Inherent Evil ≠ Inherent Good

“You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.’ Or by asking, ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Malachi 2:17)


Here’s what came to mind when I read this, “The doctrine of the understanding of man in modern times consists of the basic goodness of man. It is said that everyone is basically good, you just have to look hard for each individual’s goodness.”

… Uh-huh, sounds like the current doctrine of the understanding of the ‘goodness’ of man is a tiresome paragraph to God.

Psalms 14:1-3, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. 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 no one who does good, not even one.”

Psalms 53:1-3 says nearly exactly the same thing as Psalms 14:1-3 and both of these are quoted in Romans 3:10. Scripture 3 times says, “There is no one who does good, not even one.”

But we still cling to the decadent idea that we are inherently good. We cuddle up closely to the damning lie that we are good. Good enough to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Good enough to choose a holy God. When Scripture makes it crystal clear that there is no one who does good, not. Even. One.

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) Or say it another way, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body that can do no good? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’

Jesus is the only one capable of freeing you from your constant evilness to allow you to perform God-honoring good acts. As it is hard for a dead man to pull himself up by his bootstraps it is similarly hard for an unbeliever to do good.

The Gospel must be believed and taught for all of one’s life.