Minister’s Corner: Rottenness will not produce righteousness

There are many people in society today who do not believe man is inherently evil. They choose to believe there are redeeming qualities in man apart from God. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We must get through our heads that, apart from God, there is not good in us.
Isaiah said, compared to the righteousness of God, our righteousness (or goodness) is like filthy rags. That is not true of some of us; that is true of all of us. Solomon wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2 KJV)
We need to understand the human heart is corrupt, deceitful above all things and despicably wicked, according to Jeremiah 17:9. We cannot, therefore, out of rottenness, produce righteousness which is acceptable to God. It requires we must first undergo regeneration. The change, to be effective, is so radical and so complete that no human means can be utilized to bring it about.
Therefore, our Lord taught that we must be born again. He taught us that the spirit of man is what is reborn and must be so born in order to experience the highest blessing of God. Only the spirit of God can account for such a process. When this occurs, a man becomes a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (LKV) says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”