Will human nature ever change?

One of the interesting things about human nature is that it seems never to change. A study of man over various periods of history shows that what we appear always to have been, we still are. Let's go back in history to about the seven century BC and listen to what the Jewish prophet, Jeremiah, had to say to his people. Israel had broken its covenant relationship to God and the "Weeping Prophet" warned the nation of an imminent destruction by the armored forces of Babylonia. What he revealed about human nature in his day is descriptive of life in the 21st century.
       Looking at a single chapter in Jeremiah (chap. 8) we find that the people of Jerusalem are said to "cling to deceit" (v. 5). Certainly, that describes the current situation in world affairs. I once heard Dr. 0. Hobart Mowrer, president of the American Psychological Association, say that the major cause for mental disease is "man's duplicity." We have difficulty in presenting ourselves as we really are. I've been told that if we were to ask the inmates in a given prison if they were guilty as charged, we would discover not a single culprit. The ability to deceive oneself is a universal trait.
       Further in the same chapter, Jeremiah, in reference to his people, notes, "None of them repent of their wickedness" (v. 6). To genuinely confess one's deviation from the acceptable norms of human behavior is rare. We often hear a public official who has been caught in an illicit affair say that he is "sorry that some people don’t understand how he was misrepresented,” and the prophet adds that "each pursues their own course" (v. 6), "all are greedy for gain" (v. 10), and "they have no shame at all" (v. 12). Not a nice picture, but is it not true of the dark side of human nature? 
       Of course, that's not the whole story. The Christian faith also teaches that man was created in the "image of God." That means that there is something about us that opens the prospect of a relationship with our Creator. In theology, the dark side is called "the fall of man." It is pictured in Scripture as an act of disobedience by the first couple. The Biblical story of redemption is that God, by the sacrifice of his Son, paid the price for sin and now offers forgiveness and restoration. So even though we are prone to live like we always have, there can be a bright future for those who turn to God in faith!