Charity does not oblige us to think any man good, because Christ says, “there is none good.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Indeed this should rake the heart of every saved sinner and every unsaved sinner as well. When Christ says that “there is none good”, we can know that there is not one person who is good in and of himself. That, of course, though more painful, for each person means me. Of course Jesus meant that no one had a nature of perfect goodness and no one could do good in and of themselves but God alone. But the implications for that are simply staggering and humbling. No human being is good and no human being can do good apart from God working that in the soul. Oh how that should strike at our hearts and deliver us from all pride. The only thing that I can do in and of myself is non-good, which means that I am utterly dependent on God alone for any good that comes from me.
Romans 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
While this verse indicts all human beings, it also indicts each and every human being including me. Not only am I not obliged to think of myself as good, I am obliged to see myself as utterly dependent on God for all good that I may do. But apart from God, I am utterly useless and worthless to do one good thing. I have turned aside and I have become useless and worthless to do one good thing. If there is not one human being that does good, then I don’t do good as well. The conclusion, then, is that I am not good and I don’t do good. What room is there for pride in the evil I have done? What room is there for pride if something good does come through me? The depths of humility is what I need, not pride or pats on the back.
Titus 3:3 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
This verse is a puzzle to many people, but it brings the light upon the lives of those who are not Christians and on the former lives of those who are now. It tells us that outside of Christ we were foolish, disobedient, and deceived. It tells us (me) that as unbelievers as we lived in our deceived state we had malice toward others and hated them even when we thought we loved them. We (I) were so deceived that in all we did toward others we hated them in doing what we thought was love. In doing so we have broken the second Greatest Command in all we did. Oh how terrible it is to think of how much I was guilty of hating others. Indeed, I should not think that others are good or that I was or am good. Any good that any human being can do has to be originated in God.
Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
Indeed there is no one who is good in and of himself except God. He is goodness itself and all He does is perfectly good. Yet no man can claim that for self and no man can lay a legitimate claim to a good work apart from it coming from God who is good. This should decimate all claims to goodness of human beings.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
In this passage we have the apostle Paul telling us that whatever he was it was because of the grace of God. Not only that, but whatever his labor accomplished or did was not Paul but was the grace of God. The Scriptures are abundantly clear that no one should view others as good in themselves or that good can be done by them apart from the grace of God. But more pointedly, the Scriptures are just as clear in telling each person (me) that I have no goodness in me and I can do no good unless it is the grace of God working in and through him or her. How utterly helpless human beings are to do anything good apart from grace and we must recognize that to see true goodness.
God Loves... Himself 
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