THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN

Let's get on with the doctrines of Calvinism this book is all about. I will leave the rest of the five points of Arminianism because I believe them to be in error,so why study something that is wrong.

The first point of the doctrines of grace is: "The Total Depravity of Man".

The word Depravity as such is never used in the Bible. But the meaning behind it sure is, and that is what we should learn about. That is the problem with many people - pastors included - is that they talk a lot about different words including this one but never really get a true understanding of what it means. This is shown clearly when some pastors will talk about the "sovereignty of God" in one breath then in the next the "free will" of man. As I said before - that just does not work.

By the expression "Totally Depraved" we mean that man is completely unable to cope with his sinful state in order to gain or even contribute to his own salvation.  Man can not change his status from a guilty sinner to being innocent of any sin.

J.C. Riley another man of God of years gone by said this:

Quote: "The theologians of the Synod of Dort were fully aware the harm the five points of Arminianismwould do, therefore to counter that damage they formulated the first point of the five points of Calvinism to be a direct reply to the error posed in the first point of Arminianism." Unquote

Therefore we get "Total Depravity." As pointed out last week the Arminian definition of "Free will" is exactly the opposite to Calvin's definition of "Total Depravity."

What all does depravity mean. Let's look at it from different angles. Let's first make it clear what depravity does not mean.

Total depravity does NOT mean man is as bad as he possibly can be all the time - or even some of the time. We know that this is just not so. No one knows yet just how low man can sink. But I don't think it will be long before we will find out because as we see this world as God withdraws His influence from among the inhabitants of this world (less people being saved) you will see the morality of this world go lower and lower. We can see this happening in our day. We know that in the worst of people there is some good according to human standards.

There are levels of good and bad in every person just as there are levels of faith and obedience in a saved person. All controlled by God the master potter who forms each one of us as He wills. In other words one person is not a stereotype of everyone else. We are all different with different levels of good/bad built into our character by God. It is still God who controls who is "good" in the eyes of the world, and those who are "evil" even in the eyes of the world.. The crooks, thieves, the embezzlers, the prostitutes, the pimps, the murderers, the dictators who kill people at will to ensure his own power, or convenience like in the case of abortion - all have some worldly good. This evil/good among mankind is still under God's restraining control just as much as He controls who the intelligent people are and who the mentally retarded are - or who the rich or who are poor - or who the healthy are and those who will never rise from their bed and enjoy the joys of life. God controls all of this dishing out what He wills to whom He will.

We know that even in the worst of the worst of people there is a show of some human good and kindness while among the best there is still traces of the worst - all according to God's plan. This we must remember is strictly when man measures himself with other man, they see some good in each other. But we must also remember God does not see us as we see ourselves. God sees us and measures our "goodness" according to whether we kept the law in its totality. Remember James 2:10. Nothing short of that is acceptable.

Total Depravity - according to those who coined the phrase - such as Luther, Calvin and Knox meant that man was as BAD OFF as he could be, that he was beyond self help - not - AS BAD AS he could be. Note the difference here. The latter is the Depth of sin. Total depravity is NOT about the DEPTH of sin we have fallen into, nor is it the NUMBER of sins we have committed - but it is about our TOTAL INABILITY to help ourselves out of our sinful state, our inability to change ourselves so we can do some work for our salvation or at least contribute to that end. Our inability to change our self from a sinner to a none sinner once we have committed that first sin. Depth of sin does not make any difference - as we have already studied - all we need is one sin charged against us and we will never get to heaven on our own. Neither does it make any difference if we commit one sin or a zillion sins, or a zillion times a zillion. All it takes is ONE sin to separate us from God forever. One sin against us is not a deep depthof sin. But the inability to change our "guilty of sin" - therefore lost status - back to an "innocent of sin" status still is there. So note that difference and keep it in mind always.

Paul put it this way: "we are all born into this world dead in trespasses and sin". Because of this sinful status we are loyal to Satan - the god of the dead (spiritually). Paul speaks quite vividly of our sinful state from birth in:

EPHESIANS 2:2-3 -- Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

"Total Depravity "is also called "Total Inability." In fact I don't know why the men who coined this first point didn't stick with this word inability because as you see it describes exactly what we are talking about. There is no guessing its meaning or mistaking it. Total inability to deliver oneself from bondage to sin is grounded in this fact - his human spirit (nature) is dead (spiritually) from birth. Dead meaning separated from God (life), We understand inability associated with death, apply that to our spiritual status..

"Total depravity" means that man in his natural state is incapable of doing anything or even desiring to do anything pleasing to God. Until one is "Born Again" of the Holy spirit and we have God's Holy Nature living in us we are all the slave of Satan who drives (or causes) man to fulfill the desires of the flesh which always is in direct conflict to what God wants. The best of the best of men are only evil in God's eyes, because they are oriented to do human good for their own glory - or recognition - or Satan's - but never for the glory of God.

GENESIS 6:5 -- very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually

Total Depravity declares that although man may think that his heart holds much "good", the Bible says

JEREMIAH 17:9 -- The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

From God's viewpoint men are under condemnation because they love that which is contrary to God - called sin. We are ALWAYS falling short of the glory of God.

To man's insistence that he still has a spark of good in his heart - that he can seek after God - the Bible answers in these blunt words that can't be refuted:

ROMANS 3:10-11 -- There is none righteous no not one! There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

These scriptures tell us very clearly how God from His exalted position of absolute righteousness and holiness sees us.

JOHN 3:19 -- This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.

Man is totally depraved in the sense that everything about his nature is in rebellion against God. Man in his own nature is loyal to the god of darkness - Satan - and loves that darkness rather than "The Light". (The Lord Jesus Christ) Just as the scripture we just read says.

Total depravity means that man will never of his own free will make a positive decision in Christ's favor, therefore his will is not free as the Arminians like to tell us.

Jesus himself says bluntly in:

JOHN 5:40 -- Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life

Jesus knew what He was talking about

Why won't man come to Jesus? Because the will of an unsaved man is too caught up in the limitations of his own sinful nature - thinking of himself - not God - and controlled by the god of this world - Satan. See what Paul says in:

2 TIMOTHY 2:26 -- And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Remember to satisfy God's demands of perfection we would have to go through life from the cradle to the grave without one single sin charged against us. Yes - we may have our few successes where we succeed in refraining from committing some sin. But even then the strength and initiative to do that came from God. But whether from our own strength or God's that certainly is not enough to satisfy God's demand of perfection.

Even once born again - a person with God's Holy spirit dwelling in them, one cannot live this sinless life. So where does that leave an unsaved person - one without the Holy Spirit in them? The answer - in utter hopelessness - in other words - in total inability to do anything for himself. We sin once and all hope for our own self help is gone - long before we are old enough to understand that even if we ever could without the Holy spirit within us.

And what about the years before we were born of this Holy spirit when we sinned and sinned and never a thought about it because the Holy spirit was not there to convict us of our wrong doing. Oh yes - they count too.

Think on this. We understand from all this that there is no way for our sinful nature to avoid sinning and putting ourselves in a "guilty of sin" status and its resulting condemnation and punishment.

Then we observed that once we had committed that first sin that puts us in a whole new status - a guilty sinner. Once we have achieved that status there is no way we can ever change that. We can cry for mercy, we can work our selves to death, do all sort of penitence to make up for our wrong doing - all to no avail. WE ARE CONDEMNED SINNERS AND NEED A SAVIOUR - a substitute to take our condemnation and punishment for us - or carry it ourselves through all eternity in a devil's hell.

But let's go on and learn more meanings of Total depravity.

Total depravity means that the natural man is completely incapable of discerning (or understanding truth.) In fact - as the Bible says, unregenerate  man  (man without God's Holy spirit in him) thinks of the things of God as being ridiculous - or foolish. See that in:

1 CORINTHIANS 2:14 -- The natural man (our soul - or human nature) receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We don't have to do much witnessing or be around the unsaved long before we can see how true that is.

"Total depravity" agrees with scripture when it says these things about man: man cannot see (understand, comprehend or know) the things which relate to the Kingdom of God without first being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. (Be born again)

A dead spirit perceives only the things of man and of Satan. That's why the Holy spirit inspired words of John says this:

JOHN 3:3 -- Unless a man is born agin, he cannot see (understand or comprehend) the kingdom of God.

Unborn children do not see light(or life around them). Dead men do not see the light (or life around them). Natural man - still with only his soul nature cannot see the light (Jesus and truth). Unregenerate men cannot comprehend the light (or the truth) - the things of God. WHY? Because "light" is spiritual intelligence - and they have no "light" in them.

They are the unborn dead (spiritually) who know only darkness untruth (false teachings, lies)

They are totally depraved - totally incapable of thinking, perceiving or doing anything pleasing to God until God sees fit to give them life and understanding and a desire to do God's bidding.

Faith follows the giving of life. The giving of life is at the will and initiative of God.

Notice the order of events as listed in:

EPHESIANS 2:4-5 -- God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ ( by grace we are saved)

Man is not saved by some mythical act of his own free will. He is saved by grace - and we understand grace to mean the influence of God's Holy Spirit at work in us causing the changes in us - This is the "life" that God instills in us which in turn instills faith in that ones heart as a free gift. Read :

EPHESIANS 2:8-9  -- For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. It is not of works, lest any man should boast.

Paraphrased - " For by grace are ye saved - or - for it is by the influence of God's Holy spirit at work in you you are brought to salvation - and that is accomplished by faith which itself is a gift of God. It is not of your own efforts - because if it was too many people would boast about all their good works."

Observe closely - salvation is a free gift of God. It is not the rewards of the work of man. God has decreed that works of an individual shall have no part in our salvation - but works which only God Himself shall provide.

It is God's work through the gift of life (being born again of a new nature)

God regenerated us by inserting His Spirit/nature in us while we were still dead in sin and trespasses

Faith is also a gift of God. We are saved by means of faith - which is not of ourselves but the faith of Christ at work in us.

Total depravity insists man does not have a free will in the sense that he is free to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The first point of Calvinism in answer to its counterpart - The first point of Arminianism - teaches that the natural man is a slave of sin, that he loves that state and has no desire to change or leave it, that he is spiritually dead - separated from God irreparably on our part. That he can "hear" only the voice of sin.

UNLESS ------

God intervenes and gives him ears to hear and eyes to see - simply because it pleases Him to do so.

JOHN 8:43-44  -- Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word? Ye are of your father the devil

Total depravity means that unregenerate man is so hopelessly enmeshed in sin - bound by Satan with the cords of spiritual death - he is wholly disinterested in the things of God.

When the time comes that these bonds are broken and we are born again with the Spirit of God - it is the work of God, who alone gives faith which initiates the desires to do, then does those things pleasing to God. Paul tell us in :

PHILIPPIANS 2:13 -- It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure

God gives you the will to do and that drives you to do what He wants. He does not leave you a choice.

Remember the story of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. Jesus spoke the word for Lazarus to come forth. And he did. But he could not have heard the voice of Jesus, nor obeyed the command to come forth if Jesus had not at the same time given him the physical life to enable him to hear and obey Him. He was dead and needed life, and Jesus gave it to him.

So all who are spiritually dead in sin and trespasses cannot come forth unless God gives them the life to do so first.

Since dead men cannot will to receive life, but can be raised to life by the power of God at his will - by the same token natural (unregenerate) man cannot by the act of his mythical "free will" - will to have eternal life.

JOHN 10:26-28 -- But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Note what Jesus said - you must be my sheep/elect first - in order to be able to hear and believe. The Arminian reverses that and reads it as - "you are not my sheep because you do not believe" Watch for those reversals because they can deceive you into believing error.

"Total depravity" declares that lost man's only hope is an election based on the purpose of God or plan of God. Only those who are "of God" hear the voice of God calling them forth (by name). Hear what Jesus said in:

JOHN 8:47 -- He that is of God (born of God's Holy nature) hears God's words. Ye therefore, hear not, because ye are not (born of) of God's (Holy nature)

This concludes the study of the first point of the doctrines of grace. Just a note though before leaving it. I personally make short work of the definition of "The total depravity of man" in this manner. I define "total depravity" in this way. Total depravity means "I can't - you can't - nobody can." Of course this refers to our inability to live a life pleasing to God and satisfy His conditions for entrance to heaven - so we must be born of this New Nature God inserts into us which in turn causes us to turn to the one who already has done this and will impute HIS righteousness to us when this work of  the Holy Spirit in us inserts this trust in Him - The Lord Jesus Christ.