Blog on the Lillypad
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
| Total Depravity and Total Ignorance----bad combination
Yesterday on the Hyles-Anderson Forum, somebody asked if we are still totally depraved after being saved. For the readers who are new to all of this: Total depravity means that man by nature has no inclination or power to be good. This doesn’t mean that we cannot do good; we can. We can intellectually realize that doing good profits us in the long term. Man has a conscience that will sting if he does anything to violate it. These shadowy forms of goodness are not the real thing, as genuine goodness clings to good no matter what it suffers as a consequence, and finds a true pleasure and fulfillment in goodness. People, on the other hand, do good because they think they ought to. We have to learn to do good and be drilled in it, then discipline ourselves to do it. This is because we are not good. But innately good creatures do good as naturally as we eat or sleep. |
Total depravity also means that we are capable of committing any sin. Again, our performance will be tempered and restrained by the very pride that condemns us. We often refrain from performing evil actions because self respect prevents us (We have an image of goodness that we try to live up to.), but the inclination is there. Take away the props of self respect; remove the sting of conscience, and we will do anything to justify ourselves, gain what we want, serve our own ends, accrue power, etc. This, of course, is why people sin in secret and why they whisper behind each other’s backs. Such actions reveal their recognition that what they are doing to get what they want is evil. Yet rather than not do it, they do it secretly, as though God is fooled.
Of course, I suppose that most of my readers disagree with this idea, as most people consider man to be neutral in matters of right and wrong, and each choice that he makes indicates his progression up or down the proper path. However, the Biblical teaching is that of total depravity. I don’t mind if readers disagree with the Bible, for as long as we both know this, there’s room for discourse.
But when a person claims to believe the Bible and doesn’t believe that he or she is a sinner, then there’s an obvious problem. For the Bible is clear that man is not good; indeed, is evil at heart and prone to sin. And the deliverance of man from sin is in the finished work of Jesus Christ. In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul rebukes the believers because they trusted Christ to save them by His Blood, and now they have decided that by teeth-gritting effort and strict adherence to the Law, they can move from the righteousness given to them by Christ to living a life free of sin by their efforts.
Paul rebukes them and reminds them that what is begun by faith cannot be finished by works.
Bama, you always have your nature of sin in this life. As long as you have flesh, you have the nature of the flesh. But Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, gives His people a new nature. They are crucified in His death and raised in His resurrection. By faith in Him, they are given His life, working through them. Our salvation is of God every moment---from the first moment to every continuing moment, when we resort to Him.
