Total Depravity (How does it glorify God?)

TOTAL DEPRAVITY
(How does it glorify God?)
Hello again folks! First, I want to apologize for taking such a long time to bring this post. The Spring semester ship left port a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been trying to regain my sea-legs. I think I’m stabilized now. But only time will tell if that is truly the case.
Anyway, let me, once again reiterate the purpose of this series. My friend Stephen Newell and I agreed to co-blog this series together with the understanding that he would lay out the doctrinal position in his blog and in my blog, I would show how each individual doctrine actually glorifies God. Stephen has finished his treatment of total depravity in two posts. (And by the way, let me just say that his "part two" of this doctrine is OUTSTANDING.) Please go check it out! Having said that, I will now treat the doctrine of total depravity from the perspective of how it glorifies God.

Well, if what Stephen advocates about our human condition is true, and we are all spiritual zombies, who are completely incapable of doing anything without it being tainted with sin and thus rendered odious in the sight of God, then how could such a condition glorify God? The answer to this question will be seen as we look at the situation from a five different vantage points.

First, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God by placing every human being on an even playing field before Him. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) In other words, if we scoured the globe from one end to the other from now until Christ comes back, and turned up every stone and looked in every nook and cranny, and examined the lives of every individual who has ever lived, we would not and could not ever find even one person who could say that they were saved because of anything good in themselves. Nobody can say "I am saved because I was smart enough to place my faith in Jesus Christ; and you are lost because you are not smart enough to do what I did." Nobody can say, "I am saved because I did some good things; and you are lost because you refuse to do anything good." No! No! These statements, and any like them are totally ruled out by the doctrine of total depravity. Every, single, solitary person who has ever lived, is living now, or ever will live, is lost, lost, lost. In the words of the apostle, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Rom. 3:10-18) God does not play favorites. All flesh is condemned before Him and He is glorified in the fact that He judges with impartiality based upon this common human condition.

Second, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God because it is a result of the just curse which He sovereignly imposed, not only upon all flesh, but upon all of creation. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were created without original sin. That means that while they did possess the capacity to sin, they were not tainted with a propensity to sin as we are. They were not under the righteous condemnation of Almighty God through the curse but were free to sin or not to sin. But something happened to this pristine condition when Adam and eve sinned against God. Genesis 3:14-19 contains a sweeping curse that extends throughout the entire created universe. This includes the inanimate creation such as rocks, water, planets, moons and stars, as well as the animate creation, including fish, mammals, insects, all plant life and all human beings. There is absolutely nothing and absolutely nobody who is not under the curse and liable to the condemnation that comes therewith. Paul again shows us how this came to be our condition, "through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Rom. 5:12) God sovereignly placed Adam in the garden as our representative and when he sinned, we all sinned with him. Article two of the Canons of Dordt puts it this way: "Man after the fall begat children in his own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring. Hence all the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived corruption from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature, in consequence of the just judgment of God." Thus, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God because it is a just recompense for such an unjust breach of the Creator’s ordinance.

Third, this doctrine glorifies God by placing us completely at His mercy in order to obtain salvation. Those who are the elect, therefore, exist to the praise of His glorious grace. Our captivity to sin, death and hell, renders us totally helpless with regard to our position before God and desperately in need of His intervention if ever we are to have our condition changed. This is why salvation MUST be a totally free gift. Salvation MUST be given to us by God’s free grace. This is why we are told in (Eph. 2:8-9) "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." And again in (Rom. 9:15-16), God tells us "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. There is nothing we can do to make us more worthy of salvation than any other person. People are so often directed to place their faith in Christ as if this were the one good work that we can do that will make God indebted to save us. But this fails to recognize that even the faith that we place in Christ does not come from us. We are given the ability to have faith in Christ. It does not come from within ourselves but from God. And He gives it to whom He chooses. Brothers and sisters, if you are a Christian today, it is not because you were smarter or better or more enlightened or more spiritual or any other thing you could possibly dream up. No! You are saved simply because God chose to have mercy on you; and this while you were still in hateful rebellion against Him. The doctrine of total depravity thus glorifies God by making salvation necessarily an absolute free gift based solely upon His grace and received by a faith, which He sovereignly imparts to whom He chooses.

