Total Depravity By Extent But Not Degree

Calvinism uses the acronym TULIP to represent it’s said “five points.” T: Total Depravity; U: Unconditional Election; L: Limited Atonement; I: Irresistible Grace; P: Perseverance of the Saints. It was not Calvin himself who so organized his teachings but, rather, his followers who, in answering five objections to Calvin’s teachings from Arminians (followers of Dutch Reformer Jacobus Arminius were originally called Remonstrants), arranged the TULIP acronym in order to make their answer memorable. Arminians had no such acronym around which to fit their points.

The “T” in TULIP represents “Total Depravity” (referring to original sin). The term that has somewhat fallen out of favor among Calvinists in favor of the more descriptive Radical Corruption or Radical Depravity. We are of Adam’s bloodline: his sin taints every single descendant from his day to the end of time. No human can escape it. Calvin’s teachings affirm this. Armanians claim that man is born morally neutral with the ability to choose either good or bad and thus, with the ability to reach out to God and choose to be saved or not. However, Romans 3: 12 says, “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

We are corrupt all of the way through our beings: thus by extent–depravity (inability to choose good, inclination to evil) extends to every person and affects our minds, our spirit, our soul: the entirety of our being. It matters not whether one comes to God early or late: the extent of their depravity before God is the same. We all have within us hatred towards God and love of evil.

God’s grace keeps some men from being totally depraved by degree: some are saved before they have an opportunity to live out their hatred of God and love of evil. Thus the degree of the depravity may be different (not all men are murderers, liars, thieves, adulterers) but the extent is still the same (all members of the human family are born sinners).

This will keep a humble man from boasting in his supposed goodness. You may not have committed the same sins as others have nor engaged in them as frequently; however, you have just as much ability to sin within you as anyone. Thus the degree to which one sins does not reflect the extent to which one is capable of sinning. The point is not how little you may have sinned compared to someone else. That isn’t what matters to God: He isn’t comparing human to human to decide who is “good enough” to be saved. God is comparing us to Him: our depravity to His absolute holiness; our sin to holy perfection. Nobody measures up because no one can measure up. We are all filthy before a holy and righteous God; how good you seem to be when compared to someone else doesn’t carry any weight at all. When compared to His standards we all fail: thus we are depraved by extent.

Put a drop of clear, tasteless poison in a glass of water and what happens? The whole glass of water is poisoned. Put Adam’s legacy of sin in his children through the ages and we are all sinners. It wasn’t easier for God to save me or you than it was for Him to save the “vilest” sinner who ever came to Him. In heart, mind, spirit–we are all just as guilty. Sin is sin before a righteous God. One sin stains my entire being just as much as one drop of poison corrupts an entire glass of pure water.

So, in the end, we are all totally, or radically, depraved to the same extent (our complete beings) but not to the same degree (we don’t all commit the same sins). Because we are all sinners to the core, we are utterly unable to save ourselves. That is where God’s mercy and grace comes in: in causing Christ to bear our punishment for our sins, He imputed Christ’s righteousness (and holy life) to us. Now, when the Father looks at His redeemed, instead of seeing complete depravity, He sees instead His Son’s holy perfection.

That, my friend, is pure grace.