DEPRAVITY-HUMAN
Objection is
sometimes made to the doctrine of total depravity. If men turn away from God in
anger, I can understand it. If men turn
aside from God in justice, I can understand it. But when they so hate God that
they will not even have his salvation, when they refuse pardon through the
precious blood of Christ, when they will sooner be damned than reconciled to
God, this shows that their heart is desperately wicked. The cross rejected is
the clearest proof of the heart depraved.
C.H. Spurgeon
We declare,
upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so desperately set on
mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so
disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful,
supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be
constrained towards Christ.
Sermon on John 6:44.
I might preach to you forever. I might borrow the
eloquence of Demosthenes or of Cicero, but you will not come unto Christ. I
might beg of you on my knees, with tears in my eyes, and show you the horrors
of hell and the joys of heaven, the sufficiency of Christ, and your own lost
condition, but you would none of you come unto Christ of yourselves unless the
Spirit that rested on Christ should draw you. It is true of all men in their
natural condition that they will not come unto Christ.
C.H. Spurgeon
Free
Will a Slave, Sword and Trowel.
I
will defy any man who has held a deep experience of his own odious depravity to
believe any other doctrines but those which are commonly called Calvinism.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 49.257.
As the salt
flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if
you cannot detect it, you are deceived.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 21.365.
The treatment
of our Lord Jesus Christ by men is the clearest proof of total depravity. Those
must be stony hearts indeed which can laugh at a dying Savior and mock even his
faith in God!
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 34.337.
If I do not
believe in my heart (my awful predicament before Christ) – believe them so that
they are real in my feelings – then the blessed love of God in Christ will
scarcely shine at all. The sweetness of the air of redemption will be hardly
detectable. The infinite marvel of my new life will be commonplace. The wonder
that to me, a child of hell, all things are given for an inheritance will not
strike me speechless with trembling humility and lowly gratitude. The whole
affair of salvation will seem ho-hum, and my entrance into paradise will seem as
a matter of course. When the heart no longer feels the truth of hell, the
gospel passes from good news to simply news. The intensity of joy is blunted
and the heart-spring of love is dried up.
John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 115.
The
will of natural man is the worst part about him. The worst thing he has, the
greatest enemy he has, is his own heart and will. It is the corrupt will of a
man that keeps him under the power of his sins, and keeps him off the power of
an ordinance that would procure his everlasting good. I speak it the rather to
dash that dream of wicked men, when they do ill, and speak ill, yet (say they),
“my heart is good.” No, truly, if thy life be naught, thy heart is worse. It is
the worst thing thou hast about thee… The deceitfulness of the heart is above
all; the masterfulness of the heart is beyond all that we can conceive. A man
may discern a man’s life, “but the heart is deceitful above all things and
beyond cure.” The will of man is uncontrollable, it will stand out against all
reasons and arguments, and nothing can move the will except God work upon it.
Thomas Hooker
Application of Redemption.
There are
very few errors and false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up
to unsound views about the corruption of human nature. Wrong views of the
disease will always bring with them wrong views of the remedy. Wrong views of the corruption of human nature
will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that
corruption.
J.C. Ryle
Quoted in: TULIP, The Five Points of
Calvinism in the Light of Scripture by Duane Edward Spencer, Baker, 1979, p.
23.
Let us
observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized as the
corruption of human nature. Men imagine that if they saw a perfect person, they
would love and admire him. They flatter themselves that it is the inconsistency
of professing Christians which they dislike, and not their religion. They
forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of
God, He was hated and put to death. That single fact goes far to prove the
truth of [Jonathan] Edwards’ remark – “unconverted men would kill God, if they
could get at Him.”
J.C.
Ryle
Matthew Commentary, ch.
27.
Christianity
insists that everyone is a sinner through and through. Our minds,
hearts, wills, and emotions are in rebellion against God. When it comes
right down to it, the problem is not that there is only one way to God (through
Christ). The real problem is that human beings will not follow God at all.
Philip Graham Ryken
Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 41.
