One of the criticisms that is often heard about Christians, and especially those who hold to total depravity is that people often claim to be "good people." They feel they don't do any major criminal things, they may have the occasional impropriety, but over all they are good. Most people feel they are decently behaved, and follow most of the laws, they are generally nice to strangers and animals. People feel that they operate well in the society in which they live, and are generally good people.
I would not necessarily disagree, based on the view of humanity by humanity, most people are pretty good. People generally are not out looking for trouble, and most obey the laws (mostly) aside from traffic laws like speeding and fully stopping at stop signs when there is no cop in sight. Generally, most people are good, give to charity, help out their neighbors, and act in a way that is respectable and courteous. On the standard set by man, mankind is generally pretty decent, with notable exceptions.
The issue is, we assume that God operates on the standard set by us. God does not, the standard for God is to operate on the level on which He created us to operate on, one of sinlessness. Man was created without sin or death. By sinning, man rebelled against God. That sin would not be something that would be condemned by the standard of the world today, they just ate a piece of fruit they were told not to eat. They just snuck a little bite, and it’s not like the fruit belongs to anyone else, they were the only people in the garden. According to the world’s standards, what harm could it do to eat one piece of fruit? That fruit, however, constituted treason against God, and cost man everything.
The sinful nature of man is not that man does the most evil possible at every opportunity, but that man has two deep-rooted sins that cause most of the other sins. The first is the sin of pride. We think ourselves far more important than we are, which is why we think we can sin and it’s not a big deal. It is why we can drive as fast as we want, why we should be first and why we often rage against others. Our pride drives us to think about ourselves first and others later. It is why we lash out, why we lose our temper, why we are inpatient and seldom satisfied. When faced with any choice, the one that satisfies our pride usually wins.
The second issue is our selfishness, which goes along with our pride. It is the aspect of human behavior that expresses itself first. A toddler may learn to say momma and daddy, but the most often used word is usually “mine”. We do very little without being motivated by self. Even the good we do, we often do for the reason that it makes us feel good. We get a feeling of satisfaction from doing good, and we receive some sort of reward, which motivates us to do good. There is an intrinsic selfishness that drives most of human behavior.
The issue is not that people are the most evil they can be, but that our nature is that of selfish pride. It is evident in our earliest behavior and exists all the way through life. The only hope for us is that God gives us a new nature. That He replaces the hardened heart of stone with a heart of flesh. What we need is Jesus.
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