Fourth, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God by manifesting His perfect justice in the damnation of willful sinners. Often, people like to cavil against this doctrine by saying something like this: "Well I just can’t believe that God would turn away any who come to Him desiring salvation." My answer is, I can’t believe it either. This is not a correct picture of the sinner who is in willful rebellion against the Creator. In our natural condition we do not really want God, we do not really seek God, we really cannot submit to His Lordship over our lives; nor would we ever wish to part with our beloved sins in order to embrace a life of holiness. No! the fact of the matter is, in our natural state, man is at enmity with God. We are His enemies. Nobody cries out to Him for salvation unless they have first been changed on the inside by the work of the Holy Spirit. We naturally hate the way of holiness, we spurn the chaste life that calls us to abandon our sinful pleasures. There is nothing about God, Jesus Christ, or the life of piety that we desire unless it is the good reputation that comes along with such a condition. But then we desire it for sinful reasons, which only illustrates once again the depraved condition into which we are born. In the end, the only ones who will suffer eternal separation from God are those who hate Him, those who refuse to come to Him, those who spurn Him and mock at Him and His people. Those who will be in hell suffering the righteous condemnation of God will be only such as could not stand the idea of submitting to His Lordship or forsaking their sinful ways in order to embrace Christ. Such a one as this certainly deserves to fall under the eternal condemnation of God. It is often asked how a loving God could ever send anybody to hell. But this question totally ignores the fact that God is also a God of holiness and justice, and as such He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The more accurate question is to ask how such a holy and righteous God could ever see fit to rescue any who rightly deserve to suffer His holy wrath. I, personally deserve death, hell and eternal separation from God because of my many rebellions against Him. And you deserve the same thing. If some get what they deserve, it may not glorify God’s mercy but it certainly does glorify God’s justice. Thus, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God by manifesting His righteous indignation in the eternal condemnation of those who hate Him.

Fifth, and finally, the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God by allowing us to take the Scriptures at face value. Therefore, when the Scriptures say "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5), the one who embraces the doctrine of total depravity can say "yes." But the one who rejects total depravity has to say "yes, but. . ." When the Scriptures say "The heart is decietful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9), the one who embraces the doctrine of total depravity can say "yes." But the one who rejects total depravity has to say "yes, but. . ." When the Scriptures say "There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God" (Rom. 3:10-11), the one who embraces the doctrine of total depravity can say "yes." But the one who rejects total depravity has to say "yes, but. . ." When the Scriptures say "This is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil" (Jn. 3:19), the one who embraces the doctrine of total depravity can say "yes." Or when Scripture says "ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life" (Jn 5:40); or when it says "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14); or when it says "You were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1); or when it says that in order to be saved we must "escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will" (2 Tim. 2:26); to all of these and many more, which I will not take the time to list, the one who embraces the doctrine of total depravity can say "yes." But the one who rejects this doctrine must water it down and explain it away and perform all kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics in order to make these passages appear to say something other than what they say. If we are to rightly glorify God, we must take Him at His word and the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God because it allows us to do just that: take Him at His word.

By way of closing, it may be said further that this doctrine glorifies God with regard to His eternal plan to redeem for Himself a people who were purchased and perfected with the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was God's plan from the very beginning to create a kingdom of redeemed believers. That's why the fall was necessary, that's why the curse was necessary, that's why total depravity was necessary. In the end, all these things which seem bad will result in perfection when seen woven into the larger tapestry of God's eternal plan. Thus the doctrine of total depravity glorifies God in the minutia as well as in the grand scope of things. May He be glorified forever and ever. Amen!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shane Morgan