“All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12 ESV).
As mentioned earlier, there are undoubtedly many who believe that human depravity is solely (or principally) attributable to environmental factors, circumstantial elements, or economic causes. The idea is that the inherent goodness of humanity would shine forth if one could remove those negative attributes. While we should not ignore those factors and their potential contributions to human evil, that belief is neither supported by the Scriptures or real-world experience.
For example, even a very young child can exhibit things like greed, selfishness, envy, and a variety of similar behaviors. While children can be a source of great joy, virtually every parent knows that a child doesn’t need to be taught how to lie or act deceptively. In addition, a young child doesn’t need to be prompted to say things like “Gimme,” “Mine,” or “No!” Those unfortunate realities do not change as we grow older; we simply become better at masking them.
In addition to what we read here in Romans 3:12, the Scriptures identify the root cause of such behaviors in a well-known passage from Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jesus also provided us with insight into this subject when He said, “…what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person…” (Mathew 15:18-20 ESV).
This reference to having become “worthless” or “unprofitable” here in Romans 3:12 originates in a word that offers a descriptive word-picture: “to go bad, [to] become sour like milk.” (1) One source offers an uncompromising assessment of this idea…
“While man looks upon the outward acts and judges them to be good, God looks upon not only the outward acts but also the inward motives that lie behind them, and because they proceed from a heart that is in rebellion against Him and they are not done for His glory, even these good deeds are like ‘filthy rags’ in His sight. In other words, fallen man’s good deeds are motivated not by a desire to please God but by our own self-interest and are thus corrupted to the point where God declares that there is ‘no one who does good, no not one!'” (2)
As another author reminds us…
“Good is a relative term. It is defined against some standard. If we establish what that standard is, we can congratulate ourselves and take comfort in our attainment of it. But if God establishes the standard, and His standard includes outward behavior (that our actions conform perfectly to His law) and internal motivation (that all our acts proceed from a heart that loves Him perfectly), then we quickly see that our pretended ‘goodness’ is no goodness at all.” (3)
(1) Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament [Romans 3:10-12] Copyright © 1942-55 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
(2) GotQuestions.org. (2022, January 4). GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/total-depravity.html
(3) None Righteous by R.C. Sproul. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/none-righteous