It is clear that even God’s covenant people are sinners. For example, in Jesus’s answer to the Canaanite woman’s plea (“Have mercy . . . my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon”; Matt. 15:22) and the disciples’ strong suggestion (“Send her away . . .”; Matt. 15:23), he speaks of being “sent . . . to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). The “sent” language emphasizes the Father’s role. Jesus is an agent of God, commissioned by God, and sent to “save his people [the Jews] from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The phrase “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24), which is probably epexegetical (“the lost sheep which are the house of Israel”),8 depicts the whole nation (God’s “people Israel”; Matt. 2:6; cf. Ezek. 34:23) as “lost.”
Jesus on Sin and Depravity
There are various texts within the Gospels where our Lord highlights man’s inner and outer depravity. Perhaps the clearest example is recorded in Mark 7:15–16, 18–23, where he taught:
“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. . . . Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean). . . . “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
While there are other theological issues discussed here (the nature of what is clean and unclean in regard to Jewish ritual purity), it is evident that Jesus does not present an optimistic anthropology. He does not merely declare “all foods clean” (Mark 7:19), but he announces that all humans are not clean. What is found in a septic tank (“whatever . . . is expelled”; Mark 7:19) is cleaner than what is found in the human heart (cf. Jer. 17:9). Like Paul in Romans 1:29–31, where he describes sin as both interior attitudes (like greed and arrogance) and exterior acts (like murder and disobeying parents), Jesus sees internal sins (evil thoughts, coveting, envy, pride) and external sins (sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, slander, foolishness; Mark 7:21–22) as inseparable and at the very core of fallen humanity (“from within, out of the heart of man”; Mark 7:21).
Elsewhere Jesus says, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matt. 15:18) and, “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36–37). Words are windows to our hearts. Our lips are unclean because our hearts are unclean. The “evil things” we see on the outside “come from within” (Mark 7:23). From head to toe, body to soul, all aspects of ourselves are pervasively depraved.1
“You without Sin, Cast the First Stone”
While Jesus’s statement, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7), is not found in our earliest and best Greek manuscripts, the assumption of universal guilt before God is evident throughout Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels. Proof of this reality is manifold. Below are four evidences to support this claim.
First, Jesus teaches that all people are “evil.” In his teaching on prayer, Jesus uses an analogy between the heavenly Father’s generosity and that of an earthly father: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:9–11). The point of the comparison is not to highlight the sinful nature of humankind but to show the abundant generosity of God. However, Jesus’s statement about the earthly fathers who “give good gifts” being “evil” (ὑμεῖς πονηροί), in an ontological sense, is in striking contrast with a view of man’s innate goodness. According to Jesus, that we might do “good things” and “give good gifts” does not mean we are “good.” Even “good” people are fundamentally “evil.”
Second, in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:9–14), Jesus commends the tax collector’s realistic view of himself as “a sinner.” The Pharisee, who holds a high view of himself and an optimistic opinion of his own nature, with his wordy prayer in the temple about his overt piety (Luke 18:11–12), is contrasted with the tax collector, who, away from the notice of the crowd (“standing far off ”), offers the postures (he “would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast”) and prayer of humble confession (“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”; Luke 18:13). The point of the parable, told to those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (Luke 18:9), is that the self-acknowledging “sinner” (Luke 18:13) was “justified” (Luke 18:14) by God and the so-called “righteous” (Luke 18:9) Pharisee was not.2
Third, Jesus teaches that all humans are morally indebted to God. As mentioned above, Jesus compares the forgiveness of the sinful woman (“a woman of the city, who was a sinner”; Luke 7:37) to canceling a large debt (Luke 7:43). Another example can be found in the final two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our sins [we will sin], for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us [others will sin against us]. And lead us not into temptation [everyone will be regularly tempted]” (Luke 11:4; Matt. 6:12–13).3 A final example is found in Jesus’s parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23–35), where God’s forgiveness of our sin is compared to forgiving a debt of “ten thousand talents” (Matt. 18:24).