The Problem Beneath the Problem
Do you remember the first Bible verse you chose to memorize?
Not the one that someone else had you memorize. But the first time you read a passage of the Bible, and it meant so much, you thought, I’m memorizing that one.
I do. But before I share it with you, let me tell you why I chose it.
I had only been a Christian for a couple of years. I was confident in my faith and happy to share the Good News of Jesus with anyone who wasn’t a Christian and willing to listen. I kept discovering that many shared the very things I also wrestled with.
Like:
PEOPLE ARE INHERENTLY GOOD
If we could just peel back all the outside stuff (trauma, bad examples, poverty, the influence of corrupt institutions), we would find people wired for good. When people do something selfish, awful, or evil, it’s because something got twisted along the way by an external force. And if we could create the conditions in society where what is already good within them could emerge, we would have a better world.
But even at 18, I already knew that babies being selfish, toddlers hitting to get their way, and children lying to get out of trouble did not come from corrupt institutions or the weight of poverty. That stuff doesn’t need to be taught. Rich and poor, toddlers are selfish. So much so, they will hit, throw, bite, and pinch to get their way. And when that childhood selfishness is not addressed, just watch them when they grow up: merging in traffic, arguing in the comments, or turning a misunderstanding into a severed relationship.
WE CAN FIX OURSELVES
Most of our problems are patterns. Habits. Impulses roaming freely. And we can change those things. We can learn to think differently, control our impulses, and build better habits. And if we do the work, stack better choices, and let time and effort do what they always do... we really can fix ourselves.
But I kept running into parts of myself that my extreme self-discipline did not care about. The stuff that seemed to bubble up from inside of me, even though I had put in the work.
Comparing myself to build my ego.
Lying to protect my ego.
Justifying my sin so I can keep it.
I kept slamming into the reality that I could improve some aspects of myself, and still, there was a core problem I couldn’t fix.
HUMANITY IS GETTING BETTER
A few hundred years ago, things we now call evil were just normal (public torture, child labor, slavery as a business model, women treated like property, conquest as a flex).
Now we have laws, courts, and human rights.
We teach kids empathy.
We call out abuse.
We help the mentally and physically disabled, when, in some ancient settings, deformed babies were left out to die from exposure.
Across generations, we keep getting better. Slower than we want, but still moving.
I read The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, and he sifts through the data (war deaths, homicide rates, torture, cruelty in everyday life) and says we’re getting better. Nations are less chaotic. Global trade policies have made people more valuable alive than dead. Literacy has expanded empathy. In his view, the “better angels” of our nature are why societies improve as ideas spread.
Pinker is right that “violence” is down. But slavery is up, and the boot of exploitation and abuse is still on the neck of humanity. What I see is that humanity’s “progress” has given evil better cover.
As C. S. Lewis said in the preface of The Screwtape Letters, “But it [evil] is conceived… in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men…”
DEATH IS A NATURAL PART OF LIFE
Death is biology doing what biology does. Everything that lives eventually stops living. Death has no meaning. It’s not an intruder in our biology. It’s a feature of the system. And when you accept that, you can stop fighting what you cannot change.
And that brings me to why, at 19, I chose Romans 5:12 as the first verse I memorized on my own.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” —Romans 5:12. KJV
Maybe your first verse was uplifting; frame it and hang it on the wall material.
Not mine.
I went with a sentence that sounds like it belongs in Appendix B of a rabbi’s philosophy book.
Here’s why!
DEATH
Romans 5:12 won’t let us file death away as “just biology doing biology.” Paul calls it an invader. Sin entered, and death came with it. It is a symptom of something deeper being wrong with humanity.
That’s why death always feels like theft when it shows up, because on some level, we know it is. Paul’s point is not that we should make peace with death. It’s that we should see it for what it is: the wages of a world bent by sin. “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death…” —Romans 5:12 (NLT)
MORAL EVOLUTION
Even the law of the Old Testament, something holy and good, could not fix the human heart. What it did was expose our moral decay.“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were…” —Romans 5:20 (NLT)
Yes, we can make progress in medicine, the global economy, and human rights. But the same old stuff keeps finding new ways to corrode. Pride does not die. Greed does not retire. Lust does not get bored. Thirst for power does not get quenched. We do not evolve out of our moral depravity. We dress it up. And Romans 5 just keeps pulling at its root.
FIX OURSELVES
Romans 5:12-21 makes clear that our core issue is not a self-help project. We need a rescue. We need God’s gift. “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness…” —Romans 5:17 (NLT)
We cannot self-help our way out of the Fall of Humankind and into a new humanity.
INHERENTLY GOOD
Paul is not denying that humans do beautiful things. He’s showing us our core problem. In Romans 5:12, he doesn’t flatter us. He diagnoses us. The Fall of Humankind: that is why selfishness shows up so early. That is why pride does not need a tutor. That is why the ego is always looking for oxygen. The “good” in us is real, but it’s not strong enough to cure the infection.
AND THAT IS WHY I MEMORIZED ROMANS 5:12
5:12, and the rest of the chapter answered all of those false ideas I wrestled with.
The gospel does not end with Adam. He opened the door, and sin came into God’s creation of humanity. Death followed behind it. And we have all inherited that original bent toward sin. Theologians refer to it as our fallen nature, our Adamic sin, our carnality.
But then Paul turns the corner, and he starts saying two words that change everything: But Christ.
“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.” —Romans 5:18 (NLT)
“So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead…” —Romans 5:21 (NLT)
That means when we look death in the face, we don’t have to call it normal.
When we look at our own hearts and feel that bent toward self, we don’t have to pretend it’s fine.
Because the center of the Gospel story is not “try harder.”
It’s not “we’re getting better.”
It’s not “death is just part of it.”
The center is this: God did something from the outside.
God sent a new Adam.
God put a new head on the human race.
And Jesus does not just show you what goodness looks like. He does something for you that you cannot do for yourself.
So yes, Romans 5:12 is blunt. It is a brick through the stained-glass window of secular humanism.
And Romans chapter 5 keeps going.
The last word is not sin.
The last word is not condemnation.
The last word is this: the grace of Jesus Christ is available to all.
And death does not have to be the end. Eternal life can be your gift!
©2026 Greg McNichols, All rights reserved.
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