The reason people
do not come to Christ is not because they lack a will, or a mind, or feelings,
or even lack opportunity and occasion. Their not
coming to Christ is due to their moral and spiritual refusal to do so, a
refusal in which they willingly and freely delight. If they cannot come
it is not because God will not let them. It is because it is their nature not
to want to come. In sum, their not coming is not
because of a physical defect but because of a moral refusal.
Sam Storms
A Defense of the Perseverance of the Saints – Part I,
November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
The question, then, is this: Does the Bible teach that
people have the power and initiative within their own will to believe the
gospel? The question is not, “Are people morally
responsible for their actions?” The Bible declares that we are. We are
responsible to God for every act of will and work that we perform. Neither is
the question, “Do people have the opportunity to believe?” The Bible
declares that we do. God has made Himself known to all people, either in
nature, conscience, or the gospel, so that all are without excuse (Rom.
1:18-23; 2:14-16; Ac. 14:16-17). The question, rather, is this: Do people have
a free and unfettered will by which they are able to believe? The Bible
declares that they do not. The teaching of Scripture is that all people are born
into this life corrupt in nature and therefore ill-disposed to the gospel and
to the truth. This is the doctrine of total depravity.
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
According to this doctrine [of total depravity], man in
his present condition since the fall is so polluted with a principle of evil
that every aspect of his being and personality is affected by it. The term depravity
refers to the moral disposition or inclination of fallen man’s nature toward
evil and against good. This principle of sin and moral pollution is such that
man is by nature opposed to what is true and righteous. The inclination of his
heart, the delight of his soul, the orientation of his will is toward
wickedness. Nothing compels him to sin. He sins because he loves it. He revels
in it. He has no taste for God, but relishes evil and pursues it with voluntary
zeal.
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
When I speak of total depravity I do not mean that all
men are as depraved as they possibly can be, nor that
the depravity of their heart will always manifest itself equally in all respects
at all times. Total depravity simply means that the whole of the individual,
his heart, soul, spirit, and will, is affected by and enslaved to sin, thereby
rendering him odious in the sight of God. What this means in terms of the
gospel of Jesus Christ is that if left to himself a person will invariably,
inevitably, and without pause reject the truth. Total
depravity means that no matter how “civil” or “compassionate” or “industrious”
or “law-abiding” he might otherwise be in his dealings with other people, he is
utterly and willfully indisposed to all that Christ is and says. Merely
preaching to that person will profit nothing.
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
So when we
call pain a problem, we claim we do not deserve it. We are even prepared to
scuttle God to maintain our own innocence. We will say that God is not able to
do what He would like, or He would never permit persons such as ourselves to
suffer. That puffs up our egos and soothes our griefs at the same time. “How
could God do this to me?” is at once an admission of pain and a
soporific for it. It reduces our personal grief by eradicating the deity.
Drastic medicine, indeed, that only a human ego, run wild, could possibly
imagine.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 4.
What irony
that sinners consider the greatest problem they face in this world to be the
problem of pain. The ultimate insult against God is that man thinks he has a
problem of pain. Man, who deserves to be plunged into hell at this moment, and
is indescribably fortunate that he is breathing normally, complains about
unhappiness. Instead of falling on his knees in the profoundest possible
gratitude that God holds back His wrath and infinite fury, the sinner shakes
his fist in heaven’s face and complains against what he calls “pain.” When he
receives his due, he will look back on his present condition as paradisiacal.
What he now calls misery, he will then consider exquisite pleasure. The most
severe torment anyone has ever known in this life will seem like heaven in
comparison with one moment of the full fury of the divine Being.
John Gerstner
The Problem of Pleasure, Soli Deo Gloria,
2002, p. 15.
It is
scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the
only attraction is God.
A.W. Tozer
Sin is not
merely wrong acts and thoughts, but sinfulness as well, an inherent inner
disposition inclining us to wrong acts and thoughts. We are not simply sinners
because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.
Millard Erickson
Christian Theology, Baker, 1998, p. 596.
The inability
to love, obey, or please God is the very essence of human depravity. And the
only solution to that predicament is the re-creative work of God (2 Cor. 5:17).
