Total Depravity

The words of Timothy Brindle’s song ‘Total Depravity’ from the CD ‘The Great Awakening’ aptly describe the consequences of Adam’s one act of disobedience. Instead of becoming like god Adam brought sin, death and judgment on himself and his race. But Adam’s sin came with another consequence, one that happened the moment he bit into the fruit and completed his act of rebellion. That consequence was what scripture calls a sinful human nature. Unlike the nature Adam was created with, the sinful nature he got and passed onto all his descendents is one that craves evil, resists the things of God and is unresponsive, unwilling and unable to grasp the things of God. It is this human moral nature we’re born with. This why you don’t have to teach children to sin. Somehow those little angels pick up lying, stealing and disobedience all by themselves. Few in our day would dispute that people have a capacity to commit evil. The evening news reminds us of our depravity on a nightly basis. The issue is how bad are we? What does the Scripture mean when it says ‘Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths, Gen. 3:7.
Does it mean that we’re basically good people who given the right environment and circumstances can live good lives that are pleasing to God? In other words do we really need the gospel? Does it mean that we’re basically bad people who disobey God but who if given the chance can respond to the gospel and be born again? In other words are we morally neutral when it comes to the gospel with the ability to either believe or disbelieve? Finally, does it mean that we’re basically bad people who commit evil and are incapable of believing the gospel on our own? Did Adam fall so far that he and his race are actually dead in sin and without hope of ever understanding and believing the gospel apart from divine intervention.

Most people probably believe the first view of mankind’s moral nature. This belief says that we’re basically good people who given the right environment will live basically good lives. That was certainly the view of my psychology, sociology and philosophy professors. Most evangelicals believe the second view of man’s moral nature. They believe that people are evil, but have the ability to believe the gospel themselves and thus become born again. I’m convinced that Scripture teaches the third view of man’s nature. That we are basically evil people who are incapable of believing the gospel apart from divine intervention. This view of mankind’s moral nature teaches that God must actually give us new spiritual life causing us to be born again so that we can understand and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. This true view of man’s essential moral nature is found throughout Scripture

Total depravity is one of the most important doctrines taught in Scripture. For it tells of what our true nature is, how it affects us and why it is humanly impossible to respond to the gospel and save ourselves. Total depravity began when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and plunged themselves and their race into sin. Total depravity does not teach that people are as bad off as they could be for that would be utter or absolute depravity. Rather, total depravity teaches that due to our sinful human nature we not only commit individual actions of sin, but are born with a nature that is unwilling and unable to understand and act on the things of God on our own.

Ephesians 2:1-5 is one of the places it’s taught most clearly. Ephes. 2:1-5 (ESV)
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—

What does this passage teach about our real human nature?

We were dead, that is completely unresponsive to the things of God. We neither cared for or pursued God, His word, His worship or His will. Consequently, when we heard the gospel it made no sense to us at all. 1 Cor. 1:18 (ESV)
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

We were responsive to and did pursue a lifestyle of sinful disobedience. When Scripture uses the term walk as seen in verse 2a it means way of life or lifestyle. Our way of life was characterized by consistent deviation and departure from the clearly marked out path found in the word of God. In addition our lifestyle was marked by a consistent failure to live up to the perfect standard God requires to avoid His judgment.

We naturally and willfully followed the three influences that kept our wills captured in sin. This is why the Scripture does not teach that people have a free will and can therefore choose right and wrong themselves. Our wills are captured and enslaved to our sinful human nature. Since our wills are captured we therefore naturally go along with the flow of our society in its rebellion against God. No human society, country or people group exists to worship, serve, obey, delight in and glorify God. Rather they live to please themselves. Since our wills are captured we naturally followed the deceitful schemes of Satan. The devil continues to influence humanity with the lie that we can obtain true freedom, power and fulfillment by disobeying rather than obeying God. Since our wills are captured we naturally responded to the cravings of our sinful natures. These desires are within us and dominate our hearts and minds and so we lived to satisfy our sinful nature. Paul goes onto say that we not only responded to our evil desires, but we did what we could to carry them out as best we can.

