Total Depravity 10

Man is guilty before God. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand” (Psalm 130:1-3 ESV)?

Along with the Psalms, the Book of Proverbs also addresses the depraved heart of the covetous man. “Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit” (Proverbs 12:12 ESV).

Proverbs 16:1-2 speaks of man’s ability to rationalize his sinful behavior. “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit” (Proverbs 16:1-2 ESV).

Proverbs 15:28 directs us to the speech of the depraved. “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things” (Proverbs 15:28 ESV).

Proverbs 20:9 indicates that no one is uncorrupted by sin. “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin’ ” (Proverbs 20:9 ESV)?

The Wisdom Book Ecclesiastes articulates the extent of radical depravity upon mankind. “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV).

Ecclesiastes 8:11 displays man’s bent to pursue evil. “Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:10-11 ESV).

Ecclesiastes 9:3 indicates how deep man’s sin really is. “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead” (Ecclesiastes 9:3 ESV).

The Bible makes it clear that mankind’s problems will not be solved by social programs aimed at improving simple physical, living conditions when it is the heart of man that is in need of regeneration. The gospel is the only hope.