Is there a little good in everyone?
We, at least I, cannot fully comprehend how the first unholy corruptible thought could lodge itself in the mind that was supremely fixed upon God. God though justly and holily withheld His sustaining power and permitted Adam to freely choose and He willfully transgressed against God (Isa 53:6). And with that act Adam and all his posterity fell from the state they were created (Ecl 7:29). And all men descending from Adam by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and of themselves, and fell with Adam in his first transgression (I Cor 15:22). Rom 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
So is anything we do good? The short answer is NO (Rom 3:23). All deeds are stained with the corruption of our nature and are tainted with sin. C.H. Spurgeon said “Our best performances are so stained with sin that is hard to know whether they are good or bad works.” God commands nothing less than perfection and anything less he cannot except (Gal 3:10).
So are you saying that there are no good works? If done by man the short answer is NO. Be careful judging a man’s deeds without knowledge of a man’s heart. For the heart is the true mirror to a man’s motive and weakness. And if we could hear the silent whispers of a graceless heart we would be deafened by the evil. Evil fills the heart of all men and from a tainted source, tainted water flows (Psm 53:1). Even what we perceive as the highest believer carries with him an endless capacity of sin. Even the best outward deeds are covered with self-righteousness and evil (Jam 16:12). The cradles are not even exempt from being innocent. For every child is born in sin (Psm 51:5), there are no exemptions or exceptions (Ecl 7:20). In a graceless state, the heart of man will choose evil to do continuously, will not discern righteousness, and will not seek God. (Rom 3:10-12)
posted by Eric Wilson @ 6:01 PM
