Basically Good? Basically Wrong

Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

If you ask most people today what they believe about humanity, you’ll often hear the same answer: “People are basically good.” We nod politely, we repeat it at funerals, we say it to children, and we cling to it because the alternative feels too dark to face.

If you inquire about people's true nature, you’ll receive a confident response. Former President Bill Clinton stated, “I believe in the fundamental goodness of people.” Barack Obama agreed, saying, “At our best, human beings are decent, compassionate, generous.” Even the young Anne Frank, who wrote in her diary amidst unimaginable evil, expressed, “I still believe… that people are really good at heart.”

But Scripture does not conform to what we believe or feel; it states the truth. In Genesis 6:5, when God observed the world before the flood, He didn’t see “good people who made mistakes." Instead, He saw hearts filled with corruption—desires inclined toward evil, imaginations immersed in rebellion, and intentions poisoned from the very roots. The passage accumulates these terms like a courtroom indictment: every intent, only evil, all the time.

The Reformers used passages like this to teach the doctrine of total depravity—not that we are as bad as we could possibly be, but that sin infects every part of us: mind, will, emotion, and spirit. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. Scripture echoes this diagnosis:

The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?

— Jeremiah 17:9

There is none righteous, not even one… there is none who seeks for God.

— Romans 3:10–11

Apart from Me you can do nothing.

— John 15:5

Every generation invents new ways to deny what God has already said: that apart from Him, we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). Not sick. Not injured. Dead.

Yet this dark backdrop is not the end of the story—it’s the backdrop that makes the light of Christ blaze. God sees our sin more clearly than we ever could, and yet He draws near. He doesn’t wait for us to become “basically good.” He comes for us because we can’t.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— Romans 5:8

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

— Luke 19:10

The flood narrative is judgment, yes—but it is also mercy. God preserved Noah by grace (Genesis 6:8), pointing forward to a greater Ark: Christ Himself, who carries us safely through the waters of judgment. So, when the world says, “People are basically good,” we can answer gently but firmly: God says otherwise—and that is why we need a Savior.

Your Shepherd,

Pastor Mark