That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again" (John
3:7). "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"
(v. 3). This is what salvation is all about: God miraculously changes the
nature of those whom He redeems, so that they are drawn to the very same
righteousness they formerly hated. This was the central promise of the New
Covenant.
John MacArthur
The Battle for the Beginning, 2001, p. 197.
The fall left
the human will intact insofar as we still have the faculty of choosing. Our
minds have been darkened by sin and our desires bound by the wicked impulses.
But we can still think, choose and act. Yet something terrible has happened to
us. We have lost all desire for God. The thoughts and desires of our heart are
only evil continuously. The freedom of our will is a curse. Because we can
still choose according to our desires, we choose to sin and thus we become
accountable to the judgment of God.
R.C. Sproul
By his
apostasy man lost his holiness, is wholly corrupt and under the dominion of
dispositions and lusts which are directly contrary to God. The corruption of
man’s being is so great and entire that he will never truly repent unless and
until he is supernaturally renewed by the Holy Spirit.
I.C. Herendeen
Accepting Christ.
Sin cannot
dethrone God. That is what sin aims to do, but it misses its mark. Sin brings
guilt to a man, but it does not bring him one ounce of sovereignty. God rules
even when men imagine they are defying Him.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
47.
The average
person in the world today, without faith and without God and without hope, is
engaged in a desperate personal search throughout his lifetime. He does not
really know where he has been. He does
not really know what he is doing here and now. He does not know where he is
going. The sad commentary is that he is doing it all on borrowed time and
borrowed money and borrowed strength; and he already knows that in the end he
will surely die! Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become
less like God than any other creature. Created to reflect the glory of God, he
has retreated sullenly into his cave; reflecting only his own sinfulness.
Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that man, made with
a soul to worship and praise and sing to God's glory, now sulks silently in his
cave.
A.W. Tozer
Form the
feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is more –
depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound
virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the
Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the
good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to Him before we begin to
become displeased with ourselves… Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not
only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find
Him.
John Calvin
Institutes, The
Knowledge of God.
Very few
people in the world would care to listen to the real defense of their own
characters. The real defense, the defense which belongs to the Day of Judgment,
would make such damaging admissions, would clear away so many artificial
virtues, would tell such tragedies of weakness and failure, that a man would
sooner be misunderstood and censured by the world than exposed to that awful
and merciless eulogy.
G.K. Chesterton
To cast God
away for the temporary trinkets of this life, as if He were a secondhand piece
of jewelry, is deeply dishonoring to the sovereign character of the Creator,
who Himself alone can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts (Psm. 16). At
the center of our sin is our nonchalant neglect of God, as if we were the
creators and rulers of our own lives, doing with them as we please. In short,
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Our failure
to honor God is an intolerable situation for the Creator and Savior of mankind,
who will not share the rightful glory of His sovereignty with anyone or
anything else (Ex. 9:16).
Scott Hafemann
This We Believe, John Armstrong and John
Woodbridge, ed. Zondervan, 2000, p. 81-82.
The most
damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man was the
idea that somehow he could make himself good enough to deserve to live with an
all-holy God.
Martin Luther
Do you talk
to others about our depraved nature and our desperate need for salvation in
Jesus Christ? Do you say that you are no better than they are by nature; that
we are all, apart from grace, sinners with a terrible record, which is a legal
problem, as well as a bad heart, which is a moral problem? Do you talk to them
about the dreadful character of sin; that sin is something that stems back to
our tragic fall in Adam and affects every part of us, so dominating our mind,
heart, will, and conscience that we are slaves to it? Do you describe sin as
moral rebellion against God? Do you say that the wages of sin is death, now and
for all eternity?
Joel R. Beeke
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 126.
There is in man a mint always at work: his mind coining evil
thoughts, his heart, evil desires and carnal emotion; and his memory is the
closet and storehouse wherein they are kept.
Thomas Manton
Even a child
in the womb and coming from the womb is wayward and sinful. We often are taught
that man becomes a sinner when he sins. The Bible teaches that man sins because
he is a sinner. Your children are never morally neutral, not even from the
womb.
Tedd Tripp
Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Shepherd
Press, 1995, p. 37. Used by Permission.
