Total Depravity

Today we are beginning a new series on the doctrines of grace. Now, a quick bit of information about these doctrines is that:

They did not begin with Calvin.

5 points isn’t all there is. The 5 points are simply 5 arguments against the Remonstrants.

These doctrines are to humble us and exalt God.

What is wrong with the world we live in? Is it made bad just by a few bad actors up top or is it deeper and more universal than that? Are people basically good or bent towards sin? Why doesn’t my best friend want to be saved and why do I still struggle with sin so much?

These are just a few questions that will be answered as we look at the doctrine of Total Depravity together today.

What It Isn’t

Utter Depravity

A lot of people have serious problems with total depravity because they think it means that we believe that people are as bad as they could possibly be. This is not the case. Believing in total depravity means that we know that sin has infiltrated every part of our being. but that God’s restraining grace prevents us from delving into all out consumption of every sinful thought and desire. So, while we are totally depraved, we are not utterly depraved. If that were the case, we would make Hitler look like mere child's play.

The loss of the image of God

Another problem that is often brought up concerning the fall of man is that when we fell, we lost the image of God. This is not the case. As we look in Genesis 9, God has just flooded the Earth for her sinfulness and he tells Noah this in Genesis 9:6

Genesis 9:6 NKJV

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.

I often explain the image of God in humanity in the beginning as being a slanted mirror made the reflect the glory of God into the world. But that when we sinned, the glass was shattered, but not lost. If you shine light onto it, it still reflects, but not perfectly. This is why we look at the lost world and still see good things shining through. Caring for little old ladies, nurturing orphans, helping the needy, mouring deaths. This is because we can’t escape the reflection of our maker, even though we are lost and despise Him.

However, by His grace. God sweeps up the broken shards, sets us aside for His glory and is progressively piecing us together to more perfectly reflect His glory into the world. One day, when we see Him, we will be complete and will shine His glory for ever and ever.

But how did we get here? Does this fall take place individually or did we all fall at one time? Are we influenced by our parents and then fall into sin or did we inherit this condition? This question is a good one and it will be answered

The Headship of Adam

Before we look at that, listen to this poem from John Donne from the 15-1600’s.

“Adam sinned and I suffer,

I forfeited before I had any possession or could claim any interest.

I had a punishment before I had a being,

And God was displeased with me before I was I.

I was built up scarce fifty years ago in my mother’s womb

and I was cast down almost 6,000 years ago in Adam’s loins

I was born in the last age of the world, and died in the first

How and how justly do we cry out against a man who has sold a town or sold an army,

and Adam sold the world.”

Adam’s position as humanities representative.

What we learn in Genesis is that God created Adam and Eve to serve and obey Him by having children, taking dominion over the Earth, and maintaining the purity of Eden in obedience to His word. It was told Adam that he must not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. Well, as you and I know, he disobeyed, ate the fruit, and God pronounced a death sentence to them. And what we find is that it isn’t just Adam that now is a sinner, but we see it in Cain, and then the Sethites in Genesis 6, and so on all men fall.

In Romans 5:12, Paul picks up on this fall and explains that this isn’t because Adam was just a really bad example, but because Adam was our king and when Adam fell, the kingdom of man fell with him into sin. He writes,

Romans 5:12 NKJV

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

So, when we think of Cain’s sin, Lamech’s sin, the world’s sinfulness, the fall of Noah, David, Solomon, you and me. It’s not because of wicked world systems, or becasuse our teachers are bad. It’s because at our very core, we are sinners. Yes, worldly influence might influence the depth of our demanor towards sin, but at our core we are all slanted to sinfulness anyway.

Psalm 51:5 NKJV

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

David is not telling us that his mother conceived him in a sinful act of adultery or fornication, but is confessing that at our nature, we are sinful men. Now, how deep does this infestation of sin go?

The Extent of Sin’s Reach

The Emotions

Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Thomas Watson said this about the heart, “It is a lesser hell. In the heart are legions of lust, hardness, hypocrisy, sinful desires; it boils as the sea with passion and revenge. ‘Madness is in their heart while they live.’ Eccl. 9:3. The heart is the devil’s shop or workhouse, where all mischief is framed.”

