VERSES FOR PONDERING AND MEDIATION REGARDING DEPRAVITY:
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5, ESV, emphasis mine).
"They have gone deep in depravity ... He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins" (Hosea 9:9, NASB).
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jerimiah 17:9, ESV, emphasis mine).
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart" (Prov. 21:2, ESV, emphasis mine).
"No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law's demands--indeed it is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are" (Rom. 3:20, J. B. Phillips, emphasis mine).
"The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts" (cf. 1 Chronicles 28:9).
NOTE THAT WE ARE SINNERS BY NATURE, BY BIRTH, AND BY CHOICE! Augustine said we are, in Latin, non posse non peccare, or we're unable not to sin--all we can do is sin!
WE ARE SINNERS NOT BECAUSE WE SIN. RATHER, WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS, ACCORDING TO A FAMOUS THEOLOGICAL AXIOM.
Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10, ESV, "But by the grace of God I am what I am...." We are what we are by nature, just like a pig is only acting according to its nature when it wallows in the mud after cleaned, we act consistently with the nature God gave us: whether we are sanguine, choleric, melancholy, temperamental, even easy-going, or happy-go-lucky! The good news is that our God always acts according to His nature and that means He acts perfectly according to a perfect nature, and He cannot act contrary to it.
"See, this alone, I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes" (Eccl. 7:29, ESV). For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (cf. Rom. 3:23)! If sin were a color like red, we'd be all red--you cannot be only a little depraved, no more than a little pregnant. We are radically corrupt, with no peripheral goodness to boast of in God's presence--our righteousness is as filthy rags and His gift to us, not our gift to Him. We are as bad off as we can be with our hearts totally evil and corrupt, that includes our will, mind, and affections. They say we are totally depraved, but not utterly depraved--we're not as bad as we can possibly be, but as bad off.
We soon find out in life that we all have feet of clay and the adage that to err is human and that no body's perfect. But we tend to compare ourselves with others and the run-of-the-mill sinner seems to estimate himself a saint compared to the likes of Hitler, the paradigm of evil in our times. We have solidarity in Adam, sharing original sin and the effect of that sin in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden.
Depravity is God's estimation of man, not our own self-estimation! Some people indeed think they're okay in their estimation and don't even think they've sinned. However, man is not basically good, but inherently evil and our sin permeates our very core of being. The complete heart is depraved: the emotions in Psalm 37:4; the will in Exodus 7:20; and the intellect in Matt. 15:19. In other words: Sin permeates our very being and our reasoning power is dead (cf. Rom. 8:7); our conscience is corrupt (cf. Tit. 1:5); our will is stubborn (cf. Rom.1:32); our desires are selfish and base (cf. Col. 3:5); and our thoughts are evil (cf. Gen 6:5). Our minds, wills, bodies, and spirits are corrupt--our total soul and being. We must expose the dark side to see ourselves for what we are--fallen creatures! We have no intrinsic goodness nor intrinsic merit nor value nor dignity, but only extrinsic worth and dignity because we are in the image of God and are clay in the Potter's hands.
The trouble, someone has said, is that most people don't see how bad they are, and the catch-22 is that we must see how bad we are to be good and qualify for goodness, and we don't know that till we've tried to be good and seen the futility of the attempt without God. Man never ceased to be man with the power of choice, but ceased to be good! Indeed we are bad, but the good news is that we are not too bad to be saved, if we will only confess it and confession or homologeo in Greek means to say the same thing as we need to agree with God and come clean with Him. Man's basic problem in thinking he's good is that he thinks he does good deeds (Isa. 64:6 says they are filthy rags!), and God says no one does good, no not one! He is delusional in his self-estimation and is only being self-righteous.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23, ESV). None of us even lives up to our own standards and perfectly obeys his own conscience: Ovid said, "I see the better things and approve them, but I follow the worst." All you have to do is read Romans 7:24, ESV, which emphatically says: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?") to see Paul's struggle with evil within. We are great sinners, but there is a Great Savior!
