I Am Not Righteous; Are You?

You are probably not going to like this blog—I don’t. It is the kind of blog that speaks the truth, but it is nothing anyone wants to hear. In fact, it is so objectionable that some folks will read the next statement and then stop in disagreement and unbelief. I’ll just say it and get it over with.

Humans are evil.

Let me be more specific: I am evil; you are evil; everyone you know is evil.

I did not learn that from my parents. Nor did I learn that from the preacher (when I wasn’t a preacher). I didn’t learn that from my friends or school. I came to that conclusion by studying the Bible.

You should know, however, that God does not hate humanity, not in the Old Testament, not in the New Testament, and not now. You see, I read the entire Book and there’s some really good news. But the fact remains, people are, by nature, evil.

Let me show you from Scripture:

There is none righteous, not even one. 
--Romans 3:10

The Apostle Paul was making the point that all people are tainted with sin and are accountable to God. You can read the verses before and after the verse quoted above and you will see that it has not been taken out of context.

Next, consider the surprising response of Jesus when He was identified as ‘good’:

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”
--Mark 10:17-18

Jesus was commenting on the way the man had evaluated Him. We know that Jesus was indeed good. However, the man that called Him ‘Good Teacher’ knew only what he saw externally. He could not see the heart of Jesus. So, Jesus commented on his external evaluation.

That also explains how we commonly evaluate people. We assess their goodness based on the things they say and the things they do. In general, if a person is not hateful in speech; if they are not criminal in their behavior; and if they are known to have done some ‘good’ deeds, then we generally feel comfortable in describing them as good.

Now, for an example for comparison…

Suppose that I have a glass of pure water for you to drink. Then I place one drop (only one small drop) of liquid in the water containing the Ebola virus. Is it still pure? (It was just one drop…would you care for a drink?)

The point is that we (people) are tainted with sin. When we sin, we are no longer pure, no longer good. Doing lots and lots of good does not remove the sin any more than adding lots of water to the glass makes it pure. (How much water should I add before you will drink the tainted water?)

Every time someone defends a sinner for their sin, and identifies them as ‘good’ because they have spoken well or done some good deeds, or even lots of good deeds, they are mistaken. Unless a person has been purified so that there is no sin, he/she cannot claim to be good or righteous.

Jesus was described as “One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He was like us (human), but different (sinless). What does that tell you about “us”?

We have ‘all’ sinned; we ‘all’ need a savior.

(more next week)

Mark Stinnett