
"I'm a good person."
Daniel JusticeShare
Are human beings naturally good?
The Bible gives us plenty of passages that shed light on this question.
Genesis 6:5 - "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."
Genesis 8:21 - "And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.'"
Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."
Mark 7:21-23 - "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Ecclesiastes 9:3 - "This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead."
Psalm 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 none who does good, not even one."
Romans 1:21 - "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
It is clear from these texts that God says all humans are sinful and wicked. Doesn't that mean that God made us this way? How can He sit in judgement over us when He made us to be what we are? The Bible clears that up as well. The story of Adam and Eve introduces the concept of the Fall. Here, humans, through their own free will, chose to disobey God by eating from the forbidden tree. This act brought sin into the world, altering the original state of righteousness. This event is often seen as the moment when humans "decided to be evil" or at least became capable of sin.