An outline of the doctrine of Total Depravity

-Jon Irenicus

I first wrote this for myself in my notebook long ago before I actually embrace the whole of Reformed theology with all my heart (that was last year). I compiled the points of Total Depravity because I found it necessary for me to better grasp the whole concept of the doctrine in an overview, outline-like manner. Here are the points which I arranged myself (some points here, however, are not my own words but from certain Reformed articles that I read in the past). I hope this helps you too!

1. When Adam committed his first sin against God in the Garden of Eden, we also sinned with him (united with him in committing that sin) since he is the universal representative (head) of mankind (Rom 5:17-18). Therefore, every man is a sinner since birth (Psalms 51:5) and by nature “children of wrath” which also means “enemies of God” (Eph 2:3; Col 1:21). [It was Adam’s original sin that brought condemnation to all men (Gen 2:17, 3:1-24; Rom 5:17-18). The Fall is necessary and permitted by God so that He may demonstrate His mercy and grace through His Son (Rom 11:32).]
2. If Adam represented all men when he committed the First Sin, then all men are also by nature “slaves of sin” for whosoever commits sin is a slave of sin (Jn 8:34; Rom 3:9, 23). A slave of sin is someone who is in bondage to his sinful nature, hopelessly gratifying the cravings of the flesh and its thoughts (Eph 2:1-3).
3. Even though free and uncoerced, the fallen will has no desire for anything except to indulge the evil tendencies of the heart (Gen 6:5). As long as a person is inclined only to evil, he chooses only evil (Rom 3:9-12). Fallen humanity loves darkness and hates light (John 3:19). So whenever a person is confronted with a choice between darkness and light, he chooses darkness. He chooses what is attractive to him, what his free will desires (Rom 3:9-12).
4. Sinners are not as sinful as they can be. A sinner can also serve for his community, donate alms to the poor, and have domestic love, etc. But all these works, even if done sincerely, will not please God for it comes from a sinful heart (Isa 64:6; Rom 8:8). What we say is: sinners have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation (Prov 20:9; Rom 3:9-12; Eph 4:17-18).
5. Everything that proceeds not from faith is sin (Rom 14:23). Therefore, everything that a sinner does is abomination to the Lord for it does not proceed from a saving faith in Christ, and unless a sinner is grafted into the true Vine (Christ), he will never be able to bear fruits that are acceptable before God (Mat 7:17; John 15:5). Even his prayers shall be abominations unto the Lord (Prov 28:9)—even his thoughts (Prov 15:26). Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, because it cannot be. So then, they who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:7-8).
6. A sinner is someone who is spiritually dead (insensitive and unable). He cannot see spiritual things, and he cannot understand and perceive them. The natural [or unregenerate] 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 (Mat 13:13-15; 1 Cor 2:14).
7. All men have the responsibility to repent for their sins and turn to God through faith in Christ. But because they were blinded by Satan so “that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,” sinners will consistently and willingly reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ unless God has enabled them through Spiritual Regeneration (Acts 26:18; Rom 3:11; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 4:18).
8. There is none who is righteous in the sight of God, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Rom 3:9-12). Therefore, All men (without exception) deserve death and hell (Mat 5:48; Rom 3:23).
9. The reality of hell is God's clear indictment of the infiniteness of our guilt. If our corruption were not deserving of an eternal punishment God would be unjust to threaten us with a punishment so severe as eternal torment. But the Scriptures teach that God is just in condemning unbelievers to eternal hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9; Matthew 5:29, 10:28, 13:49, 18:8, 25:46; Revelation 14:9-11; 20:10). Therefore, to the extent that hell is a total sentence of condemnation, to that extent we must think of ourselves as totally blameworthy apart from the saving grace of God.

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of admitting the condition of all men to be this bad. If we think of ourselves as basically good or even less than totally at odds with God, our grasp of the work of God in redemption will be defective. But if we humble ourselves under this terrible truth of our total depravity, we will be in a position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God for our salvation.

It is also helpful if we consider the confession of the LBC (1686) regarding the doctrine:

[6.1] Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which secured life for him while he kept it, and although God warned him that he would die if he broke it, yet man did not live long in this honour.

- Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, seduced Adam by her, and he, without any compulsion, wilfully transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit. - And this act God, according to His wise and holy counsel, was pleased to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

[6.2] Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them. For from this, death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

[6.3] They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and their corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. Their descendants are therefore conceived in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath, the servants of sin, and the subjects of death and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.

[6.4] All actual transgressions proceed from this original corruption, by which we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.

[6.5] During this life the corruption of nature remains in those who are regenerated, and although it is pardoned and mortified through Christ, yet this corrupt nature and all its motions are truly and properly sinful. [London Baptist Confession (1689), VI. 1-5]

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