From a previous post: The following scriptural proofs for the doctrine of total depravity are outlined under various headings…
9. Since all men are dead in sin and in bondage to Satan, they are not able by themselves to make any choice for good, or to have true faith in Christ. They cannot change their own natures or decide in favor of salvation. The sovereign Spirit of God alone can change the hearts of men.
- Job 14:4 “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!”
- Jer. 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.”
- Matt. 7:16-18 “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
- Jn. 6:44, 65 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. And He said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” (see Jn. 3:1-8)
- Rom. 8:9-14 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
- Rom. 11:35-36 “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
- I Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
- I Cor. 4:7 “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?”
- II Cor. 3:5 “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”
10. The will of man is not free naturally, but must be set free by God and, when liberated, is free to worship and serve Him. Man does not by nature have a free will, but, by the grace of God in Christ, has a freed will.
- Jn. 8:32-36 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, You will be made free? Jesus answered them, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
- Rom. 6:6-8 “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
- Rom. 6:18-22 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
- Gal. 4:31 “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.”
- Gal. 5:1, 13 “ Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
- Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
- Phil. 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
- I Pet. 2:16 “… as free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice, but as servants of God.
Blog post content is taken from Rev. Paul Treick’s book, Faith of Our Fathers, Living Still: A Study of the Five Points of Calvinism, available for purchase. It is posted with the gracious permission of the author.
If you’d like to read the blog series from the beginning, start here.