Total Depravity

Before you start reading on, you need to have the mindset that scripture alone will do the leading. Every single view we have of God and Christianity must be tested with scripture. Don't make your thoughts supreme. If you "don't think God would" do something, that's all well and good but if it doesn't have scriptural backing then it doesn't matter what you think. It matters what the Bible says. Let the text be king and not our finite and faulty minds. 

I. Doctrine of SIN

Genesis 3---> Sin Enters the world

Romans 5---> Inherited Corruption and Guilt

Romans 5:12-21

v. 12- The inherent propensity to sin entered the world. People became sinners by nature. Adam passed to all of us innate sinful nature.  This is present from the day we are conceived (Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.----> And this doesn't make it impossible for man to live in a way that pleases God.)

Humans are not sinners because they sin, they sin because they are sinners.... We were sinners before we sinned. 

-The spread of sin affects every part of our body and our being. There is not a part of our life that is not affected by sin (Total Depravity).

          -Eyes and ears are insensitive and dull.

                    -Romans 11:8      

                         "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see 

                         and ears that would not hear, down to this very day."

                    -2 Corinthians 4:3-4

                         "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only 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 lights of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of 

                         God."

          -Minds and hearts are darkened

                    -Romans 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.

                    -Colossians 1:21

                         And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.

                    -Ephesians 4:17-18

                         Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as 

                         the gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 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.

           -Naturally Dead

                    -Ephesians 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                

                         spirit that is now at work in the sons of obedience- 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.

II. We Will Not and Cannot Do Good

          -Romans 3:9-20

               Key verse: v.11- None is righteous, no, not one: No one understands; no one 

               seeks for God.  

          -Romans 8:5-8n

               For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the 

               flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of 

               things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind           

               on the Spirit of life and peace. 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. 

          -I John 12:31-40

               Key Verses: 35b-36

               The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you 

               have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.

               v. 40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their 

               eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

III. Total Depravity

We are all sinners by nature and choice. And as a result, we don't have free will. We cannot choose God. We are totally depraved, not utterly depraved. We could do more evil more frequently with more intensity, but we don't thanks to the grace of God.

          -Romans 3:23

               All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

          -I John 1:8

               If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

  In his Total Rebellion everything man does is sin.   

          -Romans 14:23

               Whatever is not from faith is sin.

          -Hebrews 11:6

               And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must                       

               believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

          -Romans 7:18

               For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is 

               present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Man's Inability to Submit to God and Do Good is Total

          -Romans 8:5-9

          -John 3:5-7

          -Romans 6: 17-18

          -Ephesians 2:1-5

          -Ephesians 4:17-18

          -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 Corinthians 2:14

          -Jeremiah 17:9

               The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately (incurably) sick; who      

               can understand it?

Our Rebellion is Totally Deserving of Eternal Punishment

          -2 Thessalonians 1:8-9

               (God will) deal out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who 

               do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal 

               destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

          -Matthew 25:46

               These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. 

Summary and Conclusion

Total depravity means that apart from any grace given by God, our hardness and rebellion against God is total, everything we do in this rebellion is sin, our inability to submit to God or reform ourselves is total, and we are therefore are totally deserving of eternal punishment. 

Obviously we don't like admitting we are this bad. However like I told you earlier that we should let scripture do the leading. If we think of ourselves as basically good or even less than totally at odds with God, our understanding of the work of God in redemption (salvation) will be defective. But if we humbly accept the fact that we are completely against God from our birth and the only reason that we are saved is because He chose us for His glory and not because there was something "good" or "worth saving" in us. If we accept this fact, we will be able to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of God in salvation.