Do All People Have Good and Evil in Them?

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. … God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:26-27, 31).

These two words, image and good, establish our foundation for understanding exactly what defines “good” and where it comes from. Creation tells us there was an original blueprint, a standard. Good and evil are not a matter of taste or preference, but a measure against the ultimate reality of good, which can only be defined by God Himself, who is essentially good in His very nature. As Jesus said, “only God is good” (Mark 10:18). God is not simply good as we understand it, but He is righteous.

Good is the Hebrew word towb, meaning pleasant, agreeable. The Greek Septuagint gives a broader understanding, using the word kalos, and denotes that which is intrinsically "good," and so, "goodly, fair, beautiful.” It indicates something that is excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends, beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy. It can mean morally good, noble, according to the definition by Blue Letter Bible.

Image is the Hebrew word tselem, which comes from a root word meaning “to shade,” indicating likeness or resemblance. Later in Genesis 5:1, the author uses the word “likeness” (Hebrew dĕmuwth) meaning resemblance, as a copy, or portrait. The first man, Adam, was created not just with the potential to do good things, but in perfect harmony and likeness of God’s image. Essentially, goodness can be defined as being in harmony with God, living, acting, and speaking as one who bears the image of his Creator.

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God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them only one instruction. He forbade them to eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” His intention was that they only know what was good and He wanted them to choose it willingly. To obey Him would mean they were satisfied with Him, with the good things He had given them, and most especially the knowledge of God Himself as they walked in fellowship with Him each day (Genesis 3:8).

What, then, is evil?

The verb form of the Hebrew word is ra`a`. To do evil is to be displeasing, injurious, wicked. It means to be broken in pieces or broken asunder. Evil is the opposite of good. The New Testament translates two Greek words for evil, kakia (badness in character and quality, maliciousness, depravity, wickedness) and ponēros (from a root word meaning labor, expressing the active form of evil). Blue Letter Bible explains that where kakos and poneros are put together, kakos is always put first and signifies "bad in character, base," poneros, "bad in effect, malignant."

We could say that man was God’s perfect creation, designed with careful intention to bear His image in a physical form, and brought to life with His own Spirit as He breathed into him the breath of life. His character and likeness were reproduced in human form, to resemble Himself in the world He created. He made man good. Evil, however, broke the image-bearer, shattering God’s portrait of Himself in mankind. By rejecting God and choosing disobedience, man’s nature, his very character, became evil with a penchant and inclination toward evil deeds.

Just as goodness is defined as being in harmony with the image of God, evil is anything that is out of harmony with His standard of what is good. Because only God is good, He determines what is evil. He alone can judge, because He alone is righteous.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 – “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

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All who came after Adam would bear his image (Genesis 5:3), now a fallen, evil nature. Adam’s descendants (i.e. all mankind) retained the imprint of the original creation in their moral conscience, a remnant of the goodness of God. But their flesh, their physical bodies, would bear the mark of Adam’s sin nature, with the propensity and desire for evil.

Paul explains the result of Adam’s sin in his letter to the Romans. Romans 1:18-32 gives us a graphic picture of the evil that resides in our unredeemed flesh, and our natural instincts to follow what our physical flesh desires. And in Romans 2:14-15, we see the answer to our original question. Men do have an awareness of what is good, and by their moral conscience are able to discern between good and evil.

“For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:14-15).

The fact that we have a conscience at all reveals that creation is true, and there are certain things that are right, and certain things that are wrong. Our problem is that we never trace that standard of right and wrong back to the source, the Righteous One, God. Instead, we substitute man’s laws, and if those laws interfere with our desire for evil, we simply rewrite the laws and ignore the truth.

Thus, instead of leading us toward God and His righteousness, our moral conscience becomes seared by accepting more and more evil (2 Timothy 4:1-2; Titus 1:15-16). We “feel” that we are good in comparison to others but have forgotten how far we are from the God’s standard of goodness, the only standard that will matter in the end. 

Deeds that are motivated only by our moral conscience and appear good (kindness, generosity, benevolence) are a covering for the wickedness that exists in unredeemed flesh. Without spiritual transformation of our sin nature, we will always be “Jekyll and Hyde,” in a life-long struggle between trying to do good things as our conscience informs us and subduing our natural bent toward evil.

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Our moral conscience will deceive us unless it is interrupted and corrected by the Spirit of God. We may be able to do many good things, but our good deeds are unable to change who we are, broken people who in our very nature, are sinners before a holy and righteous God.  We need to be restored to the way we were originally created; our sinful nature must be transformed, and our sinful deeds must be forgiven.

The Bible tells us that no one is righteous (Romans 3:10) and that we are unable to do enough good deeds to make us righteous (Galatians 3:11). This is what Paul meant when he said “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:16). The Bible also tells us the price of our sin: death (Romans 3:23). Physical death testifies to the human condition. Even “good” people who have done many good things in their lives die.

Good deeds do not defeat death. Good deeds do not make us good.

Instead, we are made good in God’s eyes when, by faith, we exchange our old sin nature for Christ’s righteousness (Romans 4:5). This is the message of the entire New Testament. God sent His Son, Jesus to pay our ransom and redeem us back to God (Romans 5:6-11). He took our sin debt to the cross and offers us His righteousness. He alone can make us good.

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Do you consider yourself to be a good person? By the world’s standards, perhaps you are. The fact that you desire to do good things reveals that you are made in God’s image, given the gift of a moral conscience.

As a good person, do you still struggle with your temper? When someone wrongs you, is your first instinct to fight back, to get even? Do you justify the small things you do that you know are wrong, by comparing them to the many good things about yourself? Your sin nature is showing. There’s a problem underneath, in your very nature, that was also a gift from your ancestor, Adam.

All people do have good and evil in them, but no one is righteous before God (Romans 3:10). Morality and human kindness can offer a temporary covering for our condition, but they can never cure it. Only Christ can make us good, and He freely offers everyone the opportunity for the great exchange.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-10).

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Author Sheila Alewine is a pastor’s wife, mother and grandmother. She and her husband lead Around The Corner Ministries, which serves to equip Christ-followers to share the gospel where they live, work and play. She has written several devotionals including Living In Light of the Manger (Advent), Just Pray: God’s Not Done With You Yet, Grace & Glory: 50 Days in the Purpose & Plan of God, as well as Going Around The Corner, a Bible study for small groups who desire to reach their communities for Christ. Sheila has a passion for God’s Word and shares what God is teaching her on her blog, The Way of The Word. Connect with her on her blog, Facebook, and Instagram.