Can I seek God on my own?
Scripture's answer is humbling: left to ourselves, no one truly seeks God. Sin has touched every part of us: the heart is corrupt, the mind is hostile to God, and we are dead in trespasses. This is why salvation must begin with God's grace acting on us, not with our own goodness reaching up to Him.
This question arose from studying What is sin, and where did it come from? and Does everyone deserve God's judgment?.
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What the Scripture says
No one seeks God
Paul quotes the Psalms as a worldwide verdict: 'There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.' The psalmist has God look down from heaven to see if anyone seeks Him, and the search finds no one. Left to our own momentum, our movement is away from God, not toward Him.
As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
The corruption reaches every part
Sin is not a stain we picked up on the surface; it reaches the heart where everything else comes from. Jeremiah: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?' Isaiah adds that even our best is tainted: 'all our righteousness is as a polluted garment.' And before the flood, God saw that 'every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was continually only evil.' This is not that everyone is as bad as they could be, but that sin touches every part: the mind, the will, and the affections.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
The mind is hostile, not merely mistaken
Paul is blunt about the depth: 'the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can't please God.' And the natural man 'doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' The problem is not information but direction: our natural selves are pointed against God, and we cannot reverse the direction by deciding harder.
because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.
Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Dead, not merely sick
Paul chooses the strongest word available: 'You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins.' Not weakened, not slowed down: dead. And he makes the condition shared and inborn: 'we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.' Death is what Scripture uses when the power to respond is gone, which is exactly the point: the dead cannot reach out, so the life must come from outside.
You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
It is why grace is grace
The diagnosis humbles us, and it also points to rescue. Because we could not seek Him, God sought us: 'But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).' John says the new birth comes 'not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' Where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly. The point of knowing our inability is not despair; it is emptying our hands to receive what we could never reach for.
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
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Verses to meditate on
As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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