Calvinist Point #1 - Total Depravity (or Total Inability):
This point is basically saying that man is spiritually dead and has no ability to come to the god of Calvinism on his own without a regeneration from the god of Calvinism in order to make the person alive to be able to be be illuminated, and be saved.
Three is a reason why this is point number one ~ more than one reason, actually: First, this point was Calvin's refutation of Jacobus Arminius's first point, which was Biblically incorrect. As an aside, there are really not "five points," to Calvinism at all, but rather five responses to Arminius's five postulations regarding Biblical soteriology. But secondly, a misunderstanding of the natural human condition before a righteous and holy God ~ which Arminius and Pelagius centuries before were guilty of ~ precipitates, inevitably, misunderstanding of the four that follow. Such was the case with Pelagius, Arminius, and all those that have come after.
First, it may surprise you that I believe in “Original Sin” (Not the Calvinistic version). I believe “Original Sin” is essentially saying that sin and or the sin nature has tainted humanity after Adam's fall.
That's great, but what follows this is... well, not so much:
...the fallen nature that comes from Adam is not a total corruption of the human will whereby they cannot respond to God.
A couple of things to this:
1. It is not about the will. It is about human nature, the state of the heart. This drives the will, but is not the will itself. The person will act, of his own free will and accord, according to the state of his heart, his nature. Adam and Even came, that terrible day described in Genesis 3, to "know sin," which means not merely that they cognitively "knew what sin was," but became intimately acquainted with it and even a slave to it, to unrighteousness. This cannot be soft-pedaled. The second thing here closely follows:
2. Adam and Eve died on that very day that they fell from grace, just as God told them they would in Genesis 2:17. They did not physically die, but they did die, so we have to understand what this death really was (is). Adam and Eve became, that very day, dead (spiritually dead) in their sin. This is a very important concept, this death in sin. We are in this state from death as Adam was the federal head of the human race and Eve the mother of all the living.
THEREFORE:
We have free will to come to Christ on His terms (According to His Word), whereby God will then regenerate us (or convert us) (i.e. to born again spiritually) in order for us to be a new creature in Christ...
We do have free will to come to Christ on His terms, but again, our will is not the issue. The issue is the state of our heart, of our very nature. Spiritually, we are dead in sin, slaves to unrighteousness. As a result, if we remain in this state, we
will not (not, woodenly speaking, "can not") come to Christ at all, because we will remain wholly inclined against doing so. This regeneration, this conversion, this new birth of the Spirit, must take place so that then we will be alive to God. We must be a new creature in Christ so that then we will, quite freely, come to Christ. Ezekiel a graphic visual of how this works:
"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses... '"
"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord GOD, you know.' Then he said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.' So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, "Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”' So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off." Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.'"
(Ezekiel 36:24-29; 37:1-14).
And Paul and Peter both testify to this:
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ~ by grace you have been saved ~ and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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" (Paul, Ephesians 2:4-10).
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (Peter, 1 Peter 1:3-5).
There is no mistaking that this regeneration, this being born again of the Spirit, comes before anything we can say or do to somehow cause it to happen or merit it in any way. We might as well say we asked our earthly parents to give birth to us, a ridiculous thought altogether. And as I said, underestimating the natural human condition precipitates a wrong understanding of the other four points:
- God's election must be unconditional, because nothing we say or do can precipitate our being brought to life, so we cannot meet any condition.
- Jesus's atonement cannot be unlimited, because we know ~ because Jesus is very clear ~ that some ~ those on His left at the judgment, whom He never knew ~ will remain in this state of spiritual death, which, again, we are all in from birth. To clarify, though, it is unlimited in the sense that it is sufficient for all, but it is limited in the sense that it is effectual only for some, God's elect
- God's particular grace toward His elect must be irresistable, because we will have been brought from spiritual death to spiritual life. Once we have been given this new life in the Spirit, we cannot make ourselves spiritually dead again ~ because we cannot kill the Spirit, Who Himself is God, dwelling in us.
- And we will persevere, for the same reason; the Spirit, Who is unquenchable, will sustain us and sanctify us and bring us to perfection at the day of Christ.
The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever. Thanks be to God.
Grace and peace to you.
