Total Depravity

Total depravity is the doctrine that all humans are born with a corrupt, sinful nature and are incapable of choosing God on their own. Unintuitively, this does not mean that people are as sinful and evil as possible, but rather that people are totally unable to overcome their sinful nature or to choose God on their own.

This is a result of original sin. We inherited Adam’s sinful nature, corrupting our creation in God’s image. We cannot overcome this corruption on our own—we are slaves to sin. John 8:34; Romans 6:16,20 On our own, we will never choose to follow God and live righteously. Romans 3:10–11 Even though we may yet sometimes do good, we can never totally turn from our sin alone.

Our only hope in this state is God. He sent His Son, Jesus, to redeem us from our sinful state, yet we are to depraved to even accept this free gift. God then goes a step further and gives even the most unrepentant sinners supernatural grace to empower them to choose Him. It is sola gratia, by grace alone, that we can be saved.

What happens next is more a matter of debate. Calvinists would say that God’s grace is irresistible. Mankind is so depraved that God must essentially override our free will to force us to accept His gift, as otherwise our free will would be overpowered by our sinful natures.

Most other Christians would agree that we are too depraved to accept God’s gift but would say that God offers His grace to all. Instead of being irresistible however, God’s grace merely overcomes our depravity to enable us to choose whether to accept His gift or not. He overcomes our bondage to sin temporarily for us to decide to follow Him or not.

Regardless of whom God offers His grace to, it’s clear that we humans are wholly dependent on it. It is our only hope. Anyone who tries to be righteous enough on his own is doomed to failure.