- Do you leave cash unattended in the plain sight of others?
- Do you leave your doors unlocked while on vacation?
- Do you feel safe walking through unfamiliar neighborhoods at night?
- Do you feel comfortable picking up stranded motorists?
If you answered “no” to any
of these questions, then you have an instinctive distrust of mankind. It is quite
likely that you have reached these conclusions based on personal experiences,
and you are not alone. Few people in our society are willing to blindly trust
their fellow man.
In his book Basic Christianity, John Stott, a famous
Anglican clergyman, pointed out the evidences of man’s sinful nature and our societal
distrust of each other:
Much that we take for granted in a civilized
society is based upon the assumption of human sin. Nearly all legislation has
grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes
with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a
contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of
fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law
and order are not enough; we need the police to enforce them. All this is due
to man’s sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one
another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature.
All of society testifies to
the fact that men are natural-born sinners. Our stores have security cameras.
Our homes have burglar alarms. Our airports have metal detectors. Our computers
are equipped with passwords, virus protections, and identity safeguards. Our nation’s
best schools — even Christian schools — have lockers secured by secret combinations.
Despite the abundance of
evidence testifying of man’s sinful nature, one nationwide poll found that more
than seventy percent of American Evangelicals believe that mankind is basically
good. This
widespread belief stands in stark contrast to the biblical view of man.
The Biblical Verdict on the Nature of Man
The Bible is absolutely clear
in its verdict on man’s moral and spiritual condition.
There is no one righteous, not even
one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have
turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does
good, not even one (Rom 3:10-12).
This particular conclusion about
mankind is not an isolated anomaly in Scripture. To the contrary, the Bible
consistently makes this claim throughout both Old and New Testaments. Jesus
Himself proclaimed, “No one is good, except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23),
and “there is no one who does not sin” (2
Chron 6:36). King Solomon concluded, “There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins” (Eccles
7:20). The Psalmist declared, “No one living is righteous before [God]” (Psalm 143:2), and he asked, “If you, O
Lord, kept a record of sins… who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). Quite frankly, no one could stand before God by his
own merit, because our God will not tolerate sin.
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil;
with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence;
you hate all who do wrong (Psalm 5:4-5).
The Lord is infinitely holy. He sets
a standard of perfection, and He demands our conformity to it. In fact, it is
God’s holiness that makes it so critically important for us to understand the
nature of our sin. In his book God in the Wasteland,
Dr. David Wells wrote, “Without the holiness of God, sin has no meaning and
grace has no point.”
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