AP

Total Depravity

The ‘Five Points of Calvinism’ are a re-ordered expression of the findings of the ‘Canons of Dort’ (see the Introduction in AP).  In English they are usually remembered by the mnemonic TULIP –

            Total depravity

            Unconditional election

            Limited atonement

            Irresistible grace

            Perseverance of the saints.

The important thing to note about this first of the five points is that the adjective ‘Total’ does not describe the depth of man’s depravity, but the extent of it.  In other words, it is not saying we are as bad as we possibly could be – that there is no residual ‘good’ in us – but that there is no part of our being that has not been affected adversely by our Fall in Adam, by our inherent sinful nature. 

Our rebellion against God’s right to rule our lives, a ‘right’ that is his because he is the Creator to whom we must all ultimately give account – our sin – has impacted every one of us and every part of us.  Specifically, my will, my feelings, my intellect and ability to reason, are all damaged by sin and therefore can’t be trusted to operate as they were designed to operate, to lead me in the ‘right’ direction or make ‘correct’ choices, to ‘think straight’. 

The evidence for this is obvious: God made us in ‘his own image and likeness’, with our ‘chief end’ to ‘glorify him and enjoy him for ever’ according to Question 1 of the Shorter Catechism.  But, in pursuance of this ‘end’ mankind has devised countless different ideologies and philosophies of life (‘religions’) that do not reflect what God has clearly revealed to us in the Scriptures, in creation, and ultimately in the sending of his Son Jesus into our world as our Saviour.  Arminianism, championed by Jacobus Arminius in the sixteenth century, advocated our ‘free’ will to the extent that our destiny is entirely our choice. ‘Rationalism’ in the seventeenth century, championed by René Descartes, assumed that our powers of reason are fully trustworthy to lead us into truth. Twentieth-century Pentecostalism often seems to advocate that we can be led into truth by our feelings – if it ‘feels good’ it must be ‘right’ for me. 

‘Total Depravity’ postulates that there is great danger and inadequacy in all these approaches, and warns us accordingly.  It is the reality of ‘Total Depravity’ that led the seventeenth-century divines to devote the very first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith to the authority, infallibility and perspicacity of Scripture alone.  In this, it is in harmony with all the Reformed Confessions.  As Jesus himself said in his High Priestly Prayer to his Father: “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17), which is how he treated the Scriptures throughout his earthly ministry.  It is the reality of ‘Total Depravity’ that drives me to be diligent in my study of the Scriptures, to read them systematically and daily that I might know the ‘whole counsel of God’, and that I might follow the example of the believers in Berea who, when they heard Paul preach, “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)  My ‘Total Depravity’ makes me realise that I can’t trust what I work out by my own human logic to seem ‘right’ to be true, nor what I want to be ‘right’ to be true, nor what feels ‘right’ in my bones to be true, but I must make God’s revealed truth in his Word to be my supreme standard which I can always trust.

– Bruce Christian