The Five Points of Calvinism - 1. Total Depravity

We begin a new series looking at the so-called "Five Points of Calvinism," the first of which is known in theology as total depravity.

As with a few of the Five Points, there seems to be a degree of misunderstanding about this term. It does not mean "utter depravity" or "absolute depravity". In other words, it does not mean that human beings are as utterly evil or wicked as they could be. Holding to total depravity does not mean denying that human beings are still able to do good things. Jesus himself said, "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!" (Matthew 7:11).

The word "total" in total depravity refers to the complete or radical nature of our sinfulness. It means that sin affects every part of human beings—it affects our bodies and souls, it affects our minds and our emotions. It means that there is no part of humanity not severely affected by sin. 

The word "depravity" refers to the fact that we are innately evil by nature, to the extent that we are spiritually dead—cut-off from God and naturally opposed to His ways.

Total deparavity therefore means that human beings are innately evil by nature in every part of their being. There is no part of a human being by nature that is good. Again, as Jesus said, "No one is good except God alone." (Mark 10:18).

It is important to note that this state that humanity is in was not how God created us. Originally we were created good, but when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their disobedience has had the dire consequence of corrupting human nature.

The doctrine of total depravity is closely related to the doctrine of original sin, which means that every human being is born in this condition (with the one exception, who is Jesus himself) of being completely sin-affected and spiritually dead by nature.

Of all the Five Points, total depravity is the least controversial. In fact in the great debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, total depravity is historically a doctrine held in common by both sides. Only the heretical Pelagians, teaching that human beings have not inherited sinfulness from Adam and Eve, denied total depravity. There may be contemporary versions of this, not least in liberal Christianity. But all evangelicals, whether Calvinist or Arminian, accept total depravity.

Of the many implications of this doctrine of total depravity, the most important concerns humanity's lostness in sin and total inability to save ourselves. Not only can we never hope to earn salvation by works, total depravity teaches the even more radical truth that we can never even accept God's offer of salvation by grace in the gospel unless God acts in a radical way to transform our natures. 

Total depravity is the first of the Five Points of Calvinism and a recognition of the plight of fallen humanity, lost in sin and hostile to God, forms the backdrop to all the other of the Five Points. It explains why election must purely be of grace and unconditional. It shows to power of the cross in particular redemption to save sinners. It accounts for why saving grace has to be irresistible or the deparaved sinner would always resist it. And it explains why God has to ensure his people persevere in their faith, for on our own we would never keep going in faith.

The biblical evidence for total depravity is overwhelming. We cannot look at every relevant verse and passage, but the following verses  make the case very clearly.

1. Humanity is not "basically good" but "basically evil"

Job 25:4-6 - "How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!"

Ecclesiastes 9:3 - "This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." 

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  (KJV)

Mark 7:21-23 - "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

Romans 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 as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners."

Romans 7:18 - "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out."

2. All Human Beings are Sinful

1 Kings 8:46 and 2 Chronicles 6:36 - "For there is no one who does not sin."

Psalm 130:3 - "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

Romans 3:11-12 - "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."

Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

1 John 1:8, 10 - "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us...If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

3. Every Human Faculty is Depraved

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."

Genesis 8:21 - "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" 

Psalm 51:5 - "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

Proverbs 21:4 - "Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the ploughing of the wicked, are sin."

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 - "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment."

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  (KJV)

Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."

John 3:19 - "And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

John 8:44 - "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." 

Romans 1:21, 24 - "For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened...Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves"

Romans 1:28-32 - "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practise such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practise them."

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."

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."

Titus 1:15-16 - "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. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."

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."

Hebrews 11:6 - "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."