We often hear the claim that people are naturally good, but negative influences from their environment turn them bad. In our Pakistani and Indian communities, a common saying is: “So-and-so has a good heart, they’re just rude in words.” This way of thinking highlights a deeper issue that needs serious reflection and attention.
I remember an experience while traveling on the Paris subway. A young French woman sat across from me, angrily shouting into her phone, using language so inappropriate that it was uncomfortable to overhear. She was close enough that ignoring her was impossible, and my gaze seemed to unsettle her. Eventually, she ended the call and apologized to me. I replied, “You should apologize to the person you were speaking to.”
This sparked a conversation, and she said something that caught my attention: “Love is natural, but hate is taught.” It was the first time I’d heard this idea, so I asked, “If love is
natural, why do so many people, supposedly born naturally good, become so evil ?” She had no answer.
Keep this question in mind as we explore if man is naturally born good or evil ?, hope at the end, you’ll find an answer.
The Bible’s account of creation tells us that God created the heavens, the earth, all living beings, and finally, Adam and Eve in His own image (Genesis 1:27). Being made in God’s image means humanity was created to reflect His goodness and holiness, for God Himself is good and holy.
God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden under a covenant of works. This covenant came with a clear command: Adam was free to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obedience would lead to life, while disobedience would result in death (Genesis 2:16-17).
However, Adam, influenced by his wife Eve—who herself had been deceived by Satan in the form of a serpent—chose to disobey God’s command and ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6). This single act of disobedience broke the covenant of works, bringing sin and death into the world. Adam, as humanity’s representative, passed the consequences of sin to all his descendants (Romans 5:12). This event, often called “The Fall of Man” marks the beginning of humanity’s separation from God and the urgent need for salvation.
What stands out is that after Adam and Eve sinned, they did not seek God. Instead, God sought them. This demonstrates a profound truth that sinful humans do not seek God, but God seeks sinners.
God pronounced judgment, saying: “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Work became burdensome, the fertile ground was filled with thorns and thistles, childbirth became painful, and worst of all, Adam now faced death—a consequence we inherit as his descendants.
God, who is perfectly good, holy, and just, had every right to punish Adam for breaking the covenant (Genesis 2:16-17). Despite His warning, Adam disobeyed, bringing sin into the world. This disobedience not only caused physical death but also spiritual death and separation from God, introducing suffering, pain, and hardships into life.
As Romans 5:12 explains: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned” Adam’s disobedience brought sin’s curse upon all humanity, breaking the relationship between God and man and allowing suffering and death to enter the world.
Understanding the gravity of sin, God knew that Adam, who once loved God and hated sin, now had a heart corrupted by sin, inclined to rebel against God and love sin. This sinful nature would pass on to Adam’s descendants, making them naturally selfish, rebellious, and inclined to sin.
As the Bible states: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
In their sinful state, humans cannot seek God on their own unless God Himself intervenes, reviving them from spiritual death and restoring their nature through Jesus Christ (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Ephesians 2:4-6).
Before the Fall, Adam had free will, but sin enslaved his will, making him a slave to sin (Romans 7:19). Consequently, his descendants are born with a sinful nature, incapable of attaining eternal life unless they are born again through God’s grace in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
In His great love and mercy, God showed compassion to Adam and Eve, even though they deserved judgment for breaking His covenant. After they sinned and realized their nakedness, God covered them with animal skins (Genesis 3:21). This act of covering foreshadowed Christ’s atonement that one day He will cover the sins of His people.
Knowing that Adam and Eve, in their sinful state, could not remain in the Garden of Eden and eat from the tree of life—which may result in forever living in a state of sin—God banished them from the garden (Genesis 3:22-24). This was an act of great mercy, pointing to His plan of salvation through Christ.
Because Adam represented us in the Garden, his rebellion is counted as ours, making us guilty before God as if we had been there ourselves (Romans 5:12). This doctrine, called “Original sin” explains that Adam’s sin made all humanity guilty and incapable of standing righteous before a holy God.
Without God’s intervention, humanity would remain doomed to destruction. This highlights the profound need for the Savior to redeem people from their sins. This is why God, in His infinite mercy, became incarnate as the Son, Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life (John 3:16, Matthew 1:21, Ephesians 2:8-9).
