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.
