God regrets making humans because we are wicked from cradle to grave, the Bible tells us in Genesis 6. But what about the philosophers who claim that people are basically good? And what does our wickedness tell us about God and how we can trust Him? And what does any of this have to do with the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees?
If you can’t see the podcast link, click here.
Hi! I’m Miss Tyler and welcome to another episode of Context for Kids where I teach you guys stuff most adults don’t even know. If this is your first time hearing or if you have missed anything, you can find all the episodes archived at contextforkids.podbean.com, which has them downloadable, or at contextforkids.com, where I have transcripts for readers or on my Context for Kids YouTube channel.
(Parents, all Scripture comes from the CSB this week, the Christian Standard Bible. It reads better than the ESV for kids so I made the switch after my friend Matt Nappier, who is getting his PhD in Old Testament Studies and is very smart, told me about it.)
One of the big questions that philosophers have debated since just about forever is, “Are humans basically good or bad?” And today we are going to talk about that because it is important before we get to the flood. First of all, let’s answer some questions—what the heck is a philosopher? Well, a philosopher is someone who lives and thinks in a certain way, and that certain way is called a philosophy. And now we have to answer the question, “What is philosophy?” Well, a philosophy is a certain way of looking at things. Depending on our way of looking at things, our philosophy, we will believe different things about life, and death, and good and bad and what is real and what is fake. And all that was probably about as clear as mud. And that’s okay. I just want you to remember that our philosophy, or our beliefs or outlooks, are why we believe this and don’t believe that or do this but don’t do that.
When people look at things in the same way, we say they share the same philosophy. For example, you and I believe in God and in Jesus as our Savior and we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that the Holy Spirit instructs us and changes us to become more and more like God in the way we think and behave. And that affects absolutely everything in our lives. When I answer questions about the meaning of life, or about what is right and wrong, or about what happens to us when we die, my beliefs are based on what I see in the Bible. But just because different people base their beliefs on what is written in the Bible, that doesn’t mean they agree on everything. And the reason is because God uses the Bible to communicate to us things that we just can’t entirely understand because we can’t know the things that He knows and understand things the way He does. Our brains are just way too small—and it doesn’t matter if you are in preschool or if you are Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking—everyone is just clueless compared to God. So, in the Bible He spends a lot of time and effort giving us ways to think about things but sometimes the absolute answers are beyond our ability to understand.
Believe me, the sooner you accept that, the better. I spend my life wanting to understand God better. I study the Bible every single day but I will never know and understand everything because…that’s right…my brain is too small. But it doesn’t bother me. I don’t have to worry about it because, if I really need to understand something then it will either be clearly spelled out for me or God will teach it to me over time. As for the rest, only God truly needs to understand all of that. What we need to be able to do is trust Him. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we have to understand weird things in order to be saved or acceptable to God. God doesn’t care if I fully understand things like justification and sanctification or Ezekiel’s wheels or the Book of Revelation. What we need is to be loyal to Him by accepting Jesus as His Messiah, our Savior, His One unique Son. I don’t want you to spend time worrying about anything else right now.
But, like I said before, the Bible guides the philosophy, the way of thinking and believing and seeing the world, of every Christian. We believe there is a God. Not everyone believes that! Some people even believe in thousands of gods. Others practice black magic. Some people believe that their lives are controlled by demons who have to be kept happy or else bad things will happen. All of those beliefs are kinds of philosophies because they control how people think about every single part of their lives. Because we are Christians, we believe that we will rise from the dead and that we will all live together in the World to Come with Jesus as our King. We believe that we have the job of making sure that everyone knows about Jesus and salvation. We believe that we should worship Yahweh, the God of the Bible (replaced by the title LORD in the Old Testament) and not Allah or Zeus or Marduk or Horus or Spongebob or whoever. We believe in things like Baptism and going to Church and all sorts of things. That’s our philosophy and it affects how we treat one another and what we hope for and what we expect and what we accept as true and false and good and bad. Everyone has a philosophy. This morning on the treadmill, I was watching a show about someone whose philosophy is all about winning in sports. All he does is watch sports and coach sports and try to win. That’s what he cares about so that is a philosophy too and it makes him care about winning and hate losing. It makes him feel great about his life when he wins and like a complete failure in life when he loses. Do you have any philosophies in your life outside of the Bible? You probably do, most people do. And just as long as they don’t conflict with the Bible, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Artists, for example, have a philosophy of seeing beauty in the world that is different from others. Exercise and health are important to others and that has a lot to do with how they look at the world in general. You get the picture. You might talk with your family about their philosophies or maybe you can play a game of guessing what is important to the people you love and talk about how that affects what they say and do and believe. And they can do the same for you.
But here on this program, we talk about the philosophy of the Bible. Even though I have other interests, they don’t guide my life and the way I think and my decisions the same way the Bible does. So, to answer the question of “Are people basically good or bad?” we don’t go to the famous philosophers like Plato or Socrates or Demogenes or any of them, even though they were very smart and amazing thinkers and can really get us thinking deep thoughts. We go to the Bible first to see what God has to say about the subject. So, did God have an answer to that question? You betcha, He did! Let’s look right now but brace yourself, it’s pretty awful.
