If we can choose evil can we choose good? (Total Depravity)

A person always chooses according to his inclination. Every man is bonded to choose what he loves. Fallen man loves darkness and hates light. So when confronted with a choice between darkness and light, he chooses darkness every time. He will always choose what is attractive to him. What his free will desires (Jhn 3:19-20).

Total depravity, although it is not a biblical word in its self, man’s will and nature is throughout and expounded upon in the scriptures. The doctrine states that because of the fall, man is unable and unwilling of himself to savingly believe the gospel (Jhn 6:44). The fallen man is dead (Eph 2:5), blind (II Cor 4:4), and deaf (Jhn 5:25) to things of God. His heart and will are controlled by his nature, which is desperately corrupt. His will is not free but in bondage to evil and sin (Rom 8:2), therefore he will not and cannot choose good over evil.

To better understand our nature let us look at Adam. When God withheld His sustaining power and permitted Adam to freely choose he willfully transgressed against God (Isa 53:6). Cursed was the ground he walked and his generations for his sin (Gen 3:17). The punishment for this sin was death (Jam 1:15). Adam’s death was one of banishment from the fellowship he once had with God (Gen 3:24). A continual condemnation to labor and sorrow in sin (Job 5:7). A temporal spiritual death of his nature (Rom 3:24). Finally an external death of the wicked, not just of the flesh but also of his soul (Job 21:30). Now the fallen state of man and our nature without Gods sustaining power and grace we all are full of unholy and corruptible thoughts and deeds all the time. And for our sins, cursed is the ground we walk. We have sinned and are guilty of death. As Adam died, we too lost fellowship that Adam once enjoyed (Psm 58:3). We are no longer able or capable of coming before God unless through His Son as an intercession for us. We continue to labor in the sorrows of this world (Ecl 2:22-23). And likewise we are a slave to that sin and exist in a temporal death where in the flesh we not only find no rest but also take pleasure in sin (Rom 1:32). How absurd it is to say that someone seeks the Lord for he is not hiding. In the garden it was Adam that hid as God was seeking him. By nature we not only will not seek God, but we do not desire God and love unrighteousness (II Pet 2:14-15).

posted by Eric Wilson @ 6:03 PM