Beautiful, Humbling Words

I am currently reading a "modernized" version of William Wilberforce's book titled Real Christianity. If you want the original title, Google it - it is pretty lengthy. Anyways, I came across this passage in the second chapter, and absolutely had to put it up here...

"It is my opinion that the majority of Christians overlook, deny or, at the very least, minimize the problems of what it means to be a fallen human being. They might acknowledge that the world has always been filled with vice and wickedness and that human behavior tends towards the sensual and selfish. They might admit that the result of these facts is that in every age we can find innumerable instances of oppression, cruelty, dishonesty, jealousy and violence. They might also admit that we act this way even when we know better. These facts are true; we don't deny them. They are so obvious that it is a mystery why so many still believe in the goodness of human nature. But even though the facts might be acknowledged, the source of the facts is often still denied. These things are rationalized as small failures or periodic problems. Other explanations are given that fail to get to the heart of the matter. Human pride refuses to face the truth. Even the majority of professing Christians tend to think that the nature of humanity is basically good and is only thrown off course by the power of temptation. They believe that sin and evil are the exception, not the rule. The Bible paints a much different picture. The language of Scripture is not for the faint of heart. It teaches that man is an apostate creature, fallen from his original innocence, degraded in his nature, depraved in his thinking, prone toward evil, not good, and impacted by sin to the very core of his being. The fact that we don't want to acknowledge these truths is evidence of their veracity" (28).