Total depravity. Many have misunderstood this term (especially since it is not the best term, as we’ll see below), so in this post I’d like to clarify what it means. And the reason is not just to get theology right; it’s because I think people who are starting to see the Reformed doctrines of grace in the Bible will more freely embrace the fullness of God’s grace if this misunderstood term is explained clearly. And in this, God will be more glorified for his grace (Ephesians 1:6).
So, what does the (often misunderstood) term “total depravity” actually mean?
What “Total Depravity” Means
Total depravity means that there is a depravity (a corruption, a brokenness, a sinful nature) in the human heart which affects everything we do and makes us completely dependent on God’s grace to intervene if we’re to be saved or do anything to please God.
That may sound like a lot, but we can break it down into two manageable parts: 1) We have such a sinful nature that 2) it makes us completely dependent upon God and his grace to be saved or to please God.
In our sinful condition we’re so spiritually blind that we cannot see the kingdom of God without God’s intervention (John 3:3). We’re so spiritually dead that we cannot follow God, obey God, even hear God’s call to believe (Ephesians 2:1; 4:18-19). And we’re so corrupt that we can’t do anything to please God without God’s intervention (Romans 8:8). In this way, we’re totally depraved.
“You Were Dead”
We can explain this even better by using a biblical term (since “total depravity” is not a biblical phrase). The Bible uses many analogies to explain our sinfulness, some which we just mentioned: we’re blind (John 3:3); we’re in the dark and hate the light (John 3:19); we have hard hearts (Ephesians 4:18); and we’re enslaved to sin (John 8:34). But the best and most encompassing term is the idea of being “dead.” Why? Because it implies many of the others: a dead person is blind, in the dark, imperceptible to God’s grandeur, goodness, and grace.
The famous passage on this deadness comes from Ephesians: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world…carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). According to this passage, “dead” people can “walk,” “follow,” and “carry out desires.” So Paul isn’t referring to physically dead people—this is why the theological term spiritually dead has been supplied to explain what Paul means. But what then does spiritually dead mean?
Paul further clarifies two chapters later (in Ephesians 2, he talks about being “dead”; in Ephesians 4 he talks about the flip side of the coin, being “separated from the life of God”):
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4:18-19).
So what does the Bible mean when it describes all of mankind as spiritually “dead”? A dead person is darkened in their understanding. A dead person is callous to the truth. A dead person is (of course) blind, unable to see God’s glory. And let’s be clear: a dead person won’t respond when spoken too, even if the best news in the world is being shared with them!
This biblical “you were dead” is total depravity.
Why the Term “Total”
But why the term “total” you still might be asking. First, it’s helpful to acknowledge that it isn’t a great term. Many theologians admit the term is no longer fitting. Wayne Grudem, for example, agrees fully with the theology behind it but decides to not use the term in his entire systematic theology (see his note in Systematic Theology, 497). Similarly, R.C. Sproul much prefers the term “radical corruption” instead because “we often use the term total as a synonym for utter or for completely.” In these cases and more, theologians essentially admit that “total depravity” today is a misnomer, although it might have been a proper term when it originated, when “total” didn’t mean “utterly.”
Yet still, where did “total” come from? The answer is that this deadness drastically affects who we are, everything we do, especially in reference to God and salvation. Our depravity totally affects us in that it has put us totally dependent on God to have any sort of spiritual receptivity—to be saved or do anything that pleases him. God is the most important reality in the universe. We were made to image him. But the Bible tells us that us sinners are now spiritually dead apart from grace (not spiritually crippled or limp, but dead). Can we physically live life, talk, relate, create, and do nice and kind and even beautiful things in our bodies? Absolutely. But apart from God’s grace, in all of that we’re spiritually dead. Meaning, without God’s grace giving us dead people new life and faith, we cannot please God (Romans 8:8; 14:23; Hebrews 11:6).
In summary, then, our depravity can be said to be total because it’s a spiritual deadness that is drastic and affects every part of us (“total”) in such a way that if God doesn’t step in, we won’t be able to believe or please him. Without him, we’re deniers, dead, and doomed.
What “Total Depravity” Doesn’t Mean
I hope that helps. That then brings us to what it doesn’t mean (which in this case is almost as important as what it does mean): total depravity doesn’t mean that “we’re as bad as we could be.” This is the misunderstanding, and to some, the misnomer. People misunderstand the T in TULIP when they assume that Reformed Christians believe that we’re as bad as we could be. But this has not ever been the Reformed position. The image of God has not been so corrupted that it’s erased (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). God still showers common grace upon people in his world (Matthew 5:45). As Sproul pointed out, “total depravity” does not mean “utter depravity.”
C.S. Lewis exemplifies this misunderstanding a few times in his writings. (For a man so brilliant—a man I respect more than almost any other Christian thinker—it is surprising sometimes how he misses some basic ideas!) One example I came across recently was in The Problem of Pain. In the conclusion of a great chapter on human sin, Lewis writes,
This chapter will have been misunderstood if anyone describes it as a reinstatement of the doctrine of Total Depravity. I disbelieve that doctrine, partly on the logical ground that if our depravity were total we should not know ourselves to be depraved, and partly because experience shows us much goodness in human nature. (The Problem of Pain, 61)
Lewis’s points only hold if total depravity means “as bad as we could be.” It never has meant that. We can be spiritually dead and still bear some imago dei “goodness.” Moreover, once we’re born again, we are no longer spiritually dead; we’re given grace, made alive in Christ, and able to see the kingdom.
So, such arguments hold only if “total depravity” is misunderstood. The doctrine doesn’t teach that we’re “as bad as we could be.” It’s not “utter depravity.” (Yet we each still should admit that our corrupt hearts are worse than any of us realize [Jeremiah 17:9].)
For God’s Life-Giving Glory
The doctrine of total depravity, therefore, isn’t that surprising a doctrine for Bible-believing Christians. The only surprising part of the doctrine happens to be our man made title, which could be tossed.
And let’s be honest, such “radical corruption” truly should be accepted by Bible believers. How else can we explain Ephesians 2? How else can we explain “unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3)? Blindness implies that you cannot see on your own; and deadness is, well, being dead. Total depravity is true because this deadness is true. We aren’t spiritually limp, we aren’t on a spiritual life-line, we aren’t even in a spiritual coma: we’re spiritually dead. Being true, this affects every single thing we do, and apart from God’s grace, we’ll keep being dead: dead people can’t please God, can’t do anything to earn God’s favor, can’t put their faith in anything, and they especially can’t make themselves undead.
From this deadness, all the Reformed doctrines of grace flow like rushing waters. God saves us dead individuals not because of who we are or because he foreknows which dead people will believe (remember, we’re lying in a spiritual grave); instead, he saves us because of his good pleasure (Ephesians 1:4-11). Moreover, we cannot contribute anything to being born again (we’re dead and blind and cannot see to believe); he must alone sovereignly make us dead people born again (John 3:3-5). Finally, since we’re not limping or on life-support or in a coma but dead when we’re commanded to believe, even faith must be a result of him making us alive, even faith must be a gift (Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 1:29).
So, total depravity—even though it may be a misnomer—is true, and once understood, all the doctrines of grace come rushing in. And all this matters not just because we want to be “right,” nor even just “biblical,” but because in these waters our God’s grace is most magnified. It’s in this sea of grace that God alone is wonderfully glorified as the One who can give spiritually dead people life, now and forever.
