The Human Race Is Evil, And Atheists Agree

Read Romans 3:9-20

After a long argument with an Atheist about some verses in the Bible that offended him, I have learned more about the hostility man has towards the Bible. There is a basic hostility in every sinner to God that manifests itself in hostility toward the Bible. Sinners are all ignorant of God and are enemies of God. And in their ignorance they are unable to understand and they don't like what they do understand.

Now men can grasp some things in Scripture. But when it comes to their indictment about their sinfulness and God's righteousness, and the glory of the gospel and the hopelessness of works and self-effort and all of that, they are hostile to it. And when something offends their worldview or way of life, they call on their own understanding and righteousness.


Then in verse 11 we have a second element to the indictment of the heart. “There is none that understands.” There is none that understands. That's taken from Psalm 14:2, Psalm 53:3. Man has no true perception of divine reality. He wouldn't know what goodness was in its full perfection. He has no right apprehension of God. To put it in the language of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man understands not the things of God, to him they are foolishness.” It is incomprehensible to the sinner what the righteousness of God really is. Romans 8:5, “Those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. Those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Then this...because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, it doesn't subject itself to the Law of God, it isn't even able to do so.”

There's none righteous. There is none who understands. Their minds are darkened and empty. And there is none who focuses on God, who seeks for the honour and glory of God in all of life. Verse 12 goes back to Psalm 14:3, “All have turned aside.” They've all gone off the track, out of the path, no exceptions. They've all deviated out of the way, blinded by sin to the truth with no particular interest in the glory of God, they are all diverted by their lusts and desires out of the path of truth, out of the path of salvation.

On the lines of salvation, the only time the sinner ever seeks for God is when God first seeks the sinner. John 6 says, “No man comes to Me unless the Father draws him.”

No one naturally adores God, longs for His sovereign majesty to be put on display. No one naturally wants to feed on His truth, live in His presence, obey His commands, pray to Him, trust Him in everything and declare His praise. They are alienated from God's truth. They are evil and do not seek after God.


Resource: John MacArthur at GTY.org