July 14, 2008

Total Depravación, part 1

Here are some verses that have me convinced. The more I meditate on what exactly they are communicating, the more real the depravity of sinful mankind becomes to me, not only of those lost in the world, but especially of myself apart from the grace of God.

Man says, "Man is good."
God says, "Man is evil."
Who is telling the truth?

Genesis 6:5
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:11
And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Psalm 51:5
Behold, I was
brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psalm 58:3
The wicked are
estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

Proverbs 28:26
Whoever
trusts in his own mind [or heart] is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Ecclesiastes 7:20
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

Matthew 7:11
If you
then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Mark 7:20-23
And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

Those last two verses were spoken directly from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ! Loving, compassionate, gentle, gracious, merciful, Jesus spoke some very sharp words about the true heart of mankind. I believe He said it all with deep compassion and love, even when He blasted the Pharisees in Mattew 23, but nevertheless He spoke the truth plainly.

My hope is that in reading these verses, and becoming more familiar with them, my heart (as well as yours) will grow more deeply in love with the great mercy and kindness of God our Savior. As I wrote before about
Hell and Grace, grace would not be necessary if we were not in this situation.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV). "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:10 ESV).

14 comments:

jeleasure said...

Hi Penn,
I see what you are thinking over. What are your thoughts on these verses?
Jim

Penn Tomassetti said...

Hello Jim,

My thoughts are that these verses are just a few of the clear examples of what God reveals about the true condition of all human hearts after the fall, and hence our need for His Sovereign mercy and grace through Christ and His Holy Spirit.
Thanks for the question,
Penn

jeleasure said...

Penn,
I am trying to cut back on the theological debating. So, my questions and comments are going to be different.
I agree with your reply by the way. And, God has made a way for us to be rescued from our self destructive behavior.
Jim

Kalani said...

This is very eye awakening verses. It reminds me to "guard my heart" Prov.4:23

Anonymous said...

Kalani,
Thanks for commenting.
We sure do need that "peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:7).

Meshaay said...

It makes sense then, that we can't please God in our own strength, but through His (Phil 2:13; Phil 4:13)

Kalani said...

I never connected those 2 verses together - Prov. and Phil. !
You mentioning that passage is like a message from the Lord, I was trying to choose what book of the Bible to memorize next and I thought of Philipians, but when I had set down to write my schedule for it... I was unsure if that is what the Lord would want. Your mentioning of the passage confirmed it along with some others things God placed in my life!

Anonymous said...

Meshaay,
Amen! Thanks for those excellent verses. We need His strength working in us, and that is also why we need the new birth.

Kalani,
Wow! Your going to memorize Philippians! What other books have you memorized? I'm also glad that you saw a wonderful connection between those two verses, and that you are letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col. 3:16).

Kalani said...

Using Dr.Andrew Davis's method seen here: http://www.fbcdurham.org/pages/27/
I memorized just 1 Peter. The method above was so helpful. And a memorization course I took from global learning strategies made it go very fast!
http://www.globallearningstrategies.org/default.php

Penn Tomassetti said...

Kalani,
Wow, memorizing a whole book like 1 Peter is still impressive. Thanks very much for the link. I noticed that website has a link to mountzion.org. They are the ones who print all the booklets and tracts I give away. I recommend their literature to anyone (actually I give them to everyone) both unbelievers and believers.

Thanks.

Angela said...

We are so depraved that we walk around pretending God isn't there so that we can keep sinning. God's love for us is something that I can't wrap my mind around.

Penn Tomassetti said...

Angela,
Thanks for the comment. I agree, God's love is out of this world. Our depravity is very severe, I've really been seeing that a lot lately.

Sean John said...

"I'm too depraved to be an Arminian" - I'm thinking tht should be the title of a post if I ever talk about the depravity of man. lol im jk, but yes a great post, im encouraged to hear what i really am, and what God's saved me out of. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Roshan,
good to hear from you. Yeah, I agree. Total Depravity means Total Dependence on God's mercy and grace. What a loving God to be so kind and give us life in His Son! Shouldn't we go tell somebody or something?