TOTAL DEPRAVITY, J.H. Oliphant The nature, extent and degree of human depravity is a subject of the first importance. We can not have a correct understanding of the remedy unless we fully understand the disease. No effort is necessary to prove that sin exists among us, but the power it possesses to control men and women, the deep-seated hold it has in the human heart and affections, are what but few understand. For one to know the real evil of his own heart is sure to be attended with humility and distrust of self.
Death Passed Upon All Men
Our first parent was made in the image of God—Gen. 1:26, but “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” Rom. 5:12. I suppose the one man here referred to is Adam. He was made in Gods image (morally), but we are informed that he sinned and death was the result of that sin, not only death to himself but death “is passed upon all men for that all have sinned.” In some way his sin affects us all.
By reading Romans 5:15-19, it will be plain to you that all the long race of Adam was involved in his guilt and made subject to death by it. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” Here the disobedience of one had the effect to make many (persons) sinners. This is a deep subject and much controverted.
The justice of God in entailing upon the unborn millions of Adam’s posterity the fatal results of his sin may not appear clear to all, but there are many passages of scripture that plainly teach the doctrine. It becomes us to confess the justice of all his actions, whether we are able to understand it or not. Whether it would be safer to us and more merciful in God to leave our destiny in our own uprightness, or allow Adam to represent us all, is a question of some importance, and has been ably discussed by many; for my part, I feel sure that there is as much mercy in the system that allows one man to represent us all, and even more; he was good, with no bias to evil, and knew the Lord. I say the probabilities for our safety were greater with our destiny suspended upon his action than if left suspended upon our own.
If the scriptures teach that we all became sinners by his sin, we need not labor to show the justice of the affair. It is enough for us to know that we are involved in the sin and guilt of the great head of our species. If we were not involved in the guilt we would not be in the penalty, which is death, but we all, from the unborn infant to the oldest man, are exposed to death, which at least is (if only temporal death) a part of the penalty, and if it be right to entail on us a part of the penalty, it would be equally right to entail the whole penalty upon us. So that when you find the principle upon which God is just in entailing temporal death (a part of the penalty) upon us, from the infant to the oldest, I am persuaded that you will be able to show his justice in passing the whole curse upon the entire race.
The Wages of Sin
This curse includes eternal death, as appears from the words, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Here death is set in pair with eternal life in such a way as to show that death and life are of equal duration. So, upon the whole, we are “by nature the children of wrath”—Eph. 2:3. We are exposed to the wrath of God so that he may, in justice, at any time require our lives and consign us to eternal misery. In support of the above positions I will cite a few passages of scripture. “What is man that he should be clean, and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous”—Job 15:14. From this text, to know that one is born of a woman is sufficient to prove that he is unholy. To this point the same writer testifies again, “Who can bring a clean thing our of an unclean?” Again, “How can he be clean that is born of a woman?”
These passages do not trace our sins to our own evil actions, but to our birth, showing that we are unclean from birth. I know that these positions have been disputed, but how we can do justice to the scriptures cited, allow to them their fair meaning, and yet maintain that we are not unholy from birth, is what I can’t see. “Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This certainly shows that we are sinful from birth; the birth of the flesh, even though it be of the highest parentage, confers upon us a sinful nature, exposes us to God’s tremendous curse, and certainly entails upon us the whole train of evils incident to our species.
None Righteous, No Not One
In Romans 3:9-19, Paul gives a careful description of ourselves, “none righteous, no, not one.” Also, see Isaiah 59:3-11,14, the same sentiment plainly set forth. This corruption of nature is universal, it has its seat in every human heart. Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” The whole race is set down as an unclean thing. Gal. 3:22, “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin.” No one of our species since Adam ever escaped death except Enoch and Elijah, nor has any one been found free from sin.
Now I ask why this universal corruption of nature unless we received it from Adam, our common head? No proposition can be demonstrated to my mind if the whole race of men, from Adam down, from the old man to the unborn infant, is not corrupt and sinful. We say that gravity draws every weighty object to the earth’s center, and none deny it, although there are thousands of objects that have never been tested. Now, I say that all men are depraved, that all are sinful, and exposed to death. I appeal to the Bible, and it testifies to the truth of my assertion. I appeal to facts, and find that every human being has been a witness to the truth of what I say, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
I think we have found this depravity to be universal, and to belong to every one of our species. I think we have seen that it seizes us in our conception and birth, gives shape to our lives and characters as a tree gives quality to its fruit.
Evil Acts Come From an Evil Heart
Our disease is not altogether in our actions, which are evil, but it consists in an evil heart,” sinful nature, an enmity against God, our tongues, lips, mouths, feet, hands. Yea, from the sole of the feet even to the head, all is evil. It is not more certain that water runs down hill than it is that we by nature do evil. What parent has not seen this fixed tendency in his children? Who is so blind that they can’t see this tendency in all classes, the rich and poor, the wise and simple? You have but to open your eyes and you are confronted with evidences of the awful depravity of our nature. Yea, you may close your eyes and see in your own heart a sinfulness so deep, so uncontrollable that, unless you are born again, you never can enter the peaceful presence of God.
The world’s history is a commentary on human depravity; men in all ages have shown a ferocity to each other that exceeds the animal kingdom; how often have hundreds of thousands of our species met in battle array with weapons of death in hand, thirsting for each other’s blood? Wickedness has stained every step of our history; fraud and deceit are in our ways; civil government is established to control the corruptions of our nature; jails, penitentiaries and the gallows are aids to keep in check the headlong torrent; but how often does sin boil over in our legislators, who under its force, legalize fraud and theft? And how often are the judicial and executive departments overrun with sin, so that juries give in wicked decisions, judges are bribed, judgment perverted, and civil government proves a failure.
It may be asked, do not some sinners love their children, pay their debts, visit the sick, make good neighbors, etc., and if so, are they entirely corrupt and depraved? I grant there are some men, and even many men, who are unregenerate, whom we esteem as well-disposed people, but in determining how much their acts of kindness are worth before God, we, of course, must be governed by the word of the Lord.
The Savior, in Matt. 22:37, says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Here the whole duty of man is reduced to two propositions—duty to God and duty to man. All our right actions that are prompted by a pure love to God are good in his sight and fulfill the law’s commandments, but all our actions that are prompted by other motives are evil.
We are not only tried by what we do but by what we would do. I have read the third chapter of Romans, from 10 to 19, and thought the case too bad to apply to all our race. The words “There is no fear of God before their eyes” seemed too strong; also, “Their throat is an open sepulcher,” and “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” These words seem to deny the existence of anything good in man, and yet we see traits in the unregenerate that we admire. We see natural affections in some men to a very great degree. Some infidels have been men of great natural kindness. Also, some men have been great lovers of human liberty and justice among men that were, nevertheless destitute of love to God.
Although these qualities are admirable to us, yet they are natural qualities, nor do they have God’s glory for their object, nor are they prompted by love to God; hence they are worthless in God’s sight. It is difficult to determine the degree of depravity that we possess, but I think it safe to say that we are as guilty in God’s sight of all sin that we are hindered from committing by civil law as if we had actually committed it.
See Matt. 5:28. Here our Lord charges guilt upon the man who looks upon a woman with lust. Also Rom. 7:7, “I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” These references show that God looks not so much on what we do as what we would do. A little thought will make it plain that many things besides love to God lead men to uprightness of life, and yet no actions are truly valuable in God’s sight except those prompted by love to God.
God has a just right to the undivided affections of all our hearts, and to our constant and untiring service. For a mortal man to deny these to his Maker is rebellion. To have our hearts set on the creature, or self, or anything aside from God is treason, and it is no apology to say that we are honest among men, or that we are kind to the needy, or that we love anybody or thing. God claims as his our affections.
It is no excuse for thieves that they are honest among themselves, nor for traitors that they love each other; neither need we fancy that we have found something truly good in fallen man, when we find some that are financially honest, or some remains of human kindness among them. The thing required is pure love to God. Is there any of this in the unregenerate heart? If not he is totally depraved, totally destitute of the essential good that his Maker requires; he may speak with the tongue of men or angels, or give all his goods to feed the poor, or give his body to the flames, and yet he is nothing.
God sets no value on any action of men except what arises from love to him, and has his glory for its object. Hence, if we knew what men would do if all civil law were abolished and every sense of danger of future punishment was removed, then we might see man as God sees him. If all those feelings of self respect in men that lift them above many low, base acts were destroyed; if his shame of being known as a liar, a thief, an adulterer, etc., were destroyed; if every restraint were removed from our world save the one, “Love to God,” and men were left to act out what is in them, and we could contemplate man in this condition, we would see him as God sees him, we would see that “there is none good,” “they are all gone out of the way.”
Paul’s language would not be too hard for us—Total depravity would be a term sufficiently mild to describe our case. I confidently believe there is not a solitary human being on the face of the earth that has any goodness about him, save those who love God, and I as confidently believe that none love God, save those who have been born of him. “He that loveth is born of God”
No wonder our Lord taught the necessity of a new birth. The whole mass, the whole race, is ruined. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil, and that continually. Every thought is wrong. “His heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked, above all things; who can know it.”