For the last few weeks we’ve been looking at common objections to Christianity. This week I want to look at the objection that man is not evil.

Christianity is built upon a number of foundational doctrines and one of them is the sinfulness of man. The Bible teaches us again and again that humans are utterly sinful and thus need the saviour Jesus Christ to die on the cross for their sins.

But some people will object to the teaching that humans are evil, and will instead claim that humans are basically good. It is just circumstances that cause humans to do bad things. But this is a naïve statement. The evil present in humanity is obvious.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you still sin. Small children do not need to be taught to lie, steal and be cruel to others. They do it naturally.

It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, you still sin. Rich people are just as capable of murder and theft as poor people.

It doesn’t matter how well educated you are, you still sin. University educated individuals are just as capable of drunkenness and drug abuse as people who never went to school.

And it doesn’t matter what country you are born in or to which family you are born into, you still sin. Every person from every nationality lies, every person from a royal family gets angry when they shouldn’t.

The collective data on the world is that it is sinful. You only have to read the newspaper to quickly understand the human race is messed up.

Which fits with the Bible’s message: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9). But thankfully there is a way to be cured of our sinfulness – get a new heart through Jesus Christ. If you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus’ death for you, you are given a new heart that is able to not sin. And in fact one day when you go to heaven will stop sinning altogether.

Do you recognise that as a human you are evil and in need of a saviour? Do you recognise that your saviour is Jesus Christ? Have you repented and put your trust in him?

Joel Radford.