You find this in Adam and Eve in their reaction to hearing God in the garden after they sinned. They weren’t looking for God to show Him their sin, nor did they seek Him out to confess their sin and ask His forgiveness. They did what their nature’s drove them to do which was to avoid God by any means necessary.
Our morally corrupt human nature which manifested itself in lifestyles characterized by evil thoughts, speech and actions caused us to be objects of God rightful, fierce, settled and passionate anger. This is so because our sin is an affront to His holiness and direct challenge to His sovereign right to rule His universe. To make it more clear Adam’s one act of disobedience caused him to fall from a state of sinless innocence and fatally damaged his human nature. Instead of becoming like God he became a totally depraved sinful human. Moreover, he passed this depraved human nature to all his race. Consequently, left to ourselves we would be dead in our sins, captured and dominated by our sinful nature and bound to follow the disobedience instigated by Satan, copied by all human societies and craved by our own natures. After living an entire lifetime of foolish disobedience we would as objects of God’s rightful anger spend an eternity being punished for our own willful sinful choices.

Now if God was fair, that is if He gave us what we deserved that would be our destiny. But because He’s gracious we can avoid this lifestyle and the certain judgment that will accompany it. For God has for some reason decided not to give the human race the justice we’ve earned for rebelling against Him. What caused Him to do this? Looking carefully at verses four and five of this passage clearly reveals the answer. It was not because we magically awakened to our peril and begged Him to save us. Nor was it because we had some special spiritual insight that others obviously don’t have that enabled us to break the chains of our sinful nature, resist the pressure of our society, see through the lies of Satan and believe the gospel.
Ephes. 2:4-5 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—

God is rich in mercy, He has a wealthy abundant store of tender-hearted compassion. God set His love on us. His love is a great love in that it’s a great affectionate benevolence that moves Him to act for our best possible good despite our on sinfulness. How did God demonstrate His rich mercy and great love? He caused us to be born again. God gave us new life. Out of an act of His free will God broke the chains of our sinful nature by giving us a brand new spiritual nature that is responsive to the things of God.
When does the Scripture say God did this? Was it after we somehow awakened from our sin and asked to be born again? No, He caused us to be born again while we were still in the vibrancy of our sinful nature. That why Scripture can emphatically claim that we’re saved by grace. Grace is unmerited and undeserved favor and pardon given to those who actually have earned and deserved to be punished.

Grace is what separates the God of Scripture from all the other false deities we’ve made up that are so much like us. Grace is God out of His own rich mercy and great love giving new life to dead, spiritually unresponsive rebels so that we can finally understand the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ for full pardon and salvation. Yet, how can God be gracious and still uphold His holiness? He did tell Adam that on the day you eat of the tree you will most certainly die. Did God just throw up His hands as it were and decide to forgo punishing sinful humanity since we just can’t help ourselves.

Once more the words of our brother Timothy Brindle’s song ‘Total Depravity’ provides some insight from scripture toward this dilemma.

Give Attention- man's depraved, sure! But every sin I mentioned must be paid for (Ex. 34:7, Nahum 1:3) but there's One Solution among confusion, (John 14:6)
instead of you being punished, there's been a substitution!
Christ was treated...by The Father... like he committed the sins in this song (2 Cor. 5:21)
His life deleted...a violent slaughter so we can be forgiven for our things that our wrong!
IF you believe in Him, He'll rescue ya' Yeshua will redeem your sin
surely man is cursed and damned but Christ fulfilled The LAW because He's The Perfect Lamb the only sacrifice that covers the cost of our sin's price, so He hung on the Cross (Hebrews 9:12-15)
JESUS IS GOD believe this first lesson with faith in Him you receive His Perfection (Romans 3:22, 5:19b, Philip.3:9) He gives His Righteousness Forgives your lifelessness (1 John 1:9) you'll live in priceless bliss GOD hates sin and Satan, (Psalm 45:7)
but He's patient (Ex. 34:6), He takes depraved men and saves them, when placing their faith in Amazing Grace (Rom. 3:24-25) -AMEN?!?
when Adam ate the apple, well face the facts, we fell (Romans repent or take your wrath in Hell!

Jesus Christ took the punishment that Adam, Eve and their race deserved for their own willful disobedience. It is therefore through Jesus and Jesus only that we’ve received a grace that is truly amazing.

To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance