Have you seen the car tag, “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.” Comforting thought. Right? There is one inheritance most children wish had been spent by their parents. The inheritance of a sinful nature.
Charles Ryrie calls this sinful state “inherited sin” because it came from our parents. Reformed or Covenant brothers believe this sinful state like “imputed sin” came directly from Adam. Wayne Grudem is an example: “Our inherited corruption, our tendency to sin, which we receive from Adam” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994, page 497). Wayne Grudem calls this sinful state “inherited corruption” because Adam pasted his sin nature to his children.
Charles Hodges calls this sinful state “original pollution” because Adam’s original sin polluted all future generations. “Sin includes guilt and pollution; the one expresses its relation to the justice, the other to the holiness of God” (Charles Hodges, Systematic Theology Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977, page 188).
You and I inherited a sinful nature from our parents because of Adam’s sin. Before salvation, Paul says we were “children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) and by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). We were born sinners. According to Psalm 58:3, we do not have to teach our children to do wrong. Any parents disagree with that statement of Scripture? We do have to train them to do right (Eph. 6:4) because we were conceived as sinners in our mother’s womb (Psa. 51:5).
We also inherited total depravity. First, lets ask and answer what total depravity does not mean? Total depravity does not mean that every sinner will indulge in all sins (1 Cor. 5:1) or that every sinner is as sinful as possible (2 Tim 3:13).
Common Grace
Common Grace prevents sinners from being as sinful as possible. Wayne Grudem provides a good definition of common grace: “Common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation….In distinction from common grace, the grace of God that brings people to salvation is often called ‘saving grace’” (page 657).
Common grace provides restraints that hinder sinners from being as bad as they possibly could be. God gives people a conscience (Romans 2:14, 15) that restrains them from some sins. God given human government (Romans 13:1) including laws, penalties which act as deterrents, police officers, and judicial systems restrain sinners from being as wicked as they could be.
What does total depravity mean? In our nature, we are totally affected by sin. Our intellect is affected by sin (Eph. 4:18), our emotions (Rom. 1:21, 24, 26), our will (Rom. 6:20), and our bodies (Rom. 6:12; 7:18). Not only in our nature but in our actions are we are totally unable to do spiritual good. Sinners can do good because of God’s common grace. Jesus admitted this in Luke 6:33: “And if you do good to them which do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even the same.”
Wayne Gurdem further describes common grace. The common grace of God in the intellectual realm also results in an ability to grasp truth and distinguish it from error, and to experience growth in knowledge that can be used in the investigation of the universe and in the task of subduing the earth. This means that all science and technology carried out by non-Christians is a result of common grace, allowing them to make incredible discoveries and inventions, to develop the earth’s resources into many material goods, to produce and distribute those resources, and to have skill in their productive work. In a practical sense this means that every time we walk into a grocery store or ride in an automobile or enter a house we should remember that we are experiencing the results of the abundant common grace of God poured out so richly on all mankind (page 659).
Total Depravity
Sinners cannot do spiritual good because of total depravity. Referring to the unsaved, Paul touched on this point in Romans 8:8: “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The writer of Hebrews 11:6 concurred: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The Pharisees’ praying was sin (Mt. 6:5). Prayer is good but not by sinners. Because sinners do not love God with all their heart, they can do no spiritual good. To the Pharisees, Jesus said, “But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you” (John 5:42). What about your good neighbor who does not steal, curse, fight, etc. He is a sinner because he does not love God.
Sinners are totally unable to merit salvation because they are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1) not just sick. They are spiritually separated from God and can not without help from God be saved. Sinners are dead, but blind (2 Cor 4:4), not just near-sighted. They consider the gospel foolish (1 Cor. 1:22, 23; 2:14).
David Doran provided the following example: You come home for the evening after a hard days work and are enjoying dinner with your family. The phone rings and it is a telemarketer. It has to be because that is when telemarketers call. And you hate telemarketers. You don’t trust them. The telemarketer says you have won a week’s vacation to the Hawaii with all expenses paid plus $5000.00 of extra spending money. Your response. “Yeah, right.” And you say NO! Because you consider that offer foolish.
Many are invited to enter the kingdom but only a few are chosen. The majority of the Jews rejected Jesus’ offer of the kingdom and therefore it was postponed. More are generally called than are elected.
Free Will
Does the sinner have free will or ability? Yes! Even John Calvin believed sinners have free will. Calvin quotes St. Bernard with approval: ‘among all living beings man alone is free... For what is voluntary is also free.’ Later in the same passage he quotes St. Bernard with approval again, where he admits that the will is in bondage to sin and therefore sins of necessity, but then says that ‘this necessity is as it were voluntary.... Thus the soul...is at the time enslaved and free: enslaved because of necessity; free because of will.’ A little later Calvin himself says that ‘man, while he sins of necessity, yet sins no less voluntarily’ (1:309 [2.4.1]. Calvin clearly says that Adam, before there was sin in the world, ‘by free will had the power, if he so willed, to attain eternal life.... Adam could have stood if he wished, seeing that he fell solely by his own will.... His choice of good and evil was free’ (1:195 [1.15.8]. So Calvin can use the term free will if it means ‘voluntary, willing’ and he can use it of Adam before the fall. Yet he carefully avoids applying the term free will to sinful human beings if by it people mean ‘able to do good in one’s own strength.” (Grudem, page 330).
When we ask whether we have ‘free will,’ it is important to be clear as to what is meant by the phrase. Scripture nowhere says that we are ‘free’ in the sense of being outside of God’s control or of being able to make decisions that are not caused by anything.... The kind of freedom that is demanded by those who deny God’s providential control of all things, a freedom to be outside of God’s sustaining and controlling activity, would be impossible if Jesus Christ is indeed ‘continually carrying along things by his word of power’ (Heb. 1:3). An absolute ‘freedom,’ totally free of God’s control, is simply not possible in a world providentially sustained and directed by God himself (Grudem, page 331).
I repeat the question, “Does the sinner have a free will or ability? Yes! The sinner when called by God (like you are called by the telemarketer) and told from Scripture that God is offering him eternal life and untold blessing in this life, free of charge, has a free will and the ability to say “No! Yea, right! You are going to give me total forgiveness of sin, and Heaven also. No! That is foolish.”
Sinners, however, can only respond to the gospel with God’s help. Scripture calls this enablement the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11). The necessity of God’s help in salvation is seen in several Scriptures. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). “And he said, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father” (John 6:65). “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Mt. 11:27).
Because sinners have an inherited sin nature and are therefore totally depraved, we must pray and be burdened for them like the Apostle Paul was (Rom. 9:1; 10:1) and then give sinners the gospel (Rom. 10:14, 15) so that God the Spirit can do His work of convicting and drawing.
Regeneration
Some theologians view total depravity as total inability or the sinner's inability to believe in Christ as Savior until God regenerates that sinner first.
"In regeneration the soul is the subject and not the agent of the change produced. The Spirit gives life, and then excites and guides all its operations.... That the nature of the influence by which regeneration, which must precede all holy exercises, is produced, precludes the possibility of preparation or cooperation on the part of the sinner....These representations are designed to teach the utter impotence and entire dependence of the sinner" (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Eerdmans, Vol. II, pages 270-271).
Robert Reymond connects total inability with the effectual calling. Ryrie teaches the effectual calling of the Holy Spirit (page 376 in Basic Theology), but not like Reymond.
"The divine command 'Repent and believe!' with reference to the elect sinner mysteriously and powerfully enables him to do what he was not able to do before. Indeed, God's summons must be in some way intrinsically efficacious, since the man being summoned is dead in his trespasses and sins and is unable to do anything to advance his salvation until he is enabled to do so" (Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, Nelson, page 175).
Wayne Grudem seems at first to be softer on this issue than some of the other covenant theologians.
"Yet because of their inability to do good and to escape from their fundamental rebellion against God and their fundamental preference for sin, unbelievers do not have freedom in the most important sense of freedom---that is, the freedom to do right, and to do what is pleasing to God. The application to our lives is quite evident: if God gives anyone a desire to repent and trust in Christ, he or she should not delay and should not harden his or her heart (cf. Heb. 3:7-8; 12:17). This ability to repent and desire to trust in God is not naturally ours but is given by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and it will not last forever. 'Today, when you hear the voice, do not harden your hearts' (Heb. 3:15) (page 498).
I come closer to agreeing with this statement from Grudem than the ones from Hodge and Reymond. However, there are real problems with the view of total inability when Grudem begins to apply his doctrine of total inability and the necessity of regeneration before faith to infants.
"Here we must say that if such infants are saved, it cannot be on their own merits, or on the basis of their own righteousness or innocence, but it must be entirely on the basis of Christ's redemptive work and regeneration by the work of the Holy Spirit within them .... Yet it certainly is possible for God to bring regeneration (that is, new spiritual life) to an infant even before he or she is born. This was true of John the Baptist, for the angel Gabriel, before John was born, said, 'He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15). We might say that John the Baptist was 'born again' before he was born! There is a similar example in Psalm 22:10: David says, 'Since my mother bore me you have been my God.' It is clear, therefore, that God is able to save infants in an unusual way, apart from their hearing and understanding the gospel, by bringing regeneration to them very early, sometimes even before birth" (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 500).
These are examples of the doctrine of total inability. I do not agree with Grudem's interpretation of Luke 1:15 and Psalm 22:10 as teaching regeneration before faith. I do not agree with total inability or why would Jesus say to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” or regenerated? If regeneration proceeds saving faith without the sinner’s consent, why command Nicodemus to be born again?