Total Depravity (i.e. Radical Corruption)

 

Total Depravity Introduced

What total depravity does not mean?

·       Total depravity is not utter depravity. Utter depravity means that we are all as sinful as we possibly could be. That is not the case. Humans are able to think of worse sins that they could have committed. Even Adolf Hitler refrained from murdering his mother. The fact that humans are not evil as they could be (maximum evil-ness) is God’s grace to His creatures.

What is meant by total depravity?

·       Total depravity refers to the idea that our whole humanity is fallen. All part of a person has been affected in some way by the Fall. Sin affects our will, heart, mind, and body.

·       Total depravity also stresses the fact that sin reaches to the core of our being. Sin is not a surface thing. Sin touches the root of our lives. In that sense, it is radical.

Total Depravity Proven

Romans 8:7, 8: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Romans 3:10, 11: “…..it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

Psalms 14:1-3: “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

Isaiah 43:8: “Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!”

Ephesians 2:1-5: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”

1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Some More Proofs

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”

Genesis 8:21: “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

Job 14:4: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.”

Jeremiah 13:23: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.”

Total Depravity Explained

1.     Our rebellion against God is total.

The totality of our rebellion is seen in Romans 3:9-11 and 18. No one seeks God. It is a myth that man in his natural state is genuinely seeking God. Natural man seeks the gifts which only God can give (e.g. peace), but they do not seek God for who He is. This is total rebellion. “No one seeks for God.... There is no fear of God before their eyes!”

2.     In his total rebellion everything man does is sin.

In Romans 14:23 Paul says, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Therefore, if all men are in total rebellion, everything they do is the product of rebellion and cannot be an honor to God, but only part of their sinful rebellion.

All outwardly good of natural men come from hearts without Christ-exalting faith, and therefore, without love, and therefore without conformity to God’s command, and therefore are sinful.

In Romans 7:18 Paul says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” So, what Paul is saying in Romans 7:18 is that apart from the work of God’s Spirit all we think and feel and do is not good.

3.     Man’s inability to submit to God and do good is total.

Romans 8:7-8 says, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The “mind that is set on the flesh” is the mind of man apart from the indwelling Spirit of God (“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you,” Romans 8:9). So natural man has a mindset that does not and cannot submit to God. Man cannot reform himself.

Our sinful corruption is so deep and so strong as to make us slaves of sin and morally unable to overcome our own rebellion and blindness. This inability to save ourselves from ourselves is total.

Ephesians 2:1 says that we Christians were all once “dead in trespasses and sins.” The point of deadness is that we were incapable of any spiritual life with God. We had physical life, but our hearts were like a stone toward God (Eph. 4:18; Ezek. 36:26). Our hearts were blind and incapable of seeing the glory of God in Christ (2 Cor. 4:4-6). We were totally unable to reform ourselves.

4.     Our rebellion is totally deserving of eternal punishment.

Ephesians 2:3 goes on to say that in our deadness we were “children of wrath.” The reality of hell is God’s clear charge of the infiniteness of our guilt. If our corruption were not deserving of an eternal punishment, God would be unjust to threaten us with a punishment so severe as eternal torment. But the Scriptures teach that God is just in condemning unbelievers to eternal hell (2 Thess. 1:6-9; Matt. 5:29-30; 10:28; 13:49-50; 18:8-9; 25:46; Rev. 14:9-11; 20:10). Therefore, to the extent that hell is a sentence of total condemnation, to that extent must we think of ourselves as totally blameworthy apart from the saving grace of God.

Total Depravity Defended

Question: What about the “who-so-ever-will” or “who-so-ever-believes” passages?

Answer: It is said in the Bible that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). That does not imply that everyone has the ability in themselves to “repent”. In fact, no one has the ability, in himself, to seek after God. Repentance and faith are pleasing to God. But Bible teaches that natural men cannot please God. They do not seek God. They are hostile to God (Rom. 3:9-11, 18; 7:18; 8:7, 8).

But, can God command the sinners to repent and believe in Him, which they are unable to do themselves? The answer is YES. We have already seen that all sinners are totally blameworthy for an eternal punishment. So, we are responsible for our inability. God can still command the rebellious spiritually dead creatures, who are responsible for their own spiritual death, to repent and believe in Him. God (in His Sovereign authority) has every right to command sinners to repent, even though they are unable to repent. The man is responsible for his inability.

We can see that God has given many commandments (the Law) to humans in spite of knowing that they cannot obey it. There is nothing injustice from the part of God.

Another truth is that, God gives, to whom He wants, His grace to do what He commands (compare 2 Chron. 30:8, 9 with 2 Chron. 30:12).

Therefore, the “who-so-ever-will” passages do not imply that sinners have the ability to do, out of themselves, what is commanded.

Question: Does man have free will?

Answer: Man has free will. But, he does not have autonomous will. Using the free will, humans chose what they “desire” or what their heart is “inclined into”. All sinners has lost their desire for seeking God. Bible clearly teaches that the sinners have no desire for God. There is no one who seeks God. Therefore, using their free will (which is influenced by their desire), sinners rebel against their Creator.

 

References (many sentences and paragraphs are compiled from the following works):

1.     John Piper, Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace (available for free in desiringgod.org)

2.     R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God