After my experience with hearing a diatribe of an atheist FX driver on Christianity, I was prompted to review the doctrine of Man, more particularly, Human Depravity. To define it, Charles Swindoll wrote:
Every human being is as bad off as he can possibly be in the sight of God. The person without Christ is totally and completely dead in spiritual life. Apart from new life through Christ, he or she remains in this condition of spiritual death, totally unable to understand in experience the value and meaning of the work of Christ or the Word of God. (Growing Deep in the Christian Life, 417)
John MacArthur, another bible teacher I truly respect, defines it as such:
[Total depravity is] corruption by sin in every aspect of being. Unredeemed sinners are totally depraved; that is, they are spiritually dead, unable to respond to or please God, and in total need of God's gracious inclining. (The Gospel According to the Apostles, 246)
Basically, it means that because of sin, man in his natural state is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1) and thus incapable of anything good in the sight of God and accordingly, cannot glorify God. Still don't get it?
For this article, I chose a passage quite dear to me, because it was essential in my understanding of the nature of fallen man, which is fundamental in a correct attitude for evangelism.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:18-32
This passage clearly explains how sin totally corrupts fallen humanity. The way people are isn't because of some Sociobiological, anthropological or psychological theory, it's because of a single spiritual truth--sin. (I'm going to go through this verse-by-verse.)
Verse 18 speaks of the wrath of God. This is not some sudden outburst of anger of God, like lightning striking a blasphemer. This is a given attitude of a thrice holy God towards sin and sinfulness. And the fact that it is being revealed means that you don't have to wait for the end times to see it. It is constantly being given. But the kind of wrath in this passage isn't some cataclysmic judgment like the Flood, but rather it's characterized as an abandonment, leaving man in his sorry state of wickedness. But we'll get to that in a bit.
It is interesting to read here that people effectively suppress the truth by their godlessness and wickedness. Godlessness indicates a lack of devotion and desire to worship the true God. And wickedness refers to the product of this godlessness--disobedience to God's Word and defiance of His character. More to that, the truth about God that is being suppressed is "plain to them, because God has made it plain to them" (v.19). Evidence about God is in plain sight. The passage goes on to say that creation itself testifies of this truth--"being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
So everybody who has beheld creation should have enough evidence that there is an Intelligent Designer behind all that. Human reason says that if there is something, there should be someone who thought of it, right? I think this was the teleological argument. Anyhow, how come some people don't believe in the existence of God? How is it that they find it incredibly ridiculous and stupid?
Verse 21: "For although they knew God," men are conscious of the existence of God through creation; "they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him," despite of all the clear evidence revealed, they still refused to acknowledge it; "but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" all man-made philosophies, religions, movements will all be in vain, futile, and the darkness of spiritual falsehood casts its shadow over their hearts rendering them unable to discern truth. Refusing to acknowledge the truth and consequently rejecting it, man ends up in a state of spiritual deadness, unable to respond spiritual stimuli. In that state of spiritual death, they come up with all these philosophies about God, rationalizations of his own sinfulness, explanations of all sorts of things, relying on their own wisdom and intelligence. "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools." (v.22)
Refusing to come into terms with the evidence revealed in creation, men come up with their own truth, their own god. Verse 23 says, "they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images"--idolatry. It is remarkable to note that historians reported that originally, ancient cultures did not have idols like Persia (Herodotus; The Histories, 1:31) and Greece (Lucian; The Syrian Goddess, 34). Eusebius, a 4th century historian, said that the oldest civilizations had no idols.
As a result of their insolence, God "gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another" (v.24). The term "gave over" in the original Greek was a judicial term for handing a prisoner over to his sentence. God punished them by simply handing them over to their sinfulness and the consequences it entails.
Verse 25 is a paramount statement of what the philosophies and conjectures of men really are. "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator." This is the best human wisdom can come up with--a lie in exchange for the truth. The gospel is inherently offensive and foolish to a depraved mind. As the dead cannot feel anything much less respond to it, fallen man cannot understand much less appreciate the unadulterated Word of God. Every unbiblical human philosophy--naturalism, evolutionism, feminism, humanism, atheism etc.--and every man-made religion--Hinduism, Islam, Mormonism, Gnosticism, liberal Christianity (which in effect takes the bible away in its place of authority), Roman Catholicism, etc.--are all lies that attempt to replace the truth revealed in the bible. The "lie" the verse talks about is the denial of the true God's existence and right to be worshiped, both things which human wisdom endeavors to pursue.
Furthermore in verse 26-27, God handed them over in their own perversions and lusts. This is identified to be homosexuality which scripture clearly condemns (Gen. 19; Lev. 18:22; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). The verse says that even women, who were normally the last to be affected by moral perversions, were engaging in debauchery. This unmistakably reveals the extent sin pervaded in their beings. In verse 27, these people receive "the due penalty for their perversion." This speaks of reaping of the consequences of the sin they have sown. This tells of the destructiveness of sin. Sin will have its repercussions. STD's have spread due to these perversions.
Moreover, God "gave them over to a depraved mind" (v.28). The word for depraved was used to describe useless, worthless metals which were eventually thrown out because of the impurity it has. And it was these useless, worthless minds that thought it not "worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God" (v.28). You can see the futility and destructiveness of refusing to acknowledge the truth God clearly reveals. People who vehemently debunk the truth of the bible are subject to the divine wrath of a depraved mind, thinking that has wisdom when he has none.
As a product of such thinking, fallen men have become "filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity" (v.29), "gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful" (v.29-30), "senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless" (v.31). The length and of the list indicates the degree of decay their beings have undergone. More to that, even though they know in fact that those things they do are wrong, they still continue and approve of it (v.32). Men are not ignorant of what is right or wrong, as some suppose, they know of this in their own consciences (Rom. 2:15). Therefore their sinfulness is a blatant rebellion against the character of God.
Despite of the utter hopelessness of fallen man, they are not beyond the extent of the grace of God. No amount of sin will overwhelm the work of Christ on the cross. Christ has paid for it all. If you have not yet come to know the Lord, pray that the Sovereign God enables you to repent from your sins and by faith receive the gracious gift of spiritual awakening the Lord bestows his elect. Understand that apart from God, everything you do will only amount to sin, which is an offense to the Almighty, Triune God. For those of you who read this, I pray that the Holy Spirit begin to work in you so that you may have your eyes opened to the real truth all the lies of the world have tried hard to replace and obscure.
