Before we get saved we must first realize we are lost and depraved or heinous in God's eyes. We aren't good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation. Our frame of reference should be the totality of our depraved or sinful nature in God's estimation (not man's estimation of man that is) of man. There is a consensus that to err is human and that nobody's perfect as we all acknowledge, but the question is whether man is basically (intrinsically, inherently) good or evil and the word to note is "basically." Many will assert and affirm the basic goodness of man, and there was a man that was held captive by Saddam Hussein and said he never lost confidence in the basic goodness of man. Where have they been living, the North Pole?
Sin is universal because of "original sin" that is inherited by being in solidarity with Adam as the head of our race. Some claim they are a "victim of circumstances" or that the environment or genes are to blame. I realize that a run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint compared to Hitler, but the model is Christ if you want to compare to a standard. If man were basically good you'd expect a certain percentage to be good, but the Bible says there are "none good, no not one." "In sin did my mother conceive me," said King David in Psalm 51:4. Sin is natural and that is why you don't have to teach a child to lie. As theologians say, "We are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners." It is the humanistic agenda that wants to elevate the goodness of man at the expense of belittling God.
The domain of sin is complete: it covers the intellect, affections, and volition. If sin were yellow, we'd be all yellow. You cannot likewise be a little pregnant as it were in an analogy. We are sinful through and through. The doctrine of the total depravity of man is often called the radical corruption of man because we are sinful and evil to the core. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). The crux of the problem is that sin is not peripheral or tangential but total and there is no island of righteousness or innate goodness mixed in.
How bad are we? We are not as bad as we can be (Hitler loved his mother as a redeeming quality you might say) but we are as bad "off" as we can be. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man.
You might add that we did not cease to be human at the fall but ceased to be good. The ironic thing is that you don't know how bad you are till you've tried to be good, and you can't be good till you realize how bad you are; kind of like a "catch-22." It doesn't matter if you drown in 10 feet or 100 feet of water the result is the same, and likewise, there is no sliding scale or grading on the curve to see who gets into heaven. One sin is enough to condemn because Jesus said that if you break one command it is like breaking them all.
We cannot escape our birthright: original sin and solidarity in Adam. We are all degenerates, as it were and Jesus sees through the veneer that we make and even sees through the dark side that we show to no one. We all have feet of clay and that means areas of weakness that aren't readily apparent. "Can a leopard change its stripes, or an Ethiopian his skin? Then he cannot do good who is accustomed to evil" (Jer.. 13:23). "All our righteousness is as filthy rags," according to Isa. 64:6. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God," says Rom. 8:8. You must realize that your biggest enemy is you and that you are your biggest problem!
Finally, you are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are! (Cf. Prov. 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Soli Deo Gloria!
Sin is universal because of "original sin" that is inherited by being in solidarity with Adam as the head of our race. Some claim they are a "victim of circumstances" or that the environment or genes are to blame. I realize that a run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint compared to Hitler, but the model is Christ if you want to compare to a standard. If man were basically good you'd expect a certain percentage to be good, but the Bible says there are "none good, no not one." "In sin did my mother conceive me," said King David in Psalm 51:4. Sin is natural and that is why you don't have to teach a child to lie. As theologians say, "We are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners." It is the humanistic agenda that wants to elevate the goodness of man at the expense of belittling God.
The domain of sin is complete: it covers the intellect, affections, and volition. If sin were yellow, we'd be all yellow. You cannot likewise be a little pregnant as it were in an analogy. We are sinful through and through. The doctrine of the total depravity of man is often called the radical corruption of man because we are sinful and evil to the core. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). The crux of the problem is that sin is not peripheral or tangential but total and there is no island of righteousness or innate goodness mixed in.
How bad are we? We are not as bad as we can be (Hitler loved his mother as a redeeming quality you might say) but we are as bad "off" as we can be. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man.
You might add that we did not cease to be human at the fall but ceased to be good. The ironic thing is that you don't know how bad you are till you've tried to be good, and you can't be good till you realize how bad you are; kind of like a "catch-22." It doesn't matter if you drown in 10 feet or 100 feet of water the result is the same, and likewise, there is no sliding scale or grading on the curve to see who gets into heaven. One sin is enough to condemn because Jesus said that if you break one command it is like breaking them all.
We cannot escape our birthright: original sin and solidarity in Adam. We are all degenerates, as it were and Jesus sees through the veneer that we make and even sees through the dark side that we show to no one. We all have feet of clay and that means areas of weakness that aren't readily apparent. "Can a leopard change its stripes, or an Ethiopian his skin? Then he cannot do good who is accustomed to evil" (Jer.. 13:23). "All our righteousness is as filthy rags," according to Isa. 64:6. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God," says Rom. 8:8. You must realize that your biggest enemy is you and that you are your biggest problem!
Finally, you are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are! (Cf. Prov. 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Soli Deo Gloria!