the desperate wickedness of human nature. By J.C. Ryle. Matthew chapter 27, verses 22 and 23. What then should I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Pilate asked. They all answered, Crucify him. Why? asked Pilate. What crime has he done? But they shouted all the louder, Crucify him. Let us learn from the conduct of the Jews described in these verses the desperate wickedness of human nature. What had our Lord done that the Jews should hate him so? He was no robber or murderer. He was no blasphemer of their God or reviler of their prophets. He was one whose life was love. He was one who went about doing good He was innocent of any transgression against either God or man.

And yet the Jews hated Him and never rested until He was slain. They hated Jesus because He told them the truth. They hated Him because He testified that their works were evil. They hated the light because it made their own darkness visible. In a word, they hated Jesus because He was righteous and they were wicked, because He was holy and they were unholy, because He testified against sin and they loved their sins and would not give them up.

Let us observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized as the corruption of human nature, Men imagine that if they saw a perfect person, they would love and admire him. They forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of God, he was hated and murdered. That single fact goes far to prove the truth that unconverted men would kill God if they could get at him.

Let us never be surprised at the wickedness that there is in the world. Let us mourn over it and labor to make it less. But let us never be surprised at its magnitude. There is no wickedness which the heart of man is not capable of conceiving or the hand of man of doing. As long as we live, let us mistrust our own hearts. Even when renewed by the Spirit, they are still deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.