Total Depravity & Divine Justice
Week #1 -- LWCA NEW BELIEVERS CLASS

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This topic deals with the nature of God and the nature of man. The sinful nature of man collides with the just vindication of a righteous and holy God. This will help you understand the fallen nature of man and what you needed to be saved from.

Total Depravity establishes that due to the fall of man, mankind is absolutely depraved (immoral, degenerate, wicked, and inherently evil) in every part of his being, without any measure of goodness or ability to live in a righteous manner outside of a supernatural conversion by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

TOTAL DEPRