Chapter 24
Total Depravity
"To
the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 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." -- Psalms 14:1-3
“The
fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God.” You will notice that the words “there
is” are italicized in the King James translation. That indicates that the
words were added by the translators to make the passage read more smoothly.
However, in this case, the added words are a detriment rather than a help. The
text should not read, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” but simply, “The fool hath said in his heart, No,
God,” or “The fool hath said in his heart, No, to God.”
If
David had said, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” that would be a direct contradiction of Paul’s
teaching in Romans 1 and 2. There the Apostle tells us plainly that there is no
such thing as an atheist. There are many fools who would like to be atheists,
and try to be. But all who claim to be atheists are liars. The Apostle Paul,
writing by Divine inspiration, tells us that all men are born with a God
consciousness from which they can never escape.
So
when David writes, “The fool hath said in his heart, No, God,” or “No, to God,”
he is not suggesting that some men really are atheists. Not at all. David is
telling us that all men are foolish rebels by nature, constantly shaking their
fists in God’s face and saying, “No, God!” Read Psalm 14:1-3 again. You will
see that what I have said about David’s opening statement in the Psalm fits the
context in which it is found. -- “The
fool hath said in his heart, 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.”
In
these three verses, the Holy Spirit describes the character and condition of
all human beings by nature since the fall of Adam. Here are seven facts about
the entire human race.
1.
All human beings are, by nature, rebellious fools, fools for their
rebellion, for man’s rebellion is against God Almighty!
2.
The whole human race is corrupt, abominable, and filthy before God.
3.
We all became corrupt, abominable, and filthy at one time by Adam’s one
act of rebellion and treason against God.
4.
We all, at one time, turned away from God. -- In the fall of our father
Adam we willfully, deliberately turned away from our God.
5.
Because of Adam’s sin and our sin in him, the entire human race has
become totally ignorant of all things spiritual. -- “There is none that understandeth!”
6.
No one left to himself will ever truly seek the Lord. -- “There is none that seeketh after God.”
7.
And no one has the ability to do anything that is good and acceptable
before the holy Lord God. -- “There is
none that doeth good, no, not one.”
A Bible Doctrine
Thus
the Spirit of God tells us that man is, by nature, a totally depraved,
helpless, perishing creature. Holy Scripture teaches the doctrine of man’s
total depravity, from beginning to end, and teaches it so plainly that error
concerning this doctrine is utterly inexcusable. We take our doctrine directly
from the Word of God. I remind you again that the basis of our faith is the
Word of God alone. We do not build our doctrine upon human opinion, reason, and
logic, church tradition, historic creeds, confessions, and catechisms, or
denominational history and tradition, but upon “Thus saith the Lord.”
All that we believe we believe because it is plainly stated in the Word of God.
Does the Bible clearly and plainly teach that all the human race is totally
depraved? I appeal to no authority
except the Word of God. I want you to see and hear what God says in his Holy
Word about this subject.
·
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."
·
Job 15:16 - "How much more
abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity
like water?"
·
Psalms 51:5 - "Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me."
·
Psalms 58:3 - "The wicked
are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies."
·
Isaiah 1:4-6 - "Ah sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are
corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of
Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any
more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in
it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores:
they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment."
·
Isaiah 53:6 - "All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
·
Jeremiah 13:23 - "Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good,
that are accustomed to do evil."
·
Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
·
Matthew 15:19-20 - "For out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a
man."
·
Romans 3:9-12 - "What then?
are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews
and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they
are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one."
·
Romans 3:23 - "For all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
·
Romans 5:12 - "Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned:"
·
1 Corinthians 2:14 - "But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned."
·
Ephesians 2:1-3 - "And you
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: 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."
·
John 3:19 - "And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil."
These
fifteen passages of Holy Scripture are but a very few of the many, many
statements in God’s Word about the total depravity of the entire human race.
They stand without comment, declaring that all men are by nature totally
depraved. To deny what these texts declare is to deny the Word of God. To argue
against the doctrine of Total Depravity is to be found fighting against God
himself.
This is the doctrine of Holy
Scripture: -- All human beings are, since the fall of Adam, born in a state of
total depravity, lost, corrupt at heart, condemned under the curse of God’s
holy law, and utterly incapable of removing that curse or changing their
condition. In fact, as we shall see, man’s depravity is so thorough and
complete that he cannot even make any contribution toward removing the curse of
the law, or changing his condition. Fallen man cannot even make a move toward
God, much less bring himself back to God!
I want to be crystal clear
in stating the doctrine of man’s total depravity. Unless we have a clear
understanding of man’s utter depravity, we cannot have a clear understanding
about any other gospel truth.
A Fallen Creature
Man, by nature, is a fallen
creature (Eccles. 7:29). When the Lord God created our
father Adam, things were far, far different from the way they are now. God
created Adam in perfect righteousness. He had no original sin. He had no
inclination or bias toward sin. God placed Adam in a perfectly sinless
environment in the garden.
By God’s decree, Adam was
the federal head and representative of the entire human race. God deals with
all men in only two men: the first Adam and the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:22,
45-49). When the Lord put Adam in the Garden, whatever Adam did would be imputed
to all who are in him by nature. If Adam obeyed God, his righteous obedience
would be confirmed and imputed to all his children. If Adam disobeyed God and
broke the covenant, his sin would be imputed to all his children.
Our father, Adam, sinned
against God, broke his covenant, and plunged himself and the entire human race
into spiritual death, sin, and everlasting condemnation (Gen. 2:15-17; Rom.
5:12-19). That is what we have seen in the last three studies. Man by nature is
a fallen creature. – “Wherefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned.”
Biased Toward Evil
The Word of God plainly
teaches us that all men, since the fall of Adam, are born with a decided bias
toward evil, with an utter hatred of God (Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 8:7). Sin is not a
social disease. It is not something a man has to learn, or be taught. It is not
something we catch from others. Sin is the inbred family disease of our race.
It is a matter of the heart. Because our hearts are evil, we do evil. The evil
tendencies of our hearts are guarded, restrained, and kept in check by many
things. But the seeds of evil are in our hearts by nature. This is what our
Lord tells us. All men, regardless of age, actions, or social standing, are
vile, loathsome, and corrupt at heart. This must be evidently true to any
reasonable man. History tells us that man is a depraved creature.
Who can read what men have
done to men throughout history and even think about questioning the fact of
man’s depravity? Our daily newspapers tells you that man is depraved. Every
newspaper in the world is a daily declaration of the fact that man is evil at
heart. We see clear evidence of human depravity in our most darling children.
What mother ever had to teach her child to lie, cheat, be selfish, or
disobedient? Every man’s conscience testifies of his depravity. Where is the
man, or woman, who would want the world to know what he thinks? Every true
believer has a constant painful reminder of human depravity in his own heart.
Believers are a people who readily and painfully confess, “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing!” Man
is not good, but evil at heart. This world is what it is because man is what he
is, sinful, depraved, and vile.
Utterly Helpless
We are as utterly helpless
as we are depraved. No one has the ability to save himself by his own works
(Gal. 2:16). Loraine Boettner wrote: “This doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men
are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man
is as bad as he could be, nor that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue, nor
that human nature is evil in itself…What it does mean is that since the fall,
man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and
that he is wholly unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation.”
It is impossible for anyone
to be saved by works, because God demands perfection, and we cannot give it.
God demands atonement, satisfaction for sin, but we cannot give it. We cannot
change the principles of our heart. The very best that we do is marred by sin.
Even in performing our best works, we are motivated and guided by the
principles of a sinful heart, so that the very plowing of the wicked is an
abomination to God, and our very righteousnesses are
filthy rags in his sight. Even our holy things are full of evil (Pro. 21:4;
Isa. 64:6; Ex. 28:38).
Incapable of Faith
According to the plain
statements of Holy Scripture, no one has the will or the ability to come to
Christ by faith (John 5:40; 6:44). This is the real issue at hand. Modern day
religion, for the most part, professes to believe in original sin and total
depravity. Very few people openly teach that man can save himself by his own
works. Yet, most people do teach that man by nature does have the ability to
come to Christ and be saved, that he has the ability in himself, by his own
free-will, to believe on Christ.
By such teachings, they make
salvation to rest ultimately upon man’s free-will. According to the commonly
received heresy, man’s free-will makes the blood of Christ effectual, man’s
free will controls the operations of God, and man’s free-will determines who
shall populate heaven.
The Scriptures declare that
man is not only morally depraved and sinful, but that he is also spiritually
impotent, unwilling and incapable of coming to Christ by faith. The Lord Jesus
Christ says, “Ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life” (John 5:40). “No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John
6:44). He also declares that if the Father draws a man, that man will come to
him; and he says, “I will raise him up at
the last day.”
In the Scriptures the idea
of “Coming to Christ,” simply means believing on him. C. H. Spurgeon said, “It
is used to express those acts of the soul wherein, leaving at once our
self-righteousness and our sins, we fly unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive
his righteousness to be our covering and his blood to be our atonement.”
Today we are told that
coming to Christ is the easiest thing in all the world. But here our Lord
himself tells us that - It is utterly and entirely impossible for any man to
come to Christ, unless the Father draws him by effectual and irresistible
grace. Man by nature is spiritually impotent, and helpless, utterly without
strength. Indeed, man is altogether dead spiritually. Man’s inability does not
lie in any physical defect. Man’s inability is not a lack of mental power. I am
just as capable of believing on Christ mentally as I am of believing in Abraham
Lincoln. The mind is just as capable of seeing the moral guilt of sin as it is
of seeing the moral guilt of murder. Man’s inability lies deep within his
nature. A wolf cannot be domesticated and tamed into a trusted pet. A loving
mother cannot stab her nursing baby to death. She has no ability to do so,
because it is contrary to her nature. And no man can ever come to Christ of his
own accord, because of the obstinancy of the human
will.
The Arminian, the will
worshipper, cries, “Any man can be saved who will.” That is certainly true. But
that is not the issue. The issue is this, -- Are men ever found naturally
willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? The Son of God
answers that question with an emphatic, “No!” The human will is so desperately
set on evil, so thoroughly depraved, so inclined toward evil, and so
disinclined toward good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible
grace and call of God the Holy Spirit, no human being will ever come to Christ
by faith.
No man will ever, of his own
accord, come to Christ, because his understanding is darkened (John 3:3). He
cannot see the exceeding evil of his own heart. He cannot see the strict
justice of God’s law. He cannot see the glory of electing grace. He cannot see
the glory of our Lord’s incarnation. He cannot see the glory of Christ’s
obedience unto righteousness. He cannot see the glory of Christ’s substitutionary redemption. He cannot see the glory of
Christ’s intercession.
No man will ever, of his own
accord, come to Christ, because his affections are corrupt. We love what we
ought to hate. And we hate what we ought to love. “Men love darkness rather than light.”
No man will ever come to
Christ of his own voluntary accord, without the power of God, because his
conscience is depraved. Conscience may tell me that such and such a thing is
wrong. But how wrong it is conscience does not know. The unenlightened conscience
of man will never tell him that he deserves eternal damnation, that he must
abhor himself, that he must have a perfect righteousness, or that he must have a perfect atonement.
It is true that men will
not, and it is true that man cannot, by their own power, come to Christ - “No man can come.” Man by nature is
dead, spiritually dead. Certainly, if words mean anything, that means that man
is without any spiritual power or ability whatsoever. If it is true that the
Holy Spirit only gives me a will to come to Christ, and that the power to come
is mine, then certainly I would have a right to share in the glory of my
salvation.
Because man is guilty of
sin, and because he sinfully refuses to believe on Christ, he remains under the
wrath of God, and eternal damnation will be his just reward. But I cannot
conclude this study with such a sad and gloomy picture. It is a terribly black
scene that I have set before you. Man by nature is fallen. Our hearts are evil.
Our works are evil. We are spiritually impotent. And we are justly condemned.
But there is a bright ray of hope for such creatures as we are.
One Hope
The only hope for fallen,
guilty, depraved, helpless, and vile sinners, such as we are, is the free and
sovereign grace of God in Christ. If salvation depends in any measure upon you
or me, all hope is gone. But since it is entirely the work of God’s free and
sovereign grace in Christ, there is hope even for fallen, helpless sinners. God
says, “I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy” (Rom. 9:15-16).
This is what God does for
sinners by his sovereign, eternal grace. He chose to save a great multitude
from Adam’s fallen race. He determined to save his elect people by the
sacrifice of his Son. He sent his Son into the world to accomplish eternal
redemption for us. He sends his Spirit to regenerate his chosen people and
effectually call them to Christ in faith. He gives life to the dead. He
convicts (convinces) chosen, redeemed sinners of sin pardoned, righteousness
brought in, and judgment finished by the obedience and blood of Christ. He
reveals Christ. He causes the awakened sinner, by the power of his irresistible
grace, to come to Christ, saying,…
Could my tears forever flow,
Could my zeal no languor
know,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and thou
alone.
No man has any claim upon
the grace of God. Any sinner who will come to Christ may freely come. All who
come to Christ in true faith acknowledge most gladly that they were constrained
to come. We who have been constrained by almighty, irresistible grace into the
arms of Christ, do most gladly acknowledge and praise him for his matchless,
free grace. The whole work of salvation, from start to finish, is due entirely
to the grace of God.
All that I was, my sin, my
guilt,
My death was all my own:
All that I am, I owe to
Thee,
My gracious God, alone.
The evil of my former state
Was mine, and only mine:
The good in which I now
rejoice
Is Thine, and only Thine.
The darkness of my former state,
The bondage - All was mine:
The light of life in which I
walk,
The liberty is Thine.
The grace that made me feel
my sin
It taught me to believe:
Then, in believing, peace I
found,
And now I live, I live!
All that I am, even here on
earth,
All that I hope to be,
When Jesus comes, and glory
dawns,
I owe it, Lord, to Thee!
In the light of these
things, every believer rejoices to declare, “By
the grace of God I am what I am…Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy
mercy, and for thy truth's sake.” Amen.