Man’s Heart is Desperately Wicked
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” -Jeremiah 17:9
Here’s a foundational truth taught throughout Scripture, and it is one that is either side-stepped or explained away by nearly every other religion. It is the truth that man is inherently wicked, and if left to himself, he will spiral into lower and lower immorality and lawlessness.
The Psalmist states it clearly: that all men have good aside and turned their backs on God, and on that which is good.
“The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” -Psalm 14:2-3
And not only are all men lost without God, but they are, in God’s eyes, bad. That is, when we try to do a good work, if it’s not done to honor the very One who has made us and given us life: if we do things that we see as good deeds, (but they are done without a gratitude or recognition to the very one who has created all things), then we are at best, bad, and at worst, desperately wicked.
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” -Isaiah 64:6
And it is upon this truth: that man is fundamentally lost, and in need of a Savior, that Christianity is based. If man is not lost—if he can work things out by himself, and achieve peace on earth—then what would he really need God for at all? Religion then would simply become a life-enhancement, and an add-on.
But foundational to Christianity is the teaching that man is wicked at heart, and in need of a Savior: both for his moral uprightness upon this earth, and also for his everlasting redemption in the afterlife.
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” -1 Corinthians 15:21-22
It is in this spirit of humility and dependence on God that the Bible shows is the only way to true repentance and salvation. If man is not fallen— if we could’ve made it on our own—then what do we owe God at all? Why did Christ did on the cross?
Yet Jesus Christ died for our sins, and redeemed our souls from hell. And it is from this truth that a tremendous sense of gratitude and debt arises toward God. If God has saved us from the consequences of sin and death, then we owe Him our very lives and souls, and ought to serve Him with our whole hearts. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” -Colossians 3:2-4
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