Why grace? Why is grace so necessary for salvation and what is the extent of it? Is grace something that God holds out to us, and then we, by our own free will, reach out and grab it (the theological term for this is synergism) by accepting Christ through faith? Or, is it something that is necessary for both our response and reception of the gospel, thus having to be solely given by God (monergism)?
Simply put, saving grace is needed because of sin and the violation of the covenant of works. But how pervasive is the power of sin. If our depravity is not total, or touching all of our faculties, then it would make sense that we would have the ability to turn ourselves to God and accept this grace by our own free will. But what if sin is pervasive? What if it has disabled our wills, darkened our mind, and corrupted our hearts? What then? How does a broken will, enslaved in sin, turn itself towards God? How does a darkened, ignorant mind accept the things of God? How does a corrupted heart love God and recognize him as beautiful and worthy to be reconciled with? If sin is pervasive and total, then grace goes much deeper than we think. If we are totally depraved, then grace becomes everything.
With this being said, before we can rightly understand saving grace, we need to look and see which view of human depravity is the biblical view.
Romans 5:12-24 shows that we have been radically corrupted by the fall, and thus born with a sin nature. Out of that corrupted nature, sin flows into every part of our lives. Paul speaks of this in Romans 3:9-18 9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." 13 "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS"; 14 "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS"; 15 "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." 18 "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."
Paul speaks that all are “under sin”, or controlled by our sin nature. The scripture also says that “There is none righteous, not even one.” The phrase “not even one” is a double negative in Greek and could be translated “no not one”. This qualifying phrase makes it crystal clear that this universal judgment pronounced by the scripture is a universal negative proposition from which not one human being is excluded.
The text also says that there is “none who do good”. This basically means that even people’s “good deeds” are sinful in their motives, because they are not done out of love for God.
If this passage gives us a holistic view of humanity, Ephesians breaks it down a little further for us. In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul argues that outside of Christ, we are “dead” in our trespasses and sin. This means that we are spiritually dead. He goes on to describe this deadness as a lifestyle of living in the flesh and doing the will of the flesh. Notice the imagery here: spiritual deadness equals enslavement to sin. In other words, as spiritually dead people, humanity is entrapped and enslaved by sin. A dead spirit equals a depraved lifestyle. A person who is spiritually dead cannot will or do anything that is spiritually alive. Other than Jesus, have you ever seen or heard of a dead person bring themselves back to life?
Paul goes on to describe the depraved human mind in chapter 4. He says that the mind is “futile,” “darkened,” “alienated from the life of God,” and “ignorant.” How does a mind like that turn itself to the things of God?
Then, there is the human will. Both Paul and Jesus affirm that because of sin, the human will is not free. Jesus says whoever sins is a “slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34). Paul, in describing who we were before our union with Christ, says that we were slaves to sin (Rm. 6:20). We have already seen early how Paul understands humanity in Romans 3. This is not a people whose will is free in regards to the things of God. A person in such a condition cannot free their own will, change their own mind, and purify their own heart. Because humanity is enslaved to sin, all they will do is choose sin.
Since this is the case, grace has to be more than just God’s offer of salvation, but his accomplishing of the entirety of salvation. This means that synergism does not adequately deal with the information that is given in scripture. So what does that mean? It means that God’s grace has to extend to him being the very one that frees a person’s will, enlightens their mind, gives them spiritual life, and purifies their heart so that they can understand and receive the gospel. Just as depravity is pervasive, grace is even more so..
If this type of grace is necessary for salvation, does everyone, in some way, receive it? If so, can they reject it? If not, who is this type of grace reserved for? These are questions we will answer soon. However, in our next post, we will look at some practical applications of total depravity, especially when it comes to raising children who have not yet come to Christ.