Mankind is a moral mess.  No matter how hard we try, in the end, we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  Isaiah summed it up as well as possible.  

Isaiah 64:6 (ESV)
⁶  We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment… 

Notice, we were not born unclean; we became unclean.  Nevertheless, even our righteousness is as a polluted garment, or as the KJV says, “as filthy rags.”  When it comes to our moral character, none of us have anything about which we can brag.  We are what we are by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10).  In referring to our state of being before we obeyed the gospel, Paul was very forthright.  

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV)
¹  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

That is a pretty sorry picture, isn’t it?  We were once all slaves to Satan, living in the passions of our flesh.  The flesh that Paul speaks of is not the stuff that covers our bones, but the corrupt nature we all once had.  The devil was our master, and we served him well.  Like Cain before us, we could not be reasoned with or persuaded to do better.  We were “by nature children of wrath,” destined to spend eternity in a devil’s hell.

Thankfully, God is at His best when we are at our worst.  Listen to what Paul said next in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:4-5 (ESV)
⁴  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

“But God…”  No sweeter words have ever been written.  We were separated from God and all His wonderful blessings, but God acted.  We were helplessly lost and without hope, but God was moved to do something, and what He did was act in our best interest because that is what love does, and he loved us greatly.  What did God do?  Paul said He made us alive, but what he does not tell us, at least not in this passage, is how He did it.  But, we know, don’t we?  Out of His unmatchable love, He sacrificed His only begotten Son so that we might live (John 3:16).

The greatness of God is unsearchable, but His greatest power of all is His ability to unconditionally love his enemies, even to the point of giving us His best as a propitiation for our sins.  And His best overcame our worst. 

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.