What God Says About Man's Depravity
By: Mitch Cervinka

People like to think that there is at least a little "spark of good" in every human being, but the Bible teaches that, in our "flesh" dwelleth no good thing (Romans 7:18). Folks like to think that many of the unsaved are sincerely seeking God, and would therefore trust in Christ the minute they hear the Gospel. But the Bible teaches that there is none who seeks after God (Romans 3:11). In fact, then, the teaching of the Bible runs directly oppo-site to the beliefs of a great many people.

According to the Bible, the human heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9) Unsaved people are not merely spiritually lazy, or spiritually asleep (needing only the prompting of the Gospel to awaken them). Rather, the Bible tells us that the unsaved are
dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Unsaved people do not merely have poor spiritual eyesight, but are spiritually blind (Ephesians 4:18). They are not merely hard of hearing, but deaf (John 8:43). God commands men to come to Him (Matthew 11:28; Revelation 22:17), but, at the same time, He tells us that they are not able to come (John 6:44).

What does He mean by this? Does He mean that man would like to come to God and that God is preventing Him from coming? Absolutely not! The problem is with man himself. The Bible teaches that the mind of unsaved man is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). The unsaved man has an incurable animosity toward God. He rebels against God at every opportunity, and even though he may perform deeds which to human beings seem perfectly good and holy, he is doing them out of an improper motive. He does not do them out of a love for God, but seeks praise for himself. As Christ said of such people, "They have their reward" (Matthew 6:2).

Thus, man hates God and is utterly devoid of any desire to love, trust or obey God. Lacking any will or desire to turn to God, then, man is declared to be unable to ravingly come to Christ, unable to believingly hear Christ's word, unable to truly know the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians
2:4). It is no exaggeration, then, to say that the unsaved are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), or to declare that they are the slaves of sin (Romans 6:17-22).

It is important that we fully understand the state of unsaved man before we can understand the power required by the Holy Spirit to save us. Most folks teach that a person must trust in Christ before the Holy Spirit can change that person's heart, but this is just nonsense! First of all, it
is denial of the Holy Spirit's power to impart faith to unbelievers. Secondly, if the person is already trusting in Christ, then he already has a changed heart, and so there is nothing left for the Hoy Spirit to do. Thirdly, if a person must trust in Christ before the Holy Spirit can make him a new
creation, then no one could be saved, for we have just seen that man, in his natural state, is dead in sins and totally devoid of any desire to trust in a righteous and sovereign God.

Just as unbelief, disobedience and a hatred of God are all evidences of spiritual death, so also faith in God, obedience to Him, and a love for God are all signs of spiritual life. Only Jesus Christ, of all the people who have ever set foot on this earth, could raise Himself from the dead (John 2:19). By what logic, therefore, can we conclude that unsaved men can raise them-selves to spiritual life? It is no accident that God chose to use the figure of death to portray the state of the sinner. A dead man cannot raise himself to life. A spiritually dead sinner, then, is no more able to exercise faith in God, for to do so would be to raise himself from the dead. When a person savingly obeys the Gospel, it is because he has already been brought to life by the Holy Spirit. Hearing and sight are evidences of life, and the person who genuinely hears the Gospel and obeys it by faith is simply
manifesting the fact that he is already alive.

Similarly, the Bible uses the figure of birth to teach us about the Spirit's work in bringing us to (spiritual) life (cf. John 1:13; 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:4, 18). How many babies do you know of who were born be- cause they decided to be born? Obviously, birth is one
event over which the individual who is born has no choice. Each person who is born is born whether he wants to be or not. Likewise, then, when we are spiritually born, the decision is totally out of our hands. It is a good thing, too, when you consider the hatred that we, as unsaved folks, had for
God--we would never have chosen to be spiritually born. Praise God that He overruled our wicked choice! And even though the figure of birth should, by itself, leave no room for doubt as to whether our willing had anything to do with it, the Bible removes all possibility for doubt by explicitly stating
that the children of God "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:13.)

In yet another place, the Bible compares our new birth with the original creation, when God commanded the light to shine out of darkness" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Obviously, the creation did not make any choice, respond to any gospel message, exercise faith in God, or do any other such thing
to influence the Lord to shine light upon it. Rather, God commanded the light to shine forth simply because He chose to do so. Likewise, when He "shines" in our hearts to give "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," He does it because He chose to do it--not because we requested it.

Again and again, the Bible teaches that we believe because God first chose us unto salvation and, by His Spirit, changed our hearts. In Acts 13:48, we read "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal live
believed." Most people try to reverse the order of this passage and say that they were ordained to eternal life because they believed. But that is just not what the passage says. It say that the ones who had been ordained to eternal life believed. In other words, their faith was the result, not the
cause, of their being ordained to eternal life.

We find the same phenomenon in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 "But we are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." What is the order in this passage? First (in "the beginning"), we were chosen by God unto salvation. Second, we were sanctified (set apart unto God) by the Spirit. Third, we believed the truth. Once again, then, we are said to believe because God had chosen us unto salvation--not the other way around. Moreover, this passage makes it clear that we believe because the Spirit has already changed our hearts.

Or consider Christ's declaration in John 10:26--"But ye believe not because ye are not of my heep." Again, most people want to turn the passage around to make it say "ye are not of my sheep because ye believe not." But this is a total contradiction of the passage. The verse teaches that
those who do not trust in Christ do not believe simply because they are not sheep. Christ goes on to tell us about those who are His sheep: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." So then those who savingly hear Christ's voice and, by faith, follow Christ do so because they are sheep. (The Bible nowhere admits the possibility of a goat or "non-sheep" becoming a sheep--no more than it admits the possibility of sheep becoming a goat or a "non-sheep").

Consider also the many passages where the apostle Paul gives thanks to God for the faith of the brethren. If, as most folks teach, faith were "man's part in salvation," then why would Paul thank God for a man's faith as though it were God's doing? Clearly, the apostle did not regard faith to be
"man's part in salvation." For example, in Romans 6:17, he says "But God be thanked, that ye were the salves of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." He thanks the Lord for our faith simply because it was the Lord who changed our hearts so that we would believe. Likewise, in Colossians 1:3-4, he says "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints." Again, in 1 Thess-alonians 2:13, he says "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which
ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effect-ually worketh also in you that believe." (See also Philemon 4-5.)

Then again, there are those passages which teach that faith is God's gift to those whom He saves. In Philippians 1:29, the apostle says "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake;" and in Ephesians 2:8, he says "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."

So we see that the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit has the power to raise totally dead sinners unto a living faith in Jesus Christ. He is successful every time He tries, and He doesn't have to wait for man to "make the first move." Dead men simply don't move. If God had to wait for us to make the first move, He would have to wait forever! It is a very blessed fact that He, in sovereign grace, overrules our sinful choices and plants within us that new life which we never want until we already have it.

How sad it is, therefore, that so many people reject the testimony of God's holy Word on this subject and instead insist that man is never so dead that he cannot believe the Gospel. What an insult this does to the grace of God! How much does this magnify the strength and importance of man, and belittle the power and grace of God! This in itself is an evidence of the awful deceitfulness and depravity of the human heart, that it would insist upon sharing with God the glory for man's salvation in direct violation of some of the clearest and most explicit passages of God's Word!
Let us therefore be firm in upholding this Biblical doctrine of the total depravity of man--a wickedness and corruption which affects every part of man--his reason, his affections, his desires, and his will. Let us not be found trying to leave a foothold for human boasting, nor trying to deprive
God of His right-ful glory. Let us be fully assured that sovereign grace is the only cure for total depravity. Praise be to God for His glorious grace!