The Nature of the Human Heart
This question about the nature of the human heart touches on one of the great theological and anthropological debates of the whole biblical tradition: the nature of the human heart. The parable of the sower illustrates this tension between natural receptiveness and necessary transformation.
The Natural Soil: An Image of the Human Heart
In the parable (Matthew 13.1-23), the first three soils—the path, the rocky ground, and the thorns—are natural, untilled. They do not allow the seed (the Word) to bear fruit. Only the good soil, worked and prepared, is fruitful.
This suggests that the human heart, left to itself, is not spontaneously receptive to God. An inner work, an openness, a purification are needed.
What Does the Bible Say About the Human Heart?
Several verses confirm this idea of a natural inclination to evil:
Genesis 6.5: “Every thought of their hearts was directed each day only toward evil.”
Jeremiah 17.9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is wicked: who can know it?”
Matthew 15.19: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries…”
These texts do not say that man is incapable of good, but that his heart is deeply marked by sin from youth (cf. Genesis 8.21).
But This Is Not a Final Condemnation
The Bible does not stop at this observation. It also announces the possibility of a new heart:
Ezekiel 36.26: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.”
Psalms 51.8: “O God, create in me a clean heart.”
Romans 6.17: “You obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine…”
This means that the heart can be transformed, purified, made receptive, like soil that is plowed, weeded, and fertilized.
In summary
Yes, it can be said that the human heart is naturally closed to God, marked by sin. But no, that does not mean it is irremediably evil. Divine grace, listening to the Word, and the believer’s free response can transform this heart into good soil.