Who knows the
extent to which we would give in to sin, were we to be given a guarantee of
immunity from discovery and exposure?
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 90,
by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
God finds
nothing in man to turn His heart, but enough to turn his stomach.
Joseph Allein
A Sure Guide to Heaven.
Truly it is
evil to be full of faults, but it is a still greater evil to be full of them,
and to be unwilling to recognize them.
Blaise Pascal
Because of
the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly
believe the Gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his
heart is sinful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage
to his evil nature, therefore he will not – indeed he cannot – choose good over evil in the spiritual realm.
H. Wayne House
Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine,
Zondervan, 1992, p. 99.
The roots of
this depravity are quite evident in very young children. Babies may not show
all the ugly outworkings of sin, but their
selfishness is quite apparent. Any time of the day or night they will howl when
their little egos are annoyed. Brothers and sisters have noticed how small
children are self-seeking. When treats are being given, a “me first” attitude
prevails. Small children want the chief attention. It is all self-serving. This
all-demanding self-will matures into that of a grasping adult. Though clever
devices will make the selfishness polite and genteel, all of life outside of
Christ is for one thing – self!... Self is the idol to
which all men naturally bow.
Walter J. Chantry
The Shadow of the Cross – Studies in
Self-Denial, 1981, p. 12, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Men are not
sinners because they choose to sin; they choose to sin because they are
sinners.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
Any gospel
preaching that relies upon an act of the human will for the conversion of
sinners has missed the mark. Any sinner who supposes that his will has the
strength to do any good accompanying salvation is greatly deluded and far from
the kingdom. We are cast back upon the regenerating work of the Spirit of the
living God to make the tree good. Unless God does something in the sinner,
unless God creates a clean heart and renews a right spirit within man, there is
no hope of a saving change.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
Since all
people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal
death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been His will to leave
the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on
account of their sin.
The Canons of Dort
The First Main Point of Doctrine: Divine
Election and Reprobation. Article 1-
God’s Right to Condemn all People.
All people
are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good,
inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of
the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to
God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves
to such reform.
The Canons of Dort
The Third and Forth Main Points of Doctrine:
Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and the Way It Occurs. Article 3- Total
Inability.
This, then,
is the sense in which people are totally depraved: we have all treated God in
the most insulting way by registering again and again a vote of no confidence
in His promises.
Daniel Fuller
The Unity of the Bible, Zondervan, 1994, p.
193.
What is meant
by the concept of total depravity is not that man is wicked as he could
possibly be. Bad as we are, we can still conceive of ourselves doing worse
things than we do. Rather, it means that sin has such a hold upon us in our
natural state, that we never have a positive desire for Christ.
R.C. Sproul
The Purpose of God, An
Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 48.
All children,
like their parents before them, are rooted in fallen Adam (see Rom. 5:12). The
perfect, infallible portrait of every soul who has ever lived was painted by
Paul in Romans 3:10-11: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no
one seeks for God.” Sin is so rooted in us that every part of the human
personality is tainted. This, of course, doesn’t mean that all people are as
bad as they can be or that they don’t do good things (see Luke 11:13). But it
does mean that apart from God’s grace and the God-ordained graces of human
discipline, children will naturally gravitate to sin – quite apart from the
tricks of the devil or their “corrupt” little friends.
Kent and Barbara Hughes
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway
Books, 2004, p. 99.
The biblical
doctrine of depravity means that every part of the human person is tainted by
sin. It does not mean that all humans are equally depraved; most do not go near
the depths they could go. Nor does it mean that humans are not capable of any
good (cf. Luke 11:13). Nor does it mean that there is no dignity in man, for
there certainly is, as he is the imperfect bearer of the divine image (Genesis
1:27).
Kent Hughes
Sought
by Grace, Moody, 2002, p. 61.
“Sinner” is a
present-tense description of everyone, including those who have put their faith
in Christ. Of course, those who have called Jesus “Lord” are justified, meaning
that they are no longer guilty. Also, they have been given the Spirit, which
makes them slaves to Christ rather than to sin. But we all are sinners.
Perfection awaits eternity.
Edward T. Welch
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R
Publishing, 1997, p. 150. Used by Permission.