Are Most People Good?

“Most people are good.” Are they? The Bible tells us something quite different! Romans 3:12 tells us, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” That's pretty clear. Not only are we not good, but we've become worthless. That seems so harsh because people do perform good deeds. Unfortunately, those same people do not so good deeds as well. The thing is, people love to go their own way and do their own thing their own way. They live by their own wisdom. Proverbs 14:12 explains why that is a problem. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Of course here man means mankind which is males and females.) The reason the Bible sounds pretty negative, is unfortunately because it is reality.
We are creatures created by God. Our Creator is not a god, but THE God of the universe. Psalms 9:7-8 states “The Lord sits enthroned forever; He has established His throne for justice, and He judges the peoples with uprightness.” God is the standard. His world, His rules. But God is fair and God is just and God is perfect.
So if God is perfect and He's requiring that of us, how is that fair? Did I mention God's good and kind and merciful? How sin entered the world is another story, but it did and it corrupted people making it impossible for us to meet the standard. However when sin entered, God also announced His plan of redemption. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son to earth to live as a human man and also as the God He is. Fully man and fully God. The reason for that is sin has to be paid for. Romans 3:23 states “The wages of sin is death.” We earn death by our sin. However Jesus chose to pay for the sins of believers. Jesus died the excruciating death of crucifixion on the cross, went to hell and returned coming back to life conquering death. Jesus was the only person who could live a sinless life which qualified Him to pay for our sins. He took them on Himself. In doing that, He also imparted His righteousness to those who believe in Him as God’s Son, His sacrifice, and accept Him as Lord of their life.
“Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18) You see, we are born condemned. In His grace and mercy God sent Jesus to make a way for us to become righteous and therefore qualify to be with God forever and to live in heaven. 
Any person can do good things. No one would ever be able to work their way to heaven because they will always have the sin nature messing it up. But it’s not hopeless! We have Jesus. Thank God we do! "How then shall we live?" is for another day.......