And so, in line with what is presented by Watson, within our hearts are, as Calvin said are, “idol making factories” and what is being brought up here is that upon the very core of our being sits a lust for sinfulness. We love it, we crave it, it is the water we drink and the air that we long to breath. Fallen man are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

The Mind

“In 2 Corinthians 3:14, Paul says the mind is “hardened” (epōrōthē). In 1 Timothy 6:5, he calls the mind “depraved” (diephtharmenōn). In Ephesians 4:18, he says men are “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God.” In Romans 1:21, he says that thinking has become “futile” (emaraiōthēsan) and “foolish” (asunetos), because men “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). He warns against being taken “captive by philosophy” (Colossians 2:8). And he says in 1 Corinthians 1:21, “In the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:21)” (Piper, D.G. Con. 2010).

In the Old Testament we read in Proverbs 14:12

Proverbs 14:12 NKJV

There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

So, what we learn here is that the reach of sin extends to our minds. The thoughts of fallen man are not on righteousness, not on God, not on His will and glory. Instead, our minds are bent toward sin and hardened toward God. We view things upside down, we think good is evil and evil is good.

Romans 8:7 NKJV

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

And because our mind is in enmity with God, so are our wills as these are inseparable things.

The Will

Ephesians 2:1–3 NKJV

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

In our depravity, we daily live out the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden as we decide for ourselves that the desire before us is worth elevating over the God above us and we, in turn, decide that we are gods ourselves. So, because our mind is darkened and our affections are fallen, we live in rebellion against God. Now, I want to make an important statement here because even though I’m using language like, “Rebel, hate, darkened, anger.” This doesn’t mean that every sinner is mentally aware of this hatred, meaning that if you approach most non-believers, it isn’t that they will respond by saying they hate God, but that they are indifferent towards Him. The problem is that with Jesus, there is no fence sitting, and that sin is cosmic rebellion against God but our mind’s are so darkened by sin that we thinking nothing of it.

The Soul

All of these things, the effect of sin on the mind, will and emotions stems from the condition of our soul. And in Ephesians 2, as we have just seen, we are dead in trespasses and sins. This word for dead doesn’t mean that we were sick, or on life support, or that we were in the ocean reaching for a float to help us get to safety. It is the word “nekros” which would refer to a dead human body. What is being taught here is that we are spiritually dead without the intervening grace of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV

4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The Body

Lastly, as we know, sin affects our body. In the Garden, God promised death both physical and spiritual to Adam if he sinned and as we all know, he did in fact fall. The result of that is sickness, pain and death upon the human body. Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 NKJV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What all this means for us is that mankind is totally tainted by sin. We cannot renew ourselves or understand the things of God or submit to Him because we are dead and we hate Him in our rebellion.

Martin Luther, during the time of the reformation where almost all the civilized world stood against him wrote, “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.”

Are Christian's Totally Depraved?

Now, here’s the question. Outside of Christ, our minds are darkened, our wills are rebellious, our affections are sinful, our souls are dead, and our bodies are eternally dying. The question for us now is, “Are Christians totally depraved?” And the answer to that is no, we are not totally depraved.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

and in John 3, Jesus describes our salvation experience as being born again. In Ephesians 2, we were dead but now we are alive. In Colossians 3, we walked in sinfulness but now we are in Christ and walk in righteousness and are bound by love.

What we see is that when we are saved, our minds are illuminated by the Spirit, our souls are regenerated and we come to Christ. Our minds are changed, our wills are changed, our affections are changed. Our bodies may be dying, but our souls are alive and one day, these bodies, according to 1 Corinthians 15, will rise to live forever and ever.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Christians don’t struggle with sin. I believe passages like Romans 7 make that abundantly clear. However, we aren’t dead anymore and our future is not one of condemnation. We are made new and we are inwardly renewed day by day. No longer slaves to sin, but Saints serving righteousness.

*Give the gospel here*

What Do We Learn From This?

In ourselves, we must beware of the old man and be daily putting on the new man.

Why does God leave sinfulness in us after we are saved instead of getting rid of it immediately?

Thomas Watson writes that it is to:

Show the power of his grace in the weakest believer.

To make us long after heaven where there shall be no more sin.

In the lost, we must understand that they cannot, due to their depravity, choose of their own free will, to come to Christ.

John 3:5 NKJV

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

John 3:27 NKJV

27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

This allows us to look at the world and interpret the horrible things we see.

This informs our evangelism and the function of the Church.