The point in salvation is that we cannot clean up our act and that Jesus sees through and penetrates our veneer or masquerade. We must realize that we are never good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation by grace with nothing we can do to contribute to God's accomplishment on our behalf. We assume God grades on a curve, but we are all in the same boat known as the universality of sin and all have fallen short of the ideal standard set by God through His Son. We can't play games with God or fool Him! God judges our motives, and even good deeds can be done for selfish reasons or evil motive, even to gain the approbation of God. "And he [Amaziah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart" (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:2). Our solidarity in Adam always gives us away!
God sometimes lets man go his own way: "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and everyone act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart'" (Jer. 18:12, ESV); "'But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels" (Psalm 81:12, ESV).
The reality, which is a paradox, is that man is not born free, but born a slave and in bondage to sin and the old sin nature; "... People are slaves to whatever has mastered them" ["... For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved" (2 Pet. 2:10, ESV)] (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19); "... You belong to the power you choose to obey" [... "you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness" (Rom. 6:16, ESV)] (cf. Rom. 6:16). We "by nature children of wrath," according to Ephesians 2:3.
We need to be set free from our own wickedness and nature, and this can only be done by the power of Christ transforming our souls upon salvation. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, ESV). Paul says, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14, ESV).
However, the problem of man is that he doesn't see his own sin and must be convicted (only the Holy Spirit can do this too), because man instinctively justifies his own sin and fails to see his shortcomings, but tends to think too highly of himself, in the best possible light, and that he is basically good, and not inherently evil through and through with no inherent goodness intact.
As Christians, we have been set free from bondage to Satan and our sin nature and don't have to obey sin or be its slave. "... [A]nd let no iniquity get dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133, ESV). "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!" (Psalm 19:13, ESV). Soli Deo Gloria!
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5, ESV, emphasis mine).
"They have gone deep in depravity ... He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins" (Hosea 9:9, NASB).
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jerimiah 17:9, ESV, emphasis mine).
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart" (Prov. 21:2, ESV, emphasis mine).
"No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law's demands--indeed it is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are" (Rom. 3:20, J. B. Phillips, emphasis mine).
"The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts" (cf. 1 Chronicles 28:9).
"... God withdrew from Hezekiah to see what was really in his heart" (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:21).
"... God left him [Hezekiah] to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31, ESV).
"Being made then free from [the power of] sin, ye became the servants of righteousness [Christ]" (Rom. 6:18, KJV).
"... God left him [Hezekiah] to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31, ESV).
"Being made then free from [the power of] sin, ye became the servants of righteousness [Christ]" (Rom. 6:18, KJV).
NOTE THAT WE ARE SINNERS BY NATURE, BY BIRTH, AND BY CHOICE! Augustine said we are, in Latin, non posse non peccare, or we're unable not to sin--all we can do is sin!
WE ARE SINNERS NOT BECAUSE WE SIN. RATHER, WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS, ACCORDING TO A FAMOUS THEOLOGICAL AXIOM.
Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10, ESV, "But by the grace of God I am what I am...." We are what we are by nature, just like a pig is only acting according to its nature when it wallows in the mud after cleaned, we act consistently with the nature God gave us: whether we are sanguine, choleric, melancholy, temperamental, even easy-going, or happy-go-lucky! The good news is that our God always acts according to His nature and that means He acts perfectly according to a perfect nature, and He cannot act contrary to it.
"See, this alone, I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes" (Eccl. 7:29, ESV). For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (cf. Rom. 3:23)! If sin were a color like red, we'd be all red--you cannot be only a little depraved, no more than a little pregnant. We are radically corrupt, with no peripheral goodness to boast of in God's presence--our righteousness is as filthy rags and His gift to us, not our gift to Him. We are as bad off as we can be with our hearts totally evil and corrupt, that includes our will, mind, and affections. They say we are totally depraved, but not utterly depraved--we're not as bad as we can possibly be, but as bad off.
