What is total depravity?

When people think of the phrase total depravity, they think of someone who does not have a vestige of human decency in them – in other words, they are as rotten as they can be like some of the maniacs of history:  Charles Manson, Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler.

Total depravity is a misleading term. It comes from the first letter in the acronym TULIP which supposedly describes the five points of Calvinism – (T) (total depravity), (U) (unconditional election), (L) (limited atonement), (I) (irresistible grace), (P) (perseverance or better preservation of the saints).

A person that is totally depraved according to scholars is someone who’s entire being is marred by sin – their mind, will and emotions. All of these faculties are corrupt. All of us are depraved to one degree or another. That does not mean depraved people cannot do any human good. Depraved people are often great humanitarians, philanthropists, kind generous people. And because of that, many people believe they are good in their own eyes.

Man believes he deserves to be accepted by God based on his own meritorious works. In other words, man believes he is good enough to earn his way to heaven.

Is this true? Can man earn his way to heaven?

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. If man can earn God’s grace (please pay attention to the language that I am speaking), then what would be the criteria to merit His favor? Giving a certain amount of money to the church? How about feeding the hungry and homeless down at the mission; building schools, hospitals, and churches? All of these are worthwhile and benevolent causes aren’t they?

Yes they are, but we have a serious problem.

What one person will determine is good enough for them to get to heaven is not the same thing someone else would require of themselves to make it to heaven. For instance, someone else may simply say all they need to do to get to heaven is believe in Jesus (without ever repenting of sin) and be water baptized. Do you see the problem I am analyzing? If man determines his own path to God, then everyone will do what is right is his own eyes (Judges 21:25). And by the way, we have over seven billion people in the world today.

That is a lot of paths to God if man is controlling his own salvation.

The tragic result is there would be unaccountable ways to earn God’s favor because man becomes the determiner of his own salvation – that means the God and the Bible are thrown out.

We read in Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 that there is no one who does good, no not even one. What is the Psalmist saying? What he means is that we cannot do any good that pleases God on our own. Why? Because the “good” that man does comes from a wicked heart.

Proverbs 21:27 declare this, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. How much more when he brings it with evil intent?”

In laymen’s terms, God is disgusted with the “benevolent” acts of evil men because of the wicked pretension of their hearts. They are not doing these things for God’s glory, but rather to glorify themselves.

This is the disposition of the depraved soul and mind. It is a person who believes they are 1) good in their own eyes (typical of the non-believer and atheist). And 2) able to manufacture their own path to God by works of human achievement.

Remember Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God (your faith) not of works lest any man should boast.”

We cannot contribute anything to God’s wondrous plan of salvation. It did not come from man so man can never take credit for something he never had the intelligence or the power to create. Man would never create something he does not believe he needs.

But God being infinitely wise, saw our need for redemption in eternity past provided the way to salvation through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

Jesus speaking to the religious leaders said, “If you do not believe that I am He you will die in your sins (John 8:24)”.

Dying in your sins means one dies without their sins ever being forgiven. That person will suffer the wrath of God in eternal judgment rather than receive His loving grace in soul salvation. Why? Because he rejected the only way to eternal life – the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus also said this in John 3:18-19, “He who believes in Him (i.e. Jesus) is not condemned, but He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light (i.e. divine light) has come into the world, and men loved darkness (due to their depravity) rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

It boils down to this, since we know man cannot please God based on his own human efforts no matter how many wonderful things he does in his life because he is totally depraved or radically corrupt as some theologians describe man’s fallen condition, what is the solution to his problem?

Once again, we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides the simple and most profound answer to mankind’s biggest dilemma; the question was asked of the Lord, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work (singular) of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:28).