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HUMAN GOODNESS
While there is human goodness in people,
the Bible and our own experience tell us that there is also much evil. So
the question is this: just how bad off are we humans? From God's Word we
learn that “all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23). We
are also assured that “There is none
righteous, no, not one,” (Romans 3:10).
The prophet wrote: “...we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags...”
(Isaiah 64:6). Even the good that we humans sometimes do is often tinged
with wrong motives: motives of selfishness, desire for recognition, etc.
This world would be an intolerable place
if everyone was as bad as they could be. That is not the problem. The
problem is this: each one of us – apart from the new birth – is as bad off
as we could be. Why? Because each child of Adam was born spiritually dead.
When God tested Adam with the forbidden fruit He told him,
“...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die,” (Genesis 2:17). Adam
did not die physically that day, but he did die spiritually that day.
Because of this all
his offspring were born alive physically,
but dead spiritually. Paul verified this to be true when he wrote to
Christians telling them what God had done for them. He wrote:
“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;),”
(Ephesians 2:5). Being born dead in sins means each individual is born as
bad off as they could be. Physically dead persons can do nothing physically.
Spiritually dead persons can do nothing spiritually. That is the meaning of
being dead: the absence of life and all it entails.
The Lord Jesus Christ said,
“...I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it
more abundantly,” (John 10:10). The
idea behind life more abundantly is not related to health and wealth, but to
spiritual life rather than spiritual death. Of course spiritually dead
people do not know they are spiritually dead. They have no basis of
comparison having never experienced spiritual life. So it may be that some
who see this article will say that they are not dead. How can they know,
having never experienced life? And so it is that the Bible means nothing to
many. They will not believe it because it is foolishness to them and because
they cannot – they absolutely cannot understand it with profitability. The
Bible specifically states these two reasons in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The greatest religious teacher in Israel,
Nicodemus, did not understand about spiritual life. Nevertheless, the Lord
Jesus said to him, “Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Ye must be born again,” (John
3:7). Selah – think about it! |