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B. Total Depravity
1. The Heidelberg Catechism
a. Lord's Day II, Question and Answer 5.
Canst thou keep all these things (of the law) perfectly?
In no wise; for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
Rom. 3:10; I Jn. 1:8; Rom. 8:7; Tit. 3:3.
b. Lord's Day III, Question and Answers 7, 8.
Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Gen. 3:6; Rom. 5:12, 18, 19; Ps. 51:5; Gen. 5:3.
Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Gen. 6:5; Job 14:4; 15:14, 16; Jn. 3:5; Eph. 2:5.
c. Lord's Day XXI, Question and Answer 56.
What believest thou concerning "the forgiveness of sins"?
That God, for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long; but will graciously impute to me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never be condemned before the tribunal of God.
Jer. 31:34; Ps. 103:3, 4, 10, 11; Rom. 8:1-3; Jn. 3:18.
d. Lord's Day XXIII, Question and Answer 60.
How art thou righteous before God?
Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only by mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.
Rom. 3:9ff.; 7:23; 3:24; Tit. 3:5; Eph. 2:8, 9.
e. Lord's Day LI, Question and Answer 126.
Which is the fifth petition (of the Lord's Prayer)?
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors"; that is, be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood, not to impute to us poor sinners, our transgressions, nor that depravity which always cleaves to us; even as we feel this evidence of thy grace in us, that it is our firm resolution from the heart to forgive our neighbor.
Ps. 51:1; I Jn. 2:1, 2.
2. The Belgic Confession
a. Article XIV. Of the Creation and Fall of man, and his Incapacity to perform what is truly good.
We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him after his own image and likeness, good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will, agreeably to the will of God. But being in honor, he understood it not, neither knew his excellency, but willfully subjected himself to sin, and consequently to death, and the curse, giving ear to the words of the devil. For the commandment of life, which he had received, he transgressed; and by sin separated himself from God, who was his whole life, having corrupted his whole nature; whereby he made himself liable to corporal and spiritual death. And being thus become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he had received from God, and only retained a few remains thereof, which, however, are sufficient to leave man without excuse; for all the light which is in us is changed into darkness, as the Scriptures teach us, saying: The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not: where St. John calleth men darkness. Therefore we reject all that is taught repugnant to this concerning the free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin; and hath nothing of himself, unless it is given from heaven. For who may presume to boast, that he of himself can do any good, since Christ saith, No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him? Who will glory in his own will, who understands, that to be carnally minded is enmity against God? Who can speak of his knowledge, since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God? In short, who dare suggest any thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God? And therefore what the apostle saith ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. For there is no will or understanding, conformable to the divine will and understanding, but what Christ hath wrought in man; which he teaches us when he saith, Without me ye can do nothing.
b. Article XVI. Of Original Sin.
We believe that, through the disobedience of Adam, original sin is extended to all mankind; which is a corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary disease, wherewith infants themselves are infected even in their mother's womb, and which produceth in man all sorts of sin, being in him as the root thereof; and therefore is so vile and abominable in the sight of God, that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind. Nor is it by any means abolished or done away by baptism; since sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as water from a fountain; notwithstanding it is not imputed to the children of God unto condemnation, but by his grace and mercy is forgiven them. Not that they should rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from the body of this death. Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians, who assert that sin proceeds only from imitation.
The following two articles demonstrate the relationship between the doctrine of total depravity and the other four points, i.e., since men are totally depraved, salvation must be and is all of grace in all its parts.
c. Article XVI. Of Eternal Election.
We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into perdition and ruin, himself such as he is; that is to say, merciful and just: Merciful, since he delivers and preserves from this perdition all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their works: Just in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselves.
d. Article XVII. Of the Recovery of Fallen Man.
We believe that our most gracious God, in his admirable wisdom and goodness, seeing that man had thus thrown himself into temporal and eternal death, and made himself wholly miserable, was pleased to seek and comfort him when he trembling fled from his presence, promising him that he would give his son, who should be made of a woman, to bruise the head of the serpent, and would make him happy.
3. The Canons of Dordt
a. I, 1.
As all men have sinned in Adam, lie under the curse, and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done no injustice by leaving them all to perish, and delivering them over to condemnation on account of sin, according to the words of the apostle, Rom. 3:19, "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." And verse 23: "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And Rom. 6:23: "for the wages of sin is death."
b. I, Rejection of Errors, 4.
The true doctrine concerning Election and Rejection having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That in the election unto faith this condition is beforehand demanded, viz., that man should use the light of nature aright, be pious, humble, meek, and fit for eternal life, as if on these things election were in any way dependent. For this savors of the teaching of Pelagius, and is opposed to the doctrine of the apostle, when he writes: "Among whom we also once lived in the lust of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest; but God being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory" (Eph. 2:3-9).
c. III, IV, 1.
Man was originally formed after the image of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will were upright; all his affections pure; and the whole man was holy; but revolting from God by the instigation of the devil, and abusing the freedom of his own will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and on the contrary entailed on himself blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections.
d. III, IV, 2.
Man after the fall begat children in his own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring. Hence all the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived corruption from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature.
e. III, IV, 3.
Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to all evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, nor to dispose themselves to reformation.
f. III, IV, 4.
There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, and of natural things, and of the difference between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God, and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.
