Depravity-Hereditary, Universal, and Total
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 39, No. 9, September 1900.By man came death. I Cor. xv. 21.
Depravity is a state of corruption. It is expressed in our text as a state of death. The Ephesians were dead in trespasses and sins before they were quickened. Eph. ii. 1. Our text teaches that this state of depravity is hereditary, universal and total.
It is hereditary because it came by man, by the one man that sinned. Rom. v. 18, 19. The question is asked in Job. xiv. 4, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" and the answer given is, "Not one." This refers to man that is born of a woman, showing that the depravity of man is hereditary. Our nature is inherited, and we are all by nature the children of wrath. Eph. ii. 3. That a depraved nature is inherited is shown by the first murder ever committed. Cain did not learn to murder by imitation, but committed the deed from the sinful nature transmitted to him hereditarily. The spots of the leopard, and the color of the skin of the Ethiopian, are hereditary, and these are figures used to illustrate the fallen state of man and his inability to change that state. Jer. xiii. 22. The sinner, then, no more became one by mere imitation, than does the leopard get his spots, or the Ethiopian his color, in that way. That sinful acts are often performed by imitation, and result from evil associations, is certainly true, but we are now considering the sinful nature that lies behind those acts. The corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit. Matt. vii. 17, 18. Before it bore any fruit it was a corrupt tree. So the infant is sinful in its nature before it commits a willful act of sin. The tree that bears corrupt fruit could not have been a good tree before it bore any fruit, for Jesus says, "A good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit." The Methodist Discipline contains this doctrine expressed in the strongest terms, though one would not think so to read the writings of Methodists and hear them preach. The Seventh article of their religion as given in their Discipline is as follows:
"Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually."
Depravity is universal because death passed upon all men, which proves that all are sinners. Rom. vi. 12. "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." Eccle. vii. 20. "There is none righteous, no, not one." Ps. xiv. 3 and liii. 1. Rom. iii. 10. It is needless to multiply passages to prove the depravity of the human race to be universal. The Scriptures here given prove it beyond dispute. Besides, in proving that depravity is hereditary we prove it to be universal.
Depravity is total, necessarily so. It is expressed in our text by the term death, and death is necessarily total. We cannot think of death without regarding it as the total extinction of life, because we know this to be its meaning. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it." Isa. i. 5, 6. When "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth," he discovered that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Gen. vi. 5. It was in the heart wickedness was seen to dwell, the mental affections, where actions begin. Thus depravity abounds at the very fountain of all human actions.
When we say that the depravity of man is total, we do not mean that his conduct is as bad as can be, and that the conduct of one man is as bad as another. In the heart natural affections are found implanted, and noble qualities of a natural order are known to exist, where no pretensions to religion are made and no love for God is felt. In such instances the grand principle that must actuate one in rendering acceptable service to God is wanting. The total absence of God's love and of eternal life in the soul is what we mean by total depravity.
We may have the doctrine of total depravity in our creed, and pretend to believe it in theory, but to receive it in our hearts we must be quickened by the Spirit to a realizing sense of its truthfulness in our own case. A thorough conviction of our own depravity and utter helplessness is necessary to give us true humility of heart, and to qualify us to ascribe all the glory of our salvation to Christ.
The legitimate conclusion of the doctrine of depravity is that salvation from that depraved state is wholly of sovereign grace. To admit this doctrine renders it necessary to admit that the salvation, calling, and election of the sinner is entirely of grace. To say that the sinner is totally depraved, and then say that he performs any acceptable service as a condition of his being delivered from that state, is contradictory. We here give the Eighth Article of Religion in the Methodist Discipline to show that the doctrine of that church leads to this conclusion.
"The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasing and acceptable to God, without the grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will."
It is strange indeed that any would accept this as their creed and yet contend that the salvation of a sinner is conditional and left entirely to the exercise of his own will and choice. But strange as it is, this is done by every Methodist preacher, and not one of them can reconcile the contradiction. This doctrine contains no flattery for the proud. It is despised, therefore, by the world, and its advocated are frowned upon by the high-minded professors of religion. But faithfulness demands that the true nature of the disease be pointed out, that the mind may be directed to the one remedy that is suitably adapted to all its requirements. A depraved nature is the greatest of all diseases and requires the greatest remedy ever devised. This remedy is the atoning blood of Christ and the Spirit's quickening power. This is the "washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" mentioned in Titus iii. 5. It is the washing away of guilt and the impartation of a new nature. In this "fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" is found the only cure for depravity.
The strongest desire of the child of God is to be cleansed from sin, to be pure and holy. he hopes finally to be admitted to the Lord's immediate company and dwell with the pure ones in glory. As nothing unclean can enter there, one must be spotlessly pure to be admitted. Every guilty stain must be removed, every unholy propensity must be destroyed.
To be raised from the lowest state of pollution to the highest state of purity is so great a change that unbelief temptingly whispers, "Surely it cannot be!" The poor, downcast, despondent christian, viewing his filthy, tattered garments, anxiously enquires, "Can it be, oh! tell me, can it be that a polluted sinner will finally be raised to inhabit a heaven of purity?" It can be, it WILL be! Listen to the reasoning of the allwise God, for to you he speaks: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah i. 18. Wonderful thought! Jehovah reasons with sinners whose stain of guilt is of crimson and scarlet dye! To them he promises a most marvelous change. Bless his holy name for the hope of an unconditional, complete, eternal deliverance from satan, sin and death!
J. R. D.
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