We soon find out in life that we all have feet of clay and the adage that to err is human and that no body's perfect. But we tend to compare ourselves with others and the run-of-the-mill sinner seems to estimate himself a saint compared to the likes of Hitler, the paradigm of evil in our times. We have solidarity in Adam, sharing original sin and the effect of that sin in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden.
Depravity is God's estimation of man, not our own self-estimation! Some people indeed think they're okay in their estimation and don't even think they've sinned. However, man is not basically good, but inherently evil and our sin permeates our very core of being. The complete heart is depraved: the emotions in Psalm 37:4; the will in Exodus 7:20; and the intellect in Matt. 15:19. In other words: Sin permeates our very being and our reasoning power is dead (cf. Rom. 8:7); our conscience is corrupt (cf. Tit. 1:5); our will is stubborn (cf. Rom.1:32); our desires are selfish and base (cf. Col. 3:5); and our thoughts are evil (cf. Gen 6:5). Our minds, wills, bodies, and spirits are corrupt--our total soul and being. We must expose the dark side to see ourselves for what we are--fallen creatures! We have no intrinsic goodness nor intrinsic merit nor value nor dignity, but only extrinsic worth and dignity because we are in the image of God and are clay in the Potter's hands.
The trouble, someone has said, is that most people don't see how bad they are, and the catch-22 is that we must see how bad we are to be good and qualify for goodness, and we don't know that till we've tried to be good and seen the futility of the attempt without God. Man never ceased to be man with the power of choice, but ceased to be good! Indeed we are bad, but the good news is that we are not too bad to be saved, if we will only confess it and confession or homologeo in Greek means to say the same thing as we need to agree with God and come clean with Him. Man's basic problem in thinking he's good is that he thinks he does good deeds (Isa. 64:6 says they are filthy rags!), and God says no one does good, no not one! He is delusional in his self-estimation and is only being self-righteous.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23, ESV). None of us even lives up to our own standards and perfectly obeys his own conscience: Ovid said, "I see the better things and approve them, but I follow the worst." All you have to do is read Romans 7:24, ESV, which emphatically says: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?") to see Paul's struggle with evil within. We are great sinners, but there is a Great Savior!
The point in salvation is that we cannot clean up our act and that Jesus sees through and penetrates our veneer or masquerade. We must realize that we are never good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation by grace with nothing we can do to contribute to God's accomplishment on our behalf. We assume God grades on a curve, but we are all in the same boat known as the universality of sin and all have fallen short of the ideal standard set by God through His Son. We can't play games with God or fool Him! God judges our motives, and even good deeds can be done for selfish reasons or evil motive, even to gain the approbation of God. "And he [Amaziah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart" (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:2). Our solidarity in Adam always gives us away!
God sometimes lets man go his own way: "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and everyone act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart'" (Jer. 18:12, ESV); "'But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels" (Psalm 81:12, ESV).
The reality, which is a paradox, is that man is not born free, but born a slave and in bondage to sin and the old sin nature; "... People are slaves to whatever has mastered them" ["... For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved" (2 Pet. 2:10, ESV)] (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19); "... You belong to the power you choose to obey" [... "you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness" (Rom. 6:16, ESV)] (cf. Rom. 6:16). We "by nature children of wrath," according to Ephesians 2:3.
We need to be set free from our own wickedness and nature, and this can only be done by the power of Christ transforming our souls upon salvation. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, ESV). Paul says, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14, ESV).
However, the problem of man is that he doesn't see his own sin and must be convicted (only the Holy Spirit can do this too), because man instinctively justifies his own sin and fails to see his shortcomings, but tends to think too highly of himself, in the best possible light, and that he is basically good, and not inherently evil through and through with no inherent goodness intact.
As Christians, we have been set free from bondage to Satan and our sin nature and don't have to obey sin or be its slave. "... [A]nd let no iniquity get dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133, ESV). "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!" (Psalm 19:13, ESV). Soli Deo Gloria!