The Need for Salvation
Total Depravity
The Corruption of Human Nature
Description
Total depravity describes the extent of sin's corruption in human nature. It does not mean that humans are utterly depraved in every act, but that sin has affected every part of our being. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The mind is hostile to God, unable to submit to His law. The will is enslaved to sin—we are free to choose, but our choices are limited by our sinful nature. No one seeks God; no one does good. This condition is universal and inescapable apart from sovereign grace. Understanding depravity is essential because those who think themselves well have no need of a physician.
Key Verses
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
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.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.