Did
you ever wonder why men are the way they are? Look at your daily
newspaper. Every day we read of big and small thefts, wars, extortion,
murder and various types of unethical and anti-social behavior. Why do
some people act that way? Let’s take a few minutes to see what the
Bible says about man’s behavior.
The Bible has a doctrine called total depravity. Now, don’t let that word
doctrine scare you. A lot of people go around saying, “I don’t believe
in doctrine.” According to the dictionary the definition of doctrine is,
“something taught.” So if someone says that they don’t believe in
doctrine what they are actually saying is that they don’t believe in teaching
anything. So, the Bible has this doctrine or teaching called total depravity.
This means simply that because of the fall of our great grand-daddy Adam
back in the Garden of Eden, because he and his wife willfully broke the
commandment of the God who had created them, because of their transgression
all men that are descended from them (and that includes everyone of the
face of the earth who has ever lived, is living now or will live
in the future) again we say that all men have a nature that is that is
sinful and will commit every sin imaginable unless restrained by the almighty
God.
Romans 5:12 tells us that; “As by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin, so then death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned.”
Romans 3:10-12 says; “As it is written there s none righteous,
no not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh
after God. They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable;
there is none that doeth good no not one.”
The Bible couldn’t be much plainer than that could it? Clearly man
is a sinful creature. Now I can hear someone saying; “I’m just as good
as anybody else.” That statement would be true, you are just as good as
anyone else. The problem is that we are all in the same boat. Everyone
else is a sinner just like we are. It doesn’t do you a bit of good to be
as good as everyone else. All that does is make you as good as a sinner.
I John 1:8; “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us.” Verse 10 tells us that: “If we say
we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.”
In the book Mabel Clement, J. M. Salee lists four proofs of depravity.
He notes;
1. The flesh is corrupt. It is called sinful flesh (Romans 8:3).
2. The heart is depraved. “God saw the wickedness of man was great in
the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).
3. The mind is depraved. The understanding is darkened. “There
is none that understandeth.” (Romans 3:11).
4. The conscience is corrupt. “Even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
(Titus 1:15).
So we see that the Bible teaches clearly that the flesh is corrupt, the
heart is depraved, the mind is depraved and the even the conscience is
defiled. We see Scripturally that all man’s faculties are depraved. His
whole being is corrupt. He is totally depraved.
By this teaching we do not mean that all men commit all the sin that they
are capable of doing. Certainly some men are in a measure more moral
and upright than others. This, however, is not due to the inherent goodness,
but rather to the restraining hand of God and to the restraints put upon
them by the society in which they live. Take away those restraints and
their sin will become a normal occurrence. We have as an example of this
in the legalization of abortion. Once the restraints of the law were taken
away, murder of babies became commonplace and is even now advertised in
our daily papers. In the future period of time known as the great tribulation
God will remove his restraining power and man will become even more sinful
than he is today as far as his outward actions are concerned.
I hear still another objection to this doctrine. Someone states; “I don’t
happen to agree with you. I believe that there is a little bit of good
in every man.” Well, my friend the question is not what do you believe
or what do I believe. The question is what does the Bible teach? Throughout
its pages over and over again God’s holy, inspired, infallible Word teaches
the depravity of man. Listen to these different passages. In Ephesians
2:3 the Apostle Paul declares; “Among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our
flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as
others.” Job 15: 14-16 asks;”What is man that he should be
clean and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints: yea the heavens are not clean
in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh
iniquity like water?” The great prophet Jeremiah in chapter
17 and verse 9 tells us that; “the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?”
Total depravity is indeed a Bible teaching. There is no getting around
it unless; of course you want to start leaving certain verses out of your
Bible. I am afraid if you took a pair of scissors and started cutting out
every verse that pertained to the depravity of man you would wind up with
an awfully thin Bible.
What then, are the consequences of this teaching? Basically this
teaching on man’s total depravity leads us to two conclusions. First is
that men are sinful creatures and need salvation from their sins. Then,
secondly, that they are incapable of saving themselves. When men understand
this teaching rightly, they turn away from trying to obtain the rewards
of heaven by their own efforts and through their own merit and understand
that if they are to enter into the blessings of the Lord, it must be by
another merit, by another goodness, by another righteousness, and not of
and in themselves. That other righteousness is in Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God.
Whereas we are sinful, He is without sin, whereas we are imperfect He is
perfect, whereas we are mortal He is immortal, and whereas we are unrighteous
he is righteous. If ever we are to obtain salvation it must be though the
shed blood of Jesus Christ, through his sacrifice for his people. It will
never be through our own efforts. Man is spiritually dead and a dead man
cannot do anything for himself, much less will himself to life. I
can hear someone saying “that is an awfully hard teaching preacher!” All
I can reply is that the Bible is full of hard teachings.
Even the apostle Peter that fisher of men who had walked and talked with
the Lord said in the third chapter of his second epistle; “And
account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation: even as our beloved
brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in
which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures unto
their own destruction.” Now if Peter an apostle says there are things
hard to be understood how much harder are those things for us to understand
today? We must simply go by faith and say that surely this is God’s
word and if what it says shows me to be a sinful creature than I am a sinful
creature. If this word of God says man is born depraved then I will believe
it to be so. God said it and that should settle the question.