Depravity of Man: General Scriptures Concerning
Source: Nav
Genesis 8:21
When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
Genesis 6:5–7, 11–13
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. / And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. / So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
Genesis 8:21
When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
Deuteronomy 32:10
He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
2 Chronicles 6:36
When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near,
Job 4:17–19
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker? / If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, / how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
Job 9:2, 3, 20, 29, 30
“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God? / If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand. / Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.
Job 11:12
But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!
Job 14:4
Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
Job 15:14–16
What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? / If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes, / how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
Job 25:4–6
How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure? / If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight, / how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”
Psalm 5:9
For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
Psalm 14:1–3
For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good. / The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. / All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 51:5
Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Psalm 53:1–3
For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good. / God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. / All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 58:1–5
For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? / No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth. / The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.
Psalm 94:11
The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.
Psalm 130:3
If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
Psalm 143:2
Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
Proverbs 10:20
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked has little worth.
Proverbs 20:6, 9
Many a man proclaims his loving devotion, but who can find a trustworthy man? / Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?
Proverbs 21:8
The way of a guilty man is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.
Ecclesiastes 7:20, 29
Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. / Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
Ecclesiastes 8:11
When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
Ecclesiastes 9:3
This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.
Isaiah 1:5, 6
Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted. / From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
Isaiah 42:6, 7
“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, / to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
Isaiah 43:8
Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, and who have ears but are deaf.
Isaiah 48:8
You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.
Isaiah 51:1
“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
Isaiah 53:6
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 64:6
Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
Jeremiah 2:22, 29
Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. / Why do you bring a case against Me? You have all rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:7
As a well gushes its water, so she pours out her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.
Jeremiah 16:12
And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Ezekiel 16:6
Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’
Ezekiel 36:25, 26
I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. / I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 37:1–3
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones. / He led me all around among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, and indeed, they were very dry. / Then He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?” “O Lord GOD,” I replied, “only You know.”
Hosea 6:7
But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
Hosea 14:9
Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.
Micah 7:2–4
The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net. / Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together. / The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
Matthew 7:17
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Matthew 12:34, 35
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. / The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.
Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
Mark 7:21–23
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, / greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. / All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”
Luke 1:79
to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
John 1:10, 11
He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. / He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
John 3:19
And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
John 8:23
Then He told them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
John 14:17
the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
Acts 8:23
For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and captive to iniquity.”
Romans 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Romans 3:9–19, 23
What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. / As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. / There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
Romans 5:6
For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 6:6, 17, 19, 20
We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. / But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. / I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
Romans 7:5, 11, 13–15, 18–21, 23, 25
For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. / For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. / Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
Romans 8:5–8, 13
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. / The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, / because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Romans 11:32
For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.
1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 3:3
for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?
1 Corinthians 5:9, 10
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. / I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
2 Corinthians 3:4, 5
Such confidence before God is ours through Christ. / Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
2 Corinthians 5:14
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.
Galatians 3:10, 11, 22
All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” / Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” / But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.
Galatians 5:17, 19–21
For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. / The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; / and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 2:1–3, 11, 12
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, / in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. / All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
Ephesians 4:17–19, 22
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. / They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. / Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.
Ephesians 5:8, 14
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, / So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Colossians 1:13, 21
He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, / Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.
Colossians 2:13
When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
Colossians 3:5, 7
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. / When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
2 Timothy 2:26
Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.
Titus 3:3
For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
James 3:2
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
James 4:5
Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?
1 Peter 1:18
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,
1 Peter 2:9, 25
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. / For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 John 1:8, 10
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. / If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
1 John 3:10
By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1 John 5:19
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
Revelation 3:17
You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.