Good to Go?

Are humans naturally good?

Many people think so, but does the evidence really point in that direction?

How can we account for the bad things we see and experience around us in daily life, in social media, around the world, if we’re by nature good? Wouldn’t goodness prevail over ill? Wouldn’t it be the norm vs. the exception?
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Below are 8 non-Biblical arguments to suggest we’re not good to go:

1. Our consciences trouble us; we’re laden with guilt from the wrong that we do.
2. The history of the ancients is one of moral darkness, superstitions, want of affections, oppression and savage cruelty.
3. Modern history is no more sanitized; in fact it is sheer arrogance to claim we’re any better. From infanticide to genocide and beyond, more humans have been killed in the last 107 years than in all of human history combined, largely due to atheistic worldviews.
4. For all the education we possess, we’re still no further ahead morally—you’d think moral progress could be measured by advances in education, but it almost appears the more we learn the more we’re enabled to do wrong; you might even say certain forms of education have set us back.
5. For all the technological progress, we’re still not able to advance ourselves morally, even with these helps.
6. For all of our natural capabilities and giftings, wonderfully endowed, if aliens were to observe us, they’d be amazed of our inability to use them for good.
7. Anyone with babies or young children will stand amazed at how wilfully disobedient these untarnished ones can be.
8. Even the Christian, who claims salvation, will testify to their imperfection and how hard they fight against their old fallen nature.

The abolitionist William Wilberforce, well acquainted with the darker side of man, said, “[These facts] are so obvious that it is a mystery why so many still believe in the goodness of human nature,”[1] and that this want of natural goodness, “is the only theory of human nature that fits all of the evidence.”[2]
The Bible, as God’s Word to us, confirms that this theory of human nature is indeed more than a theory, it is a reality. If we peruse its pages, from cover to cover, we see that it speaks with one accord, like a great trumpet, that humans are, by nature, sinful:

*Caution: What follows is not for the faint of heart; these passages speak of apostasy, falleness, corruption, depravity and  proneness to evil. The fact we don’t want to acknowledge these is in part evidence of their truthfulness.

1. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5)
2. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. (Ps 14:2–3)
3. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
       and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Ps 51:5)
4.  We have all become like one who is unclean,
       and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
   We all fade like a leaf,
       and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isa 64:6)
5. The heart is deceitful above all things,
       and desperately sick;
       who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)
6. No one is good except God alone. (Mk 10:18b)
7. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)
8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 Jn 1:8)

C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken the law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you have realised that our position is…desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about. They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state.”[3] The Bible teaches us that, “by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners,” (Ro 5:19a) and “in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22a). Through the sin of our representative, Adam, we became separated from God. Now, we’re all now born sinners, and co-opt into sin each and every day. Does this mean we’re incapable of any good, no; does it mean we’re incapable of our original goodness and one that pleases God, yes. Yet, just like someone not wanting to admit they need to go see the doctor, so too in our pride and hardness of heart, we naturally resist this truth, instead creating delusions of goodness; unless the Spirit of God convict us of sin and point us to the goodness that can be found in Jesus (Jn 16:8). The Good News of Christianity begins first with hard honest bad news.
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Putting two quoted part verses into their whole verse context reveals good news for those who repent and trust in Jesus:

• For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Ro 5:19)
• For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15:22)

May God grant us the grace to see this reality and humbly accept the cure.
 
Related Read: Too good for the Gospel?


[1] W. Wilberforce, Real Christianity, p. 28.

[2] Ibid., 34.

[3] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1.5, p. 32.