The Bible teaches that humanity's nature is profoundly affected by sin, leading to a condition where people are unable to come to God on their own. According to Jeremiah, the human heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," while Ephesians describes people as being "dead in trespasses and sins." This state of spiritual death is further emphasized in John, which notes that no one can come to God unless drawn by Him. The Psalms and 1 Corinthians also affirm that sin's influence is inherent from birth and that unbelievers are unable to understand spiritual truths without divine intervention.
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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.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
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.
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.
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
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.
because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
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.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
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.
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.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”