It should be noted here that each section of the Canons is divided into two parts, a positive section in which each doctrine is explained and a negative section in which various errors are condemned and rejected. These sections are valuable not only because they help in sharply and clearly defining the truths under discussion but also because they contain many proof texts for these truths.
g. III, IV, Rejection of Errors, 1.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That it cannot properly be said, that original sin in itself suffices to condemn the whole human race, or to deserve temporal and eternal punishment. For these contradict the Apostle, who declares: "Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). And: "The judgment came of one unto condemnation" (Rom. 5:16). And: "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).
h. III, IV, Rejection of Errors, 2.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That the spiritual gifts, or the good qualities and virtues, such as: goodness, holiness, righteousness, could not belong to the will of man when he was first created, and that these, therefore, could not have been separated therefrom in the fall. For such is contrary to the description of the image of God, which the Apostle gives in Ephesians 4:24, where he declares that it consists in righteousness and holiness, which undoubtedly belong to the will.
i. III, IV, Rejection of Errors, 3.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That in spiritual death the spiritual gifts are not separate from the will of man, since the will in itself has never been corrupted, but only hindered through the darkness of the understanding and the irregularity of the affections; and that, these hindrances having been removed, the will can then bring into operation its native powers, that is, that the will of itself is able to will and to choose, or not to will and not to choose, all manner of good which may be presented to it. This is an innovation and an error, and tends to elevate the powers of the free will, contrary to the declaration of the Prophet: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt" (Jer. 17:9); and of the Apostle: "Among whom (sons of disobedience) we also once lived in the lusts of the flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:3).
j. III, IV, Rejection of Errors, 4.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That the unregenerate man is not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers unto spiritual good, but that he can yet hunger and thirst after righteousness and life, and offer the sacrifice of a broken spirit, which is pleasing to God. For these are contrary to the express testimony of Scripture. "Ye were dead through trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1, 5); and: "Every imagination of the thought of his heart are (sic) only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5; 8:21).
Moreover, to hunger and thirst after deliverance from misery, and after life, and to offer unto God the sacrifice of a broken spirit, is peculiar to the regenerate and to those that are called blessed (Ps. 51:10, 19; Matt. 5:6).
k. III, IV, Rejection of Errors, 5.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: That the corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace (by which they understand the light of nature), or the gifts still left him after the fall, that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, viz., the evangelical or saving grace and salvation itself. And that in this way God on his part shows himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since he applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to conversion. For the experience of all ages and the Scripture do both testify that this is untrue. "He showeth his Word unto Jacob, his statutes and ordinances unto Israel. He hath not so dealt with any nation: and as for his ordinances they have not known them" (Ps. 147:19, 20). "Who in the generations gone by suffered all nations to walk in their own way" (Acts 14:16). And: "And they (Paul and his companions) having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and when they were come over against Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:6, 7).
4. The Westminster Confession of Faith
a. Chapter VI. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof.
Article 1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.
Gen. 3:8; II Cor. 9:3; Rom. 9:32.
Article 2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.
Gen. 3:6-8; Eccl. 7:29; Rom. 3:23.
Article 3. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.
Gen. 1:27, 28; 2:16, 17; Acts 17:26 with Rom. 5:12, 15-19; I Cor. 15:21, 22, 45, 49; Ps. 51:5; Gen. 5:3; Job 14:4; 15:14.
Article 4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.
Rom. 5:6; 8:7; 7:18; Col. 1:21; Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Rom. 3:10-12; James 1:14, 15; Eph. 2:2, 3; Matt. 15:19.
Art. 5. This corruption of the nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and though it be, through Christ, pardoned and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.
I Jn. 1:8, 10; Rom. 7:14, 17, 18, 23; James 3:2; Prov. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 7:5, 7, 8, 25; Gal. 5:17.
Article 6. Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary there unto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal.
I Jn. 3:4; Rom. 2:15; 3:9, 19; Eph. 2:8; Gal. 3:10; Rom. 7:23; Eph. 4:18; Rom. 8:20; Matt. 15:41; II Thess. 1:9.
b. Chapter IX. Of Free Will.
Article 3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength, to convert himself or to prepare himself there unto.
Rom. 5:6; 8:7; Jn. 15:5; Rom. 3:10, 12; Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13; Jn. 6:44, 65; Eph. 2:2-5; I Cor. 2:14; Tit. 3:3-5.
Article 4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage under sin; and by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, not only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
Col. 1:13; Jn. 8:34, 36; Phil. 2:13; Rom. 6:18, 22; Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:15, 18-20, 23.
Article 5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.
Eph. 4:13; Heb. 12:23; I Jn. 3:2; Jude 24.
c. Chapter XVI. Of Good Works.
Article 7. Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.
II Kings 10:30, 31; I Kings 21:27, 29; Phil. 1:15, 16, 18; Gen. 4:5; Heb. 11:4, 6; I Cor. 13:3; Is. 1:12; Matt. 6:2, 5, 16; Hag. 2:14; Tit. 1:15; Amos 5:21, 22; Hos. 1:4; Rom. 9:16; Tit. 3:15; Ps. 14:4; 36:3; Job 21:14, 15; Matt. 25:41-45; 23:3.
5. The Westminster Larger Catechism
a. Question and Answer 25.
Wherein consisteth the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called Original Sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions.
Rom. 5:12, 19; 3:10-19; Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 5:6; 8:7, 8; Gen. 6:5; James 1:14, 15; Matt. 15:19.
b. Question and Answer 27.
What misery did the fall bring upon mankind?
The fall brought upon man the loss of communion with God, His displeasure and curse; so as we are by nature children of wrath, bond slaves to Satan, and justly liable to the punishments in this world, and that which is to come.
Gen. 3:8, 10, 24; Eph. 2:2, 3; II Tim. 2:26; Gen. 2:17; Lam. 3:39; Matt. 15:41, 46; Jude 7.
c. Question and Answer 149.
Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
No man is able, either of himself, or by any grace received in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed.
Jam. 3:2; Jn. 15:5; Rom. 8:8; Eccl. 7:20; I Jn. 1:8, 10; Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:18, 19; Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Rom. 3:9-19; Jam. 3:2-13.
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