The Christian View of Human Nature - Scripture

If you treat the Bible as a science book or even as a history book you will inevitably be disappointed. But I’m not so interested in using the Bible this way. The thing that hits me whenever I read the Bible is that it explains brilliantly, and accurately exactly what human beings are like. Not on the surface but deep down, when we have our backs to the wall, when we’re in trouble. And that’s what today’s readings are about.

The first one is from Genesis, just before the flood, it describes what God sees when he looks at the human race:

Genesis 6: 5-8 –

From God’s point of view human nature is bad

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD


We might consider dismissing this as one of those rather weird, difficult to take seriously, possibly mythological statements from Genesis. Except we can’t, there’s a pattern throughout the Bible confirming this idea that human beings are not naturally that nice.

It’s confirmed at the end of the story of the flood: God says Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

This is Moses, in Deuteronomy, addressing his people, predicting that they will break the covenant and turn to other gods. "I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath."They may be the chosen people but as far as Moses is concerned the Israelites are every bit as afflicted with this bad side of their nature as anyone else.

The Genesis story of the fall of man is taken seriously by Paul, it’s central to his understanding of who and what Jesus was.

· In Romans 5: 12 he says 12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world.

· And then in Romans 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.


And this picture of human nature is acknowledged by Jesus in Mark 7: 20-23"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "

And yet this rather gloomy, pessimistic view of human nature that we see throughout the Bible isn’t the full story. Christianity teaches that our disagreeable nature, our sinful, fallen state is our starting point but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change.

This good news, is made abundantly clear by Paul in these two passages:

Ephesians 2

Made Alive in Christ

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Romans 12

Living Sacrifices

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The Christian view of human nature, that it has a natural tendency to be rotten but it can be transformed into something wonderful, is unique.

It’s different from Islam. The Qur’an, like the Bible, features the story of Adam and Eve but with a crucial difference. In the Qur’anic version Adam and Eve are forgiven by God, there’s no original sin. Islam does not recognise any sort of in built tendency to the bad in human nature. According to Islam humans are morally neutral and rational. God gives us laws and there is no excuse for not following them.

When I was teaching in schools and explained to pupils about the difference between Christianity and Islam in this respect their first reaction is always more favourable to the Islamic idea. After all it sounds very negative, even a bit hostile to say that we are all born in original sin, with a tendency towards selfishness and badness. But then I ask them ‘imagine you got caught shoplifting what sort of magistrate would you prefer to appear before: one who believes that all human beings are subject to temptation, who thinks you’re a sinner but so is he; or would you rather come before someone who believes that there is no excuse for going bad – that every human being is equally capable of either doing good or bad.’ They start out thinking the Islamic idea is kinder, but once they think about it they quickly see the advantages in the Christian view of human nature. Original Sin means that we’re all sinners, your teachers, your parents, those in authority over you are sinners too and where this is recognized authority tends to be administered a bit more fairly.

The Christian view of human nature is different from the secular political thinking of the extreme left and right wings. The thoroughly right wing view of life agrees with us that all people have it in them to l be lazy and dishonest, even cruel given the chance. But they ignore the other side of it, they have no faith that people can change, can be good,

The left wing view also only understands half of the Christian view. Socialism has a thoroughly optimistic view of human nature. According to this view people’s rotten behaviour doesn’t come from within them like Jesus says in Mark 7. People are only bad because they are trapped in unequal or unjust economic relationships. Stop oppressing people and their natural goodness will come out of them and we’ll have heaven on earth.

We’ve seen where this view gets us. Whether it’s bringing up children, schools, businesses, places of work, or our approach to law and order. If we dismiss the very idea that people can be bad, if we only ever assume the best in people we get into some very messy and unpleasant situations.

So Christianity has a unique take on human nature. This more than anything else in the Bible convinces me that it is a true religion. I look at the world around me and it seems to be true. And if it were a view that were more widely shared, perhaps even by Christians themselves, the world would quickly become a much better place.