Total Depravity Applied
Earlier, I asked, What good is theological knowledge if it doesn’t spur me on to biblical good works? Well, it’s time to answer this question. How should the doctrines of grace work out in their application in the life of a Christian? I would like to spend some time briefly commenting on how our theology should produce practical action.
Total Depravity
Because Adam was the representative of all mankind, when he forsook the commandment of God, and ate of the fruit, he did plunge all men into an irreversible state of spiritual death. This death renders all those born of woman, other than the perfect Lord Jesus Christ, spiritually dead, incapable of knowing, doing, or even desiring those things which are pleasing to God. By nature, man is at enmity with His Creator, thinking only of himself, and the gratification of his sinful flesh. (Romans 5, Ephesians 2:1, etc.)
The doctrine of man’s depravity in a large extent consists of the hard truth of man’s inability to please God in any way. Knowing this from a Biblical perspective, how does this practically apply in the life of a Christian? I think it can apply in many different ways, but we shall look at three for now.
How We Evangelize
Firstly, this doctrine affects how we evangelize. If we believe, in any way, that man has some inherent goodness that enables him to earn the favor of God, we are far less likely to put the same amount of emphasis on repentance and sin as the Scriptures do when dealing with the subject of man’s need for salvation. Without total depravity evangelism is anthropocentric (man-centered), thus not a biblically sound application of how God redeems sinners at all. Synergism teaches that man cooperates with God and the Holy Spirit and that, together, salvation is attained. Monergism, on the other hand, teaches that from beginning to end, “salvation is of the Lord.”
When urging one to repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus, the man must be humbled to the point where he sees his utter hopelessness apart from the mercy of Christ. Some pertinent passages dealing with this subject will be listed at the end of this entry, showing the biblical basis for man’s total depravity (Many thanks to Chris Blum for this quick source). Anyway, I don’t want this to be a lesson about what total depravity is; rather, since I’m sure most who’re reading this know, I want this to show how having a deep-seated belief in such should result in a practical application of it in our daily lives.
On View of Self and Explanation of Spiritual Warfare
Secondly, this doctrine affects how we view ourselves and explains our struggles. If practically applied, we cannot (without sinning) have a pious view of ourselves over others who have not _________ (fill in the blank) like we have. I think about Christ saying, “First remove the plank from your own eye…” Understanding total depravity should bring us to great humility and contrition. The Scottish reformer John Knox said that the most heinous dart Satan ever hurled at him was on his death bead. Satan tempted him with the thought God would let him into heaven because of the faithful discharge with which Knox had executed the ministry of the Word. But immediately Knox was reminded by the passage in 1 Corinthians 4:7 stating, “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Knox knew, because of his initial inability and depravity, he could not earn God’s favor. No merit of his own could purchase God’s goodwill. It was the truth of total depravity which reminded him of his beginning natural state.
Total depravity also clarifies why we sometimes do the things we do. Because of our inherently evil, rebellious nature we still fight this battle. Imagine it as a lion who once weilded great power. Yet, you’ve struck him with a death blow. Though his death is inevitable and his wound is fatal, he’s still able to get in a few blows of his own before expiring. In Romans 7 we see Paul dealing with the reality of the aftershocks of total depravity, “22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Of Gratitude for His Undeserved Mercy Given
Thirdly, this doctrine’s truth is practically applied in our lives by springing from within us a profound gratitude for God’s grace given so freely to us. This, in turn, should cause us to be most charitable toward others, including Christian brothers and sisters, family, and even the lost. Far from being supportive of others’ sins, it’s simply knowing that we’re no better than others inherently. It is the pure grace of God which has afforded us so great a salvation. We should daily show God our gratitude via his appointed means of praise, prayer, and scriptue intake. We should apply our gratitude we have to God by doing good works and deeds to others.
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Below (Read more…) are the passages supporting the truth of total depravity:
Genesis 6:5 “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Job 15:15-16 “Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less [God puts trust in] one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!”
Psalm 14:2-4 “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 who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?”
Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I [David] was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalm 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”
Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.”
Isaiah 64:6-7 “We [humans] 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. There is no one who calls upon your [God’s] name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”
Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also [in the same way] you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Job 14:4 “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.”
John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [or “born from above”] he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
John 6:44 “No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:65 “And he [Jesus] said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’”
John 8:34 “Jesus answered them [the Jews who had believed in Him], ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.’”
John 8:47 “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you [Jews] do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
John 12:37-41 “Though he [Jesus] had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ‘He [God] 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.’ Isaiah said these things because he saw his [God’s] glory and spoke of him.”
Romans 3:10-12, 18 “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…There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”
Romans 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.”
Romans 11:7-8 “What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, ‘God gave them [left them with] a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.’”
1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 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.”
1 Corinthians 12:3 “…no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:4-5 “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything [including faith] as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.”
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 light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
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 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.”
Colossians 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.”
Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.”
Titus 3:3 “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”
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