3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” …5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time…” (CSB, Gen 6:3, 5)
Dang, we’re going to stop right there. This isn’t really sounding like God thinks that humans are basically good, that we start off good. Sounds like He thinks we are the opposite of good. Bad! And not just bad but wicked. Wicked all the time! And you might think, “Oh well, that was just before the flood. After God starts all over again with Noah, it will be different. But let’s look and see is that is true. “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.” (CSB, Gen 8:21)
Evidently, the situation hasn’t changed. Dang, guys. But what about, maybe, the prophets!!?? What did they have to say? Let’s try Jeremiah. “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?“ (Jer 17:9, CSB)
I think I need to get a new book to read because this one is making us look really bad there, guys! Can we do that? Can we get a second opinion? Because all of the stuff in the Bible says we are just pretty much awful and gross. Jeremiah said that not only are we liars down deep in our hearts, which means in our thoughts and minds, but that there is no cure! AARGH! Was Jeremiah right? Are we hopeless with no cure available? Well, He was right but He never said that there would never be a cure. He just said there wasn’t a cure when he was alive. I want you to remember that God doesn’t believe in hopeless situations—He always has a plan, and we will talk about that later.
And before any of y’all go saying, “Well, that explains my brothers and sisters,” just understand that they are thinking the same thing about you. There’s only one exception, ever, to the whole “wicked thinking” situation and it isn’t you, and it sure as heck isn’t me, and it isn’t even your mom or dad or grandparents or your pastor. It’s Jesus. The rest of us start out life as a complete mess and sometimes it gets better and sometimes it gets worse but it never gets entirely fixed. We can be pretty obnoxious and the sooner we stop pretending otherwise, the sooner that God can start changing us from the inside out. But that’s all in the future, here in Genesis, and there is no hope during the time of Noah. God doesn’t say that people are born good and then get bad from there. God says that we are born a mess and that we sorta continue to be a mess. But that’s one of the main stories, or themes, of the Bible—God taking people who are a mess and inspiring and enabling them to be better and better so that we can one day be the people He originally created us to be. One of my favorite scholars, NT Wright, who has a totally cool British accent so I love to listen to him talk, well, he says that when Adam and Eve sinned, they stopped being fully human and God has spent all this time trying to get us back to being fully human. But what does “fully human” mean? It means getting back to being God’s good creation. It means doing things His way, treating other people and the animals and the earth the way He wants them treated. And not, like, you know, acting like a snake in the garden.
You might protest—what about Abraham? He was perfect! No way, he sure wasn’t. When he got too scared to trust God, he lied, twice! And not only did he lie but he lied in the exact same way, both times, and told his wife to lie too. And it got her in terrible trouble. And his son Isaac told the same lie, years later! And Abraham and his wife Sarah weren’t always patient and trusting with God, which caused their family terrible problems. What about Moses? Well, Moses had a temper, even if it did take a long time for him to show it. And when he lost his temper, he blamed it on the people who made him angry instead of taking the blame himself. And Moses made some allowances for bad behavior in the Torah that Jesus sure didn’t agree with. There are reasons Moses did that and we will talk about that when we come to it, but Moses wasn’t perfect like Jesus. How about King David? King David did amazingly faithful things, but after he became king, he did things that were so evil and shameful that it resulted in a lot of death. The thing is, as Paul tells us too, we do these terrible things that we know are wrong, and even though we know what is right, we don’t do it. It can be really depressing.
The Bible is a really different kind of book—most religious books won’t dish out dirt and make the big heroes of the faith look bad, but the Bible sure does. The Bible is honest that way. And it doesn’t make any excuses—it just shows us what people did and what people did is sometimes disgusting and shocking. But you can’t read the Bible and come out thinking that we are all born as good people. Goodness, anyone with a baby brother or sister knows that isn’t true. Babies are demanding right away and as they grow up they have to be taught about sharing and about personal property and about not hitting and biting and lying and hurting the pets.
I am going to tell you a funny story about one of my twins, Andrew. Andrew was a year old and when I would tell him no, not to do something, it was just obvious that he didn’t understand yet. His twin brother understood, but Andrew didn’t. But I kept saying no and taking him away from what he was doing that he shouldn’t be doing. But one day, he had pulled himself up to standing on the kitchen drawers and was trying to open one up, unsuccessfully. I told him no, and he was looking right at me when I said it and I saw in his eyes that he understood exactly what no meant. But then, quick as you like, the look in his eyes changed as though he had no idea and I realized something important that day. That little dude had understood the word no for a long time and was playing me. I know because I saw in his eyes that he knew exactly what I was talking about and then he pretended he didn’t understand. That one-year-old was lying to me. And I knew then and there that it’s true—we are wicked from cradle to grave unless God does something to change it. That boy…
And so, as we go through the Bible, and learn about the different people and situations, we’re going to have to face a lot of really unpleasant things maybe about people you may have been taught to think of as perfect. They had slaves and they treated their slaves badly. They didn’t see anything wrong with owning other human beings. They also didn’t really think that loving their neighbors meant anything more than being good and loyal only to their own families. We’ve talked about that before.
