We have all heard it before – the familiar tune of a spoken defense of humanity’s attempt to live out its days without complete fault. Even we have fallen victim to its enticing tongue that whispers, “people are mostly good.”
It’s is strange that most often hold this thought captive when we desire to value life – often choosing to trust someone when others might be less willing. Some might hope beyond reason that people are capable of change, believing a cosmic force to relinquish wrath for the sake of the good left among the earth-dwellers.
I have wished it myself a countless number of times. Yet the perfect Word of God speaks clearly on the subject.
- “There is no one righteous. No, not one.” Romans 3:10
- “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
It is not without hope one subscribes to such a sentiment. Believing we are essentially good takes considerable faith — only in the wrong Being. When man and woman were carved from the flesh of the earth, there was a glimpse of humanity’s perfect reflection of the Creator. For a breath of a moment, we were good. In fact, all things were good.
It is in that reflection – that we are made in his Image – that we hold any glimmer of goodness. It is something that God still sees when he looks at broken mirrors, a likeness to himself. Something akin to good-ish-ness. Still marred by the stain of sin, yet reminiscent of the Garden.
Unfortunately this is not what makes God “like us” or even “save us”. Since it no longer possesses holiness, that marred image of divinity is worthless. The choice(s) of Adam and Eve to disobey the Creator in the Garden (Gen 3) has been passed into all and thus whatever good remains has also been spliced into the Bad.
Not Just a Corner 