Zobel said:
On the contrary, we were made Good. Humanity is good, made in the image and likeness of our creator. He loves us. If there were nothing good left in humanity, there would have been nothing for Christ to become incarnate from - He would have been wholly other. But He is not - He is Man, the God-Man, fully God and fully Man. He is the most human that there ever has been. Not different than us - no, instead like us in every way except only sin.
And even this is not ours, because we can take no credit for how we were made. But we were "fearfully and wonderfully made." Yes, tarnished, yes grievously injured by the fall, yes slaves to sin and bound for death as a result. But not without grace (because without God's work what could still exist?), and not without the freedom to accept the call He gives to all men.
So you see, the point you're making is right, but your conclusion is wrong. He saved all mankind from sin and death - every single one. He took away the sin of the whole world into Himself, because the sin of all men is nothing but a handful of sand in the sea of God's love. He became sin so that we may become righteous, and He gives us that righteousness too.
The sun shines on the wicked and the righteous alike. The difference is not that God gives little grace to some, saves others a little more, gives no grace to the third. The difference is in our own free choice - and this, also, is absolutely given to us by God, but still ours to use.
This isn't so we can glory in our own - where is boasting? It is precluded - but that we know that we are called - commanded - to righteousness. We were redeemed, therefore we are obligated to work, in gratitude, in love. There is one greatest commandment in two parts: love God with your whole being, and love others as yourself. And if a person chooses to not do this, there is no forgiveness left for that person, because that person does not know God and has rejected all the gifts: salvation, virtue, even his own free will - because such a person remains a slave and dead in their sins.
This is where we disagree completely. Mankind is sick, evil, there is no good in man. None.
Psalm 53:3
Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
Luke 18:
18And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 19And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
"Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins."
Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV
Romans 5:12,19 - sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners
Psalm 143:2 - Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
2 Chronicles 6:36 - "there is no one who does not sin"
Isaiah 53:6 - All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turnedevery oneto his own way
Micah 7:2-4 - The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
Romans 3:9-12 - What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (c.f. Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3)
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 [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.
Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
Titus 1:15-16 - to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 - Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Romans 1:28-31 - And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were foolish
Ephesians 4:17-18 - you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Jeremiah 10:7-8,14 - among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. They are both stupid and foolish Every man is stupid and without knowledge
Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." (c.f. Mark 7:21-23)
Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 - The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually from his youth.
Proverbs 28:26 - Whoever trusts in his own [heart] is a fool
John 8:34 - Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
2 Peter 2:19 - They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
Titus 3:3 - For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Galatians 4:8-9 - Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Romans 6:6,16,17,19,20 - We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Romans 7:14 - For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
2 Timothy 2:25-26 - God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
We can never agree on this, if you feel that mankind has any good in them whatsoever. That's the difference in our belief systems. You think man is sick needing a physician, I think he is dead in his trespasses in need of a resurrecting God.
Acts 2:38