But what about religious people who are following all the rules? Are they an exception to the rule that we are born a total mess? Jesus and Paul both said no. I am going to start with something that the apostle Paul said in his letter to his friend Timothy. Now, you need to know some unpleasant things about Paul. Even though you might be a Christian because of him, if you are European (other apostles went out preaching to Africa and Asia), he started out as an enemy to all the Jewish people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. And in fact, because he thought it was what God wanted him to do, he went around arresting people. When the council got angry enough at Stephen to stone him to death, Paul held their cloaks. He was a witness and after that is when he went out arresting people. Of course, God had his eye on Paul and wasn’t ready to give up on him. So, Jesus spoke to him and blinded him on one of his trips to go arrest people and after that, Paul pretty much had to believe.
I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry—even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them. (I Tim 1:12-15)
But this must also mean that Paul wasn’t keeping God’s commandments, right? Well, let’s see what Paul has to say about that! “…although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.” (Phil 3:4-6)
It might look here like Paul is bragging and maybe he is just a little bit but the reason he is doing it is very important in order to better understand what Jesus also said. Paul wasn’t out there arresting people because he was what anyone would call a sinful man. Actually, any of us would have looked at how religious he was and how well he behaved himself and we would have been very impressed. His parents were Jewish and kept the commandments too. And he wasn’t just all “meh, whatever” about God. He loved God and wanted to serve God more than anything. He kept the Sabbath and wouldn’t think of stealing or murdering anyone. I am sure he was very honest and virtuous, obeying all the rules that God gave people to keep them from being really awful to one another. And yet, Paul went out in the name of God, being hurtful and violent because he didn’t understand. He really thought that what he was doing was good and righteous. But even though he was keeping the rules on the outside, his insides were still angry and violent and what we call being zealous for all the wrong reasons. Zealous is a word that we use when someone is very passionate, excited, and dedicated to believing in something and will do anything for it. Paul was that way about God, but he was still wrong even though he was sure he was right. Paul still had a lot to learn about God that he couldn’t get from just following the rules. But God loved him and changed him into a man who was loving and peaceful. If you have read my curriculum book on Image-Bearing, Idolatry and the New Creation, then you know all about the kind of life that Paul told us was really required to please God. Yes, we keep His commandments but if we aren’t different on the inside, then there will be trouble and we might find ourselves on the wrong side—thinking we are on the right side. Fighting against God instead of fighting for Him.
That’s why Jesus said something kinda puzzling, a bit confusing. He knows everyone’s hearts and what we are thinking about even when we aren’t so sure ourselves. And Jesus said this right before talking about anger and insults being dangerous. Sounds like he was talking about Paul! “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:19-20)
Wow, how can anyone be more righteous than the Pharisees and Scribes, who lived and breathed and taught the Bible? Is there something wrong with the Bible? No, of course not, but it can’t change us on the inside—only on the outside. The Hebrew Scriptures, all the stuff before Jesus that was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, aka Jesus’s Bible because everything else was written long after He died, tell us to circumcise our own hearts. That means that we need to change our own behavior and do what God wants. And we totally need to do things God’s way! We can’t love God and refuse to live like He wants us to, right? Imagine if we were out there killing people and lying and stealing and worse! It’s the commandments that are our first teachers about how to behave ourselves. Your grandparents or great-grandparents might say it this way—“straighten up and fly right.” Stay in your own lane, toe the line, do the right thing. But then we look at the history of Israel and we see that outside-only changes are really tough to stick with. One generation might be really good at it but then their kids and grandkids are a mess again. Changing our own hearts is not easy. In fact, without God’s help, it’s impossible. And that is not to say that God never helped people in those times but you had to really want it. You had to really want more than to keep the rules and because we are wicked from birth, very few people actually want that.
Jeremiah told us (chapter 31) that a time was coming where God was going to step in and change our hearts for us. God wanted to make us righteous inside and outside and only He could do it. We can’t change our own hearts any more than we can make a heart in the first place. Our hearts want to look out for us, and not for everyone else. Our hearts want to do what is right for us, not everyone else. Our hearts want to lie when we don’t want to get into trouble. Our hearts want to hit until we start to care about hurting other people, or care about hurting only some people and not others. It has always been God’s plan to make us good inside and outside—if we are good only on the outside it is more pleasant to live with us, for sure, but it is just pretend. And don’t get me wrong—if you want to kill someone then definitely pretend you don’t want to kill them by NOT KILLING THEM. But God changes us slowly so that we stop wanting to kill and hit and lie and steal. I will tell you the truth, your parents probably wouldn’t have wanted you to be in the same room with me thirty years ago, much less teaching you about anything. But God is changing me and He will change you too. If He could change Paul, who was travelling around arresting people, then just think of what He can do with you!
I love you. I am praying for you. And I hope you have a wonderful week studying the Bible with the people who love you.