Gospel

Total Depravity Or Total Inability

by Brother Carlton 
01/02/17
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The doctrine or teaching of total depravity was once held by most Christians including the blessed Puritans whose knowledge of human nature was derived from an intense study of the Bible.  This teaching, however,  has come under attack in recent years as humanism has gained a stronghold on men's thinking. Consequently most sinners believe in the sufficiency man's reason or human will to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

By total depravity I do not mean that man is as bad as he could be.  Taken in his natural state man can be much worse and would be capable of any sin if God's restraining power through the Holy Spirit and through the preaching of the law didn't have it's effect. Some people think themselves pretty good compared to their friends or certain family members but they don't understand that apart from God's restraining influence any person is capable of being a Charlie Manson or Judas.

Another word for total depravity is total inability. 

 The sinner's mind, heart, will are all affected by sin and so darkened and dead that he can not bring himself to life. One must be born again to enter God's kingdom and this "is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God."  (John 1:13)

 The Bible teaches that the saving work of God's grace is beyond the power of man. This work comes by the faith of Jesus Christ which is given to elect sinners.  A fundamental scripture is found in John 6:29 where we read: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." 

Notice it is a work of God and not a work of man.

The whole or totality of the human race is depraved. Nobody is un-touched by this inability  Even a newborn infant has a nature that is not free from sin. The teaching of the Roman Catholic church concerning original sin is thus part of the apostolic faith once delivered to the saints.  Most modern anthropologists teach that there are many primitive people who still live in some kind of "innocence" but this is not what the Bible teaches. All are depraved.

Below is the Baptist Confession of 1689 which supported this idea of total depravity but was titled under the fall of man and sin.

Paragraph 1. Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof,1 yet he did not long abide in this honor;  Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given to them, in eating the forbidden fruit,2 which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

a. Genesis 6:5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Notice God doesn't say some of man's thoughts or imaginations were evil but "EVERY" imagination of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY.  Not evil once in a while but evil continually. 

 Genesis 8:21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Scripture once again here records God's judgment of man's spiritual condition and this time shows that man's depravity is not merely something that belongs to his maturity but characterizes his life from its beginning.

 Job 15:14-16. What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity as water.

Here the Word of God reminds us that man's wickedness is as natural to him and as much a part of his life as drinking water.

 Psalm 14:1-3. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Here depravity is described as something that characterizes the whole human race. In that respect also it is total.  Sinners do not like to see themselves the way God does but once the Spirit enlightens the mind with Bible understanding we begin to see our terrible and ugly condition because of sin both original and actual.

 Jeremiah 13:23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to evil.

It is as impossible for man, in his own strength, to do any good as it is for him to change the color of his skin. That is the truth of total depravity - not just that man does not do good but that he cannot. Thus, this passage also teaches us that man's depravity is natural to him.

 Jeremiah 17:9, 10. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I, the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

God is telling us here that this depravity is not just in our actions but in our heart that is it is in the center of our being and includes our thoughts and emotions.

 John 6:44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

This passage is concerned with faith, described here as "coming to Jesus." This coming to Jesus or believing, Jesus says, is impossible except by the power of God. No man has that power of himself. This passage is especially important because so many Christians have the mistaken idea that believing is the one good action that sinful man can do. The Word of God here says that it is not so.

 John 12:37-39. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

 

 

Carlton Pruitt ministers the gospel to the Los Angeles area. Formerly a Hollywood actor (SAG member) and junk removal expert he now spends most of his time studying the scriptures, writing articles, hymns and poems and doing street preaching. See all his videos on https://www.YouTube.com/user/LAStreetPreacher CONTACT at [email protected]