Reformed Theology and the Doctrines of Grace — Unit 3: Total Depravity

Key Verse

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain what "total" means in total depravity, and what it does not mean.

2. Describe how Adam's sin affects his descendants, using the terms original sin, imputation and corruption.

3. Show from Scripture that the unsaved person is spiritually dead, unwilling and unable to come to Christ by his own power.

4. Explain how common grace accounts for the good that unbelievers do.

5. State four objections (human ability, unfair imputation, the moral unbeliever, and "ought implies can") and answer each from the Reformed side.

Where We Are in the Course

Units 1 and 2 taught that God is sovereign and that His Word is our final authority. We now turn to the doctrines of grace, which the Synod of Dort set out in 1618 and 1619 in answer to the Remonstrants (see Course 1, the unit on the Synod of Dort). Dort's own order is four heads of doctrine, with the third and fourth taken together. This unit follows the first part of Dort's third and fourth heads, on human corruption. Later units treat election, redemption, calling and perseverance.

Salvation by grace only makes sense if we know what sort of sinners we are. If a person is only sick, he needs medicine. If he is dead, he needs life. The Reformed churches say that Scripture describes the second case. We state other views fairly before answering them.

What "Total" Means

The word "total" in total depravity is often misunderstood. It does not mean that every person is as wicked as he could be. It does not mean that unbelievers never do anything useful, kind or admirable. It does not mean that people have no conscience.

It means that sin has touched every part of the human being. The mind, the affections, the will, the conscience and the body are all affected. No part is left untouched by the fall, so no part can lift the person to God. The Reformed teachers say that depravity is total in extent, not in degree. The sinner has no power to save himself.

Some Reformed teachers prefer the names "radical corruption" or "pervasive sin." We keep the familiar name, but we mean what Dort says.

The Fall and Original Sin

Scripture begins with man made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and then with Adam's disobedience (Genesis 3). From that point, the record is one of a human race that bears his likeness and his fault. Seth was born in Adam's likeness (Genesis 5:3). David confessed, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). He means that he was a sinner from the beginning of his life.

Romans 5:12-19 is the central passage. Paul says that through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and that death spread to all. He then sets Adam and Christ side by side: through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, and through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19). Reformed theology teaches two things about Adam's sin, and adds a third about our own.

Imputation. Adam stood as the head and representative of the human race. His first sin is counted as ours, as Christ's righteousness is counted as belonging to those who believe. This is sometimes called federal headship, from the Latin word for covenant.

Corruption. We also inherit a corrupt nature. The Canons of Dort, Head 3/4, article 2, teaches that man, after the fall, begot children in his own likeness, so that corruption passes from parents to children by the way of nature. The Heidelberg Catechism, question 7, traces our corrupt nature to the fall of Adam and Eve, and question 8 says that we are so corrupt that we are unable to do any good and are inclined to all evil, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. The Westminster Confession, chapter 6, sections 3 to 4, says the same: that this corruption is the root of all actual sins.

Actual sin. Out of this corrupt nature come the sins we commit. We are sinners by nature and by choice.

What Scripture Says About the Unsaved

The doctrine does not rest on Romans 5 alone.

The heart. Before the flood, "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5), a statement that Genesis repeats after the flood in 8:21. Jeremiah asks, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus teaches that evil things come out of the heart (Mark 7:21-23).

The whole person. Paul gathers many Old Testament verses in Romans 3:10-18 to say that there is none righteous, none who understands, none who seeks after God. He concludes that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The mind. "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The will. Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34). Paul adds that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God's law, "nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). And in John 6:44 Jesus says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."

Dead, not sick. Paul tells the Ephesians that they were "dead in trespasses and sins," that they walked according to the course of this world, and that they were "by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (Ephesians 2:1-3). A dead man does not reach out for a rope. He must first be made alive. Then Paul writes, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4-5). Salvation is God's gift, "not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Bondage of the Will

If this is true, what becomes of the human will? The Reformed answer is that the will is not destroyed, but it is enslaved. Sinners choose, and they choose what they most want. But what they most want is not God. They are free to do as they please, and what pleases them is sin. This is why the older teachers speak of the bondage of the will and distinguish natural ability from moral ability. A sinner has the faculties, such as mind and will, that make him responsible. He lacks the moral ability, the right desire, to turn to God.

The Westminster Confession, chapter 9, section 3, says that man by his fall has wholly lost the ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so that a natural man, being averse from good and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself for conversion. Martin Luther wrote The Bondage of the Will (1525) against Erasmus, and Calvin treats the question in the Institutes, Book II, chapters 2 to 5.

This was also the point of the old debate between Augustine and Pelagius in the early fifth century. Pelagius taught that human beings can obey God by their own natural power. Augustine answered that we need God's grace for every step. The church condemned Pelagius, and a later council at Orange in 529 affirmed that the beginning of faith is itself a gift of grace. The Reformers believed they were recovering the teaching of Augustine and Orange.

Common Grace: The Good That Unbelievers Do

If sinners are so corrupt, how can we explain the courage of a soldier, the love of an unbelieving mother, or the justice of a fair judge? Our tradition answers with common grace. God, in His goodness, restrains sin in society and gives all people gifts, such as order, art, learning, family affection and conscience. Jesus says that the Father "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

The image of God in man is also damaged but not erased (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). The Canons of Dort, Head 3/4, article 4, says some light of nature remains in man after the fall, by which he has some knowledge of God and of right and wrong, but it is insufficient to bring him to saving knowledge, and he does not use it properly even in natural things. The Westminster Confession, chapter 16, section 7, adds that works done by unbelievers may be things that God commands and useful to themselves and others, yet they do not come from a heart made right by faith and are not done for God's glory, so they are not pleasing to Him in the sense of saving merit.

