What the beginning of the story of "us" tells us is that there is no such thing as human progress, only regression. From one act of disobedience to murder, and not just any murder, but fratricide, in one generation! By the time we get to Noah, we get something like God knew that every intention of man's heart was only evil all the time. That is like saying you don't just have cancer, you are cancer, there is no health in us. In fact, in our tradition that is exactly what we used to confess, "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us..." (We confessed that for the first 400 years of our Prayer Book but apparently we don't want anyone's self esteem to suffer so we leave that last bit out now.)
Isn't actually good to acknowledge before God that we need more of him? Isn't it a bit arrogant of us to pretend otherwise? When Isaiah came into the temple in chapter 6 of his prophetic book, he probably thought of himself as a more or less righteous guy but when God showed up and he saw what real holiness looked like he was panicked and would have confessed to being the most sinful man on earth. When Jesus tells the disciples to let down their nets for a catch in Luke 5 and they haul up an incredible catch, Peter's response to him at the shore is, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
The less we understand about the reality of sin, the less we make of it, the more it grows in us. Tolerance is an enemy to our souls and confession is the antidote, but not morbid introspection. We don't need that, if we open our lives to the Holy Spirit He will bring those things to our attention that He wants to cleanse. Our only health is from the indwelling of the Spirit. In the first four chapters of the Bible we have great sin but the greater failure is the failure to confess those sins but rather to make excuses for them or hide them. If we acknowledge our sins He is faithful to forgive them.
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