The Bible severely condemns the human heart, describing it as “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). One another passage stands out among the rest when describing human nature. The apostle Paul writes:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).

Paul doesn’t just condemn certain individuals but all human beings. He doesn’t just criticized the behavior of people in any one particular time but the continual corruption of human nature. His goal is not merely to criticize people in order to move them to repentance, but also to so overwhelm them with their inevitable calamity that they reach out to God for mercy. He quoted from all these Old Testament passages to show the utter ruin of human nature. 

Paul describes the depravity of human nature in this passage. There is only salvation through the mercy of God. Paul first strips away all righteousness from human beings. They have no integrity or purity. He also strips them of a sound mind. He argues that their apostasy from God proves their deficient intellect. To seek God is the beginning of wisdom. To not seek God must mean that people have revolted against him. All people have gone astray according to Paul. No one does good. 

Paul then lists out all the bad things that people do. The last thing he states is that they have no fear of God, whose rule should direct every decision we make. If all these things are hereditary properties of humanity, we should not look for anything good in our nature. I admit that every individual does not do all of these evil things described here. Yet, the propensity for evil lurks in every human heart. A sick body cannot be called healthy, even if symptoms haven’t appeared yet. In a similar way, the human heart cannot be called good when evil lurks within it. We can’t push this analogy too far, however. A body will still perform its natural functions even it is severely sick. But the soul, when plunged into the deadly abyss of sin, not only does evil things, but is altogether devoid of goodness. 

“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.