What kind of standing has the unregenerate person before the holy God? Condemnation.
Condemnation can be the only answer to that question, because the unregenerate person wants nothing to do with God. And, maybe even more than that, he is God’s enemy. The unregenerate person does not want to please God, because he’s not able to do so (Romans 8:8). They care nothing for God because they don’t know God. And, more than that, they don’t want to know God in their unregenerate state. As controversial as it may be to say this out loud (or in this case, to type it) the reality is as clear today as it was clear thousands of years ago.
After God flooded the earth to destroy much of what he had created, God reflects on what led to his judgment being poured forth and Moses records God’s thoughts:
“The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.’ ” (Genesis 8:21)
Yahweh did not come to the conclusion that men are generally good except for a few bad apples. Nor did he come to the conclusion that everyone just has a little stain upon themselves, but when you look deep within, they’re actually quite clean. On the contrary, he said that every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.
God’s pronouncement was clear: unregenerate human beings are, to their core, evil.
As if God’s statement in Genesis 8 wasn’t enough, the apostle Paul picks up this dark reality in his letter to the Romans when he writes:
“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.’ ‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’ ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ (Romans 3:9-18)
Paul quotes the truth found in a number of Old Testament passages to make his point clear. All people are have been infected by sin.
By the mercy of God, though, this reality is not the end of the story.
The God whom none of us at one time wanted anything to do with
changed desires in the past and is changing desires today by removing hearts of stone and putting in their place, hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). In other, more blunt words, he takes dead men and makes them alive (John 11:38-44). And, because of this sovereign, monergistic work of God, he makes Romans 5:6-11 true for those whom he’s saved.
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.”