“God knows us. He knows what we are, but He also knows what He meant us to be, and there’s a vast difference!” Horatius Bonar
Consider this, since God is love (1 John 4:8), we can be assured that He is too loving to say anything needlessly harsh about us; but, since God is the God of truth (Deuteronomy 32:4), we can also be sure that, when He is describing us, He isn’t telling us any lies!
So what does the God of Truth say about all of us? Now this may surprise you, He says that, in and of ourselves, we are entirely rotten (Isaiah 1:6)! This is not God being harsh—He’s too wonderfully kind to be harsh—these are just the facts as God sees them. God looks at us and says that we are all ruined. OK those are not His actual words, but here’s what He says about us, "There is none righteous, no, not one" that there is "none that does good" and there is “none that seeks after God” (Romans 3:10 and following verses).
God loves us enough to be honest with us! In love, He declared man to be a lost stray (Psalm 58:3); a rebel (Hosea 7:14) and a hater of God (Matthew 6:24; Romans 1:30)." Man is neither an occasional nor partial sinner, but recklessly sins with heart and soul! If it were not for grace, those of us who are saved, would perish. How quickly we forget the pit from which we have been dug (Psalm 40:2)!
According to God, man is so lost that there is nothing he can do to compensate for his lostness. He, by nature, is against God and, worse still, he is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and already condemned (John 3:18). Man’s condition is so lost that, unless Christ intervenes, he will perish eternally. Man is under "the curse of the law" (Daniel 9:11); and no, it is not a rare person who has fallen, but the entire race! In Adam, all have sinned, and, in Adam, all have died (Romans 5:12); all have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6) and all have come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
This is dreadful news, but people deceive themselves into denying this distressing report. In their deception they insist that they are good enough for heaven (Luke 18:11)) and, in doing so, they enter into an un-winable debate with God, displaying grave disregard and disagreement with His scriptures. But no matter, in spite of man’s opinions on the subject, God still says all are guilty and worthy of death and hell. God has made it clear, "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son” (1 John 5:10). The unsaved man refuses to worship and love God with all His strength, but even if he tried to (which he won’t) he is incapable of doing so. He demonstrates, therefore, that he is indeed thoroughly guilty. God’s verdict of man, therefore, to any rightly thinking person, is vindicated.
Not only does the unsaved man not love God with all his heart, he has no love for Him whatsoever. He loves His own will and agenda rather than God’s. He will not submit to the One who is sustaining his life and lending Him breath.
It is pointless for man to try to argue the point of his own goodness or to plead "not guilty," unless he can show that he has always loved God with everything. If he can truly say this, he is in decent shape, he has never sinned and does not need acquittal through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. He has no need for the gospel, the blood and the Saviour. But, if he cannot say that he has loved God with all, "his mouth is stopped," and he is "guilty before God" (Romans 3:19).
And that’s the Gospel Truth!