.

I did not truly find freedom in Christ until I dealt with this reality in my own life. I could not know liberty or have true peace until I grappled with the truth of Jeremiah’s statement that “the heart (of man) is deceitful, and desperately wicked. Who can understand it?” He did not limit this condition to some men; nor did he limit it to men, leaving the women in some more advanced spiritual condition. Nor did he assign this condition to the adults, leaving the children to some glorious fate (which they must lose when they attain to some level of age or maturity). He included all of us, from the beginning of creation until the end, male and female, all colors, cultures, and ages, in this most terrible of conditions. Calvin referred to this idea as “Total Depravity”, a term which offends many of us. It sounds too much like we couldn’t possibly be worse than we are. A better understanding of the concept is that we could not be more deserving of God’s wrath than we are; because, we are totally worthy of his condemnation and totally unworthy of his mercy.

It was only when I began to understand this truth about the human condition and the simultaneous truth that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone that I found how to be truly free and to have the peace that passes understanding. It is only when realized that I bring nothing to the table, am able to do nothing and offer nothing for my atonement, that Jesus' death on Calvary truly takes on the miraculous side of the God who made us, the God who loves us, the God who made a way for us to be reconciled to Him. (Ephesians 2:8,9) It was at this point that I found it necessary to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge that it truly is all about Him and not about me at all. Praise His holy name, He saved me!