This isn't what the scriptures tells us.
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Our hearts before we're saved are evil. Every thought. Every time. And it doesn't stop after we become Christians. It just slows down but never does it goes away. The difference is in this post-Israel age is that the Holy Spirit begins to directs our paths to create good works in and through us so that we may bring glory to the Father. Prior to the Holy Spirit being inside us, with a very few exception, good works were primarily God working externally with an individual (e.g. God talking to Moses, God talking to Abraham, etc).
We just don't like the thought that we are, at the core, indeed wicked and corrupt people. We like to take the credit of our good works, but really they come from God's Holy Spirit for without Christ, we can do nothing.
This isn't what the scriptures tells us.
That's what Jesus and Paul tell us.
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.
1 Corinthians 11 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ
And we must accept God's Grace.
2 Corinthians 6: 1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.