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).
The mindset of modern America and beyond is to speak in a positive manner about ourselves and others. We are supposed to be nice, kind, and positive so as not to disrupt the positive thoughts others are having of themselves. The great problem, we are told, is that people do not have enough self-esteem or they don’t think positive thoughts about themselves. Behind that type of thinking, however, is an utter denial of Christianity which is at least partially expressed by the words of Christ, as quoted above, “there is none good.”
This is a devastating word from Christ if each person would hear it in his or her heart. One can argue and defend this statement from Christ without having had it driven to the depths of his or her heart. But if ever the Spirit drives this great truth to the depths of the soul a person begins to see what s/he is and how utterly dependent s/he is on the sovereign hand of God. If the Spirit drives this to the depths of the soul, the person will see that s/he has never done one good thing and has no goodness in self to do one good thing. The Pharisees lived in strict observance to the Law as they interpreted it, but what they didn’t see was that they were not good but evil in their hearts and so they did not interpret the Law according to a perfect standard of real goodness. Then they set out with true evil in their hearts (self, self-reliance, self-dependence, self-love) rather than true goodness (God-centeredness, God-reliance, God-dependence, love for God) to keep their own interpretations of the Law and thought of that as good.
If people had ears to hear they could see the link between the previous two paragraphs. Both depend on a view that human beings have some goodness in them or that some goodness can come from them. True love not only does not demand that we think of human beings as having or being good, but it demands that we not think of them that way. External niceness and external religion (even if very rigid) cannot produce the slightest amount of goodness. The only thing that can come from a human heart without the grace of God and without God working in the heart is self and that is evil.
Each and every person should read those words of Christ and immediately fall on his or her face, but the very fact that people are not good means that they will not interpret this verse with its devastating meaning in accordance with truth. The heart that loves self will defend self from all attacks upon it and its perceived goodness and righteousness. But the heart that the Spirit is working in is losing its desire to defend self and is beginning to see what it is really like in the mirror of the Word. It sees through its own veil and veneer of niceness and self-righteousness to see the flood of evil (self) that is at the root of all it does. It sees through the defenses that self throws up so that self will not have to die and it begins to see that until self dies there will be no true goodness come from him or her.
Luther spoke of how one little word will fell him in speaking of the devil. In the text above Christ speaks (yes, speaks) four words that have the ability to fell all self-righteousness, self-love, and self-reliance from the hearts of human beings. Human beings are born dead in sins and trespasses and are not good. The problem is that human beings have developed a different idea of what goodness is than the Bible. Modern American has its own idea and the Pharisees had theirs. But both are nothing but illusions and they will deceive until the Day of Judgment when all illusions will dissipate in the glare of pure light and holiness as the morning fog is burned away by the sun.
The words of Christ (above) dealt a death blow to those who were deceived by the way of the Pharisees. The words of Christ deal a death blow to those who are deceived by the way of modern America. Human beings are not good and they have no access to true good apart from the goodness of God in making them new and then Christ dwelling in them by His Spirit. While it may not be nice in the American sense to tell people that they are without goodness, it is true love to do so. While it may not appear to be kind in the modern American sense to tell people this, it is true kindness to do so. Proclaiming the Gospel is not just telling people the easy and positive things, it is also telling them what they must know about themselves so that they will not trust in themselves but Christ alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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