We know that we should be good, and therefore conclude at once that we are so; especially if we can read, and abound with notions. Our pride asks for no proofs. (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 statement by Adam opens up a very deceitful method of the heart. Unless we begin to see things like this as true of our own hearts, we will be deceived by our own hearts. Every human being in the depths of the soul knows that s/he should be good. The standard of good, however, is another issue. But each human being concludes that s/he is good because s/he has taken the standard of good and twisted it fit and be conformed to self-centeredness, self-love, and pride.
The heart that has seen something of the glory of God has already seen something of the sinfulness of self and knows that it is not essentially good, but instead that it was born dead in sins and trespasses and by nature was a child of wrath. In other words, there is nothing really good about human nature, but instead human beings are born in sin and as such at enmity with the living God who is truly good. One thing that the unregenerate soul wars with God about is what is good and whether God or man is good. But the case is settled when Jesus said that there is only One who is good. The case is cemented when Jesus said that man can do nothing (spiritual or good) apart from Him as the true vine.
Matthew 19:17 And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
It is the conclusion of the heart that is at war with God over what is good that enables a person to come to the conclusion that s/he is good. The heart that has seen the glory and true goodness of God will no longer argue that it is good. When self is the focus and self is making decisions and setting standards up for itself that it wants to be good then self may conclude that self is good. But when God is the focus and His is the standard of good there is no way that the soul can conclude that it is good.
Another part of this issue, as Adam sets out, has to do with the reading that people do. A person can be caught up with ideas and notions and either forgets about the heart and becomes consumed with notions or the notions and ideas make sense and so conclude that we must be good. But the heart that is devoted to Scripture will not come up with the idea that it is good. It can only come up with that idea because of deceiving itself or by reading these things from those who are deceived by fallen reason.
But perhaps the chief reason for all of this is pride. The pride of man simply does not demand proof for itself, but instead pride believes what it wants to and so assumes that about itself. This move of pride is not inconsistent with holding to an intellectual belief about the depravity of man, but instead the pride deceives and blinds the mind and heart in such ways that the person can actually think that the depravity of man is true and yet in a practical way deny its influence on himself. Pride is such a blinding force on the soul that men can see something as a biblical truth and yet flee from the meaning of that for their own hearts. The proud heart does not need any proof about itself as it is blinded to what it really is. The proud heart listens to itself rather than to what the evidence of the matter really says. Pride hears what it wants to hear and blocks the rest out.
God Loves... Himself 
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