What is Total Depravity?

           When discussing the reality of sin, the term “total depravity” will inevitably come up. What does it mean that mankind is totally depraved? What does that mean in correlation to salvation? How depraved is mankind? Can man do any good outside the work of the Spirit? This week, we will explore these questions and come to a concise conclusion.

            First, before we discuss what total depravity is, we ought to say what it is not, since there are many misconceptions. Total depravity does not mean that the unsaved have no disposition to do right. “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15). Second, the unsaved never do any good horizontally considered. In other words, unsaved people never do any good towards others. Third, total depravity does not mean that the unsaved commit every sin that there is. Fourth, it is not that the unsaved are as bad as they could be. “while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13). There is always the potential for an unsaved person to be worse than they are. They have the capacity to sin more and do worse things.

            So, what does total depravity mean? First, it means that sin has penetrated and affected the whole of man’s being. “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.” (Ephesians 4:17-19). Sin has penetrated the mind, heart, and will. There is nothing that sin has not affected.

            Second, man is capable of committing the worst sins (Romans 3:10-18). We all, outside of the Holy Spirit, are capable of sinning in the worst way. The worst sin that one could imagine is not off the table for us to commit.

            Third, when the unsaved do right, it is for a selfish purpose and not for God’s glory. There are many decent people in the world who are not saved. However, when they do things that are morally right and avoid things that are wrong, they don’t do them for the right reason. They do it for their self-gain. This then begs the question, are works really good if they do not have the proper motive?

            Fourth, the unsaved are completely without the love for God that God demands. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-10). Without the work of the Spirit in us, we do not love God. Our disposition is against God, so naturally we want to hate him. It is only through the working of the Spirit that we are able to love him.

            Finally, the unsaved have no possible means of salvation or recovery within themselves. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, … For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:1, 8). We cannot save ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we will always fall short of God’s standard. We need God to come down to us because we cannot go up to him.

            Because of Adam’s sin in the garden, we are all under the curse of sin from the moment of conception. We are all sinners. Because we are all depraved, we are not able to do any good in the eyes of God before we are saved. This total depravity causes us to be unable to come to God. It is only by grace that we are able to come to him. This depravity means we are totally unable. Left on our own, we would reject God and be rejected by God. We need God’s irresistible grace extended towards us before we can do any good in the eyes of God.