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- Total Depravity (Radical Corruption)
- Total depravity describes man’s natural moral condition apart from any grace God exerts to restrain or transform mankind.
- The condition of total depravity must be viewed by comparing ourselves to God’s righteousness and not the righteousness of other men.
- Total depravity is the result of the Fall in the garden of Eden. The results of the Fall penetrated to the core of man – to his heart.
- Mankind has lost the ability to will any spiritual good, and has lost the natural ability to come to Christ due to Adam’s decision and the effects of original sin.
- Mankind is spiritually dead, blind and deaf due to Adam’s sin.
- Therefore, what is required for man to be conformed to the image of Christ is not simply some small adjustment or behavior modification, but is nothing less than renovation from the inside – regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The only way to escape this radical corruption is for the Holy Spirit to change the core of man.
- The opposite view is that mankind is born with a corrupt nature, but there remains a remnant of original righteousness, a power in man’s will, that can cooperate with or reject the grace of God. In their view, human decision is the deciding factor. This view is held by many Catholics and Protestants.
- The fundamental issue is whether fallen man has the moral power to incline himself to God’s offers of help, or whether God must do an initial work of re-creation in the soul before the person has the power to say yes to the Gospel.
- In the monergist view, before a person comes to Christ, God works unilaterally, independently and sovereignly by changing the soul of the sinner, which by nature is dead in sin and morally unable to resurrect itself.
- God has to give a person new spiritual life before that person has the power to come to Christ.
- Does this mean that mankind has no free will? Mankind still makes choices, but only according to his desires. The problem is moral bondage. We are slaves to our own desires. By nature we have no desire for Christ or the things of God. We freely reject God until God changes our heart.
- Scriptures that support the doctrine of total depravity or radical corruption:
- Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it?
- Ps 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
- Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
- John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
- I Cor 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
- John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
- Is 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
- Rom 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
- Eph 2:3 Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
- Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
- Eph 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
- Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed
- Rom 3:12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- Rom 3:10-11 As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
- Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
- Eph 2:15 Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- Gen 8:21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
- Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
- Rom 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
- Rom 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
- Col 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
- Rom 3:10 As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
- John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
- Eph 2:2 In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
- II Cor 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God
- Rom 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
- Rom 5:12-19 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
- Rom 3:10-12 As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- Ps 14:1-3 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God” They are corrupt; they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none that does good, not even one.
- Ps 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me
- Prov 20:9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?
- Matt 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
- Mark 10:18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
- I Cor 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are vfolly to him, and whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
- II Cor 4:3-4 And even dif our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- Eph 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
- John 12:37-41 "But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, and be converted and I heal them.' These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him."
Note: Materials for this document was taken from a study guide written by RC Sproul called What is Reformed Theology but has been supplemented by comments and Scriptures of my own.