Unbelievers can do good in the sight of men and for the good of society. They cannot do the one thing necessary, which is to come to God in faith.

A Historians' Question: Augustine, Romans 5:12 and the Latin Bible

Augustine's teaching on original sin shaped the West. Some historians point out that in the Latin Bible he used, Romans 5:12 could be read as saying that all sinned "in" Adam. They conclude that a doctrine of inherited guilt rested on a translation that is doubtful. Eastern Orthodox teachers also stress that we inherit death and corruption from Adam, and they are slow to speak of inherited guilt.

We acknowledge the Latin question and agree that a good doctrine should not depend on one word. But the Reformed doctrine does not rest on it. It rests on the whole teaching of Romans 5:12-19, where the parallel with Christ makes the point plainly, on Psalm 51:5, and on Ephesians 2:3, which says we are by nature children of wrath. The Eastern teachers and the Reformed agree on the main point: the human race is bound in death and corruption and needs a Savior. Where they differ, the Reformed say that Paul's parallel between Adam and Christ requires that Adam's sin is counted to his people as Christ's righteousness is counted to His.

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: People have the ability to choose God. Arminian teachers, following Jacobus Arminius and the Remonstrants, agree that human beings are fallen and cannot save themselves without grace. But they teach that God gives a prevenient grace to all people, which restores the ability to respond, so that each person can accept or refuse the gospel.

Our answer. We respect this effort to preserve both grace and human response. But Scripture does not describe a universal restoring grace that leaves the final choice to the sinner. It describes a dead man made alive (Ephesians 2:5), a person who cannot come unless the Father draws him (John 6:44), and a heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). If the final difference between the saved and the lost lay in the sinner's own choice, then he would have something to boast about, and Paul says that salvation is "not of works, lest anyone should boast." We will return to this in Unit 9.

Objection 2: It is unfair that we are counted guilty for Adam's sin. Critics say that each person should answer only for his own acts.

Our answer. We feel the weight of this objection, but the Bible does not remove it by denying the parallel. It declares that the same principle that brings us death in Adam brings us life in Christ (Romans 5:18-19). No one who rejoices that Christ's righteousness is counted to him, though he did nothing to earn it, can consistently complain that Adam's sin is counted to him. Also, we are not only counted guilty; we show by our own sins that we agree with Adam's choice. The judgment of God is just.

Objection 3: Many unbelievers are more moral than some Christians. This is true, and the objector may ask how the doctrine can stand.

Our answer. Total depravity concerns extent, not degree. We agree that some unbelievers are kinder and more honest than some believers. Common grace explains this. But goodness before men is not the same as a heart that loves God, which is what the first commandment requires. A person can keep many outward rules and still never have loved God with all his heart. The best moral man still needs a Savior.

Objection 4: If people are unable, God cannot command them to believe, since "ought implies can." If they cannot believe, how are they to blame for unbelief?

Our answer. Scripture commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). The inability we describe is moral, not physical: sinners do not will to come, because they love darkness (John 3:19). A debtor who has squandered his money and cannot pay is still a debtor. Further, God's commands do not measure our power. They reveal our duty and our need. When Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus, He commanded a dead man to come out (John 11:43), and the command carried the power to obey. God gives what He commands.

Pastoral Application

A neighbor of one of your members, a respected and generous man, says to you after a funeral, "Pastor, I am a good person. I do not need to be saved."

First, do not argue about his goodness. He may be generous, and you can say so honestly. Thank God for the grace that restrains evil.

Second, ask about his heart toward God. Have you loved God above all things? Have you thanked Him each day? The first commandment is the measure, and it tests all of us.

Third, speak of yourself first. A pastor who preaches depravity as a fact about other people has not understood it. Say that you also needed a Savior who was more than a teacher.

Fourth, point him to the Savior and not to his guilt. The point of the doctrine is not to crush him but to show why Christ is necessary, and how rich the grace is. Read Ephesians 2:4-9 with him.

Fifth, pray that God will make him alive. Preaching is our task. Giving life is God's.

Summary

Total depravity means that sin has touched every part of man, so that he can do nothing to save himself. It does not mean that people are as bad as they can be. Adam's sin is counted to his descendants, and we inherit a corrupt nature, from which our own sins arise. Scripture describes the unsaved as dead in sin, slaves of sin, unable to come to Christ unless the Father draws them. The will is in bondage, not because it is forced but because it loves sin. Common grace explains the good that unbelievers do. Historians have raised questions about Augustine's use of the Latin Romans 5:12, but the Reformed doctrine rests on the wider witness of Scripture. We answered four objections: human ability, unfair imputation, the moral unbeliever, and "ought implies can." The doctrine humbles us and makes grace precious.

Further Reading

• Canons of Dort (1619), Head 3/4, articles 1 to 4.

• Heidelberg Catechism (1563), questions 3 to 11.

• Belgic Confession (1561), articles 14 and 15.

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapters 6 and 9; Shorter Catechism, questions 13 to 19.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, chapters 1 to 5 (Beveridge translation, 1845).

• Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525).

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73), the volume on anthropology.

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