Hey Everyone!

I am back to you with a new post. Some comments on a previous post and conversations with some friends of mine have got me thinking about the issue of the title. Most all evangelical Christians agree to some form of original sin and total depravity, since the Bible is very clear on this doctrine. Yet when looking at our world, we quickly see a point of conflict. If there are so many unsaved people on this earth, bound by their sinful nature, why do they seem to do “good” things sometimes? Often, we see nominal non-believers to outright vocal opponents of Christianity doing good acts like giving to charity or donating to the AIDS crisis. A person in bondage to his sinful nature wouldn’t do good things like this, would he? These are very good questions, ones that require a look into Scripture for the answer. By the end of this post, I hope to show a few things:

1. Unsaved people are truly bound to their sinful nature.

2. The “good” acts of unsaved people aren’t really good in the eyes of God.

3. If unsaved people did have the ability to oppose their nature and do good acts, the very core of Christianity would ultimately be made void.

So there’s the agenda for today on the Berean Method, let us begin. The first point will not be hard to support, it is there to provide the premise for the post. There are numerous verses that state the condition of man in his unregenerate state. Romans 3:9-18 will be the first stop. Some key statements in this series of verses are that “there is no one righteous, not even one”, and that “there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God”, “All have turned away…there is no one who does good, not even one”. On his own, in his natural state, this is the condition of man. Romans 6:17 gives a comparison on the state of a redeemed man and a man that is not. It states that before God saves us, we are all “slaves to sin”. In Romans 7, Paul states that unsaved people are “controlled by the sinful nature” with “the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies”. Later in that chapter, it is said that nothing good lives in the sinful nature. After all of this, it can be said that before salvation, people are completely in captivity to a nature where nothing good resides. With that settled, it is on to the question of the unbelievers’ “good” actions.

One thing that should be established before anything else is addressed is that there is a difference between what is good in the sight of man and what is good in the sight of God. That is a glaringly obvious truth but it needs to be stated. The Bible says that man looks at the external appearences, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). So just because something appears to be good to our finite minds, that does not mean that the infinite Lord of all sees something entirely different. There is even a specific example of God despising very good works from the Israelites found in Isaiah. The scene is set when the Israelites continue to do their traditions by giving offerings and sacrifices to the Lord, attending the Holy Festivals and praying. These are all very good works in our eyes but God has a different view. He calls the offerings “meaningless”, their assemblies “evil”, and their festivals a “burden” (Isaiah 1:11-18). Why did God say this? It was He who established the sacrifices, offerings, and festivals in the first place. The answer is found later in the chapter; it is because of the sin in their hearts. These verses all combine to say that good works are only good if they come from a heart that is saved by grace and cleansed of the bondage of the sinful nature. Otherwise all the good works in the world don’t amount to anything more than the “filthy rags” found in Isaiah 64:6.

Now, one thing that is important in showing the flaws of any error in thinking is to expose that bad ramifications or conclusions of the belief. The belief that unsaved people can by their will separate themselves from their nature and do a truly good act has horrible ramifications to say the least. In fact, the very core of Christianity is shattered by it. Here is the train of thought. If unregenerate man can distance himself from his sinful nature and do good works, then what is Jesus for? This might seem to be a stretch but think about it. Jesus came to save a world of wretched sinners, incapable of saving themselves, and justly deserving of the total wrath of God. Jesus took this wrath on himself to make God’s election complete. God can save his elect because Jesus’ righteousness has been imputed on to us. But if man could acquire righteousness without Christ, he would have room to lay a claim on God’s love and therefore have room to boast in his salvation. It would also be true that God would be unjust to send anyone to eternal punishment since there would probably be some good in everyone. This is not theme of the Gospel, nor the theme of Scripture. For Christians, there was not a single good cell nor a single good act in any of us before salvation. For non-believers, they are still in a state that is in complete rebellion and is completely abhorrent to a Holy God completely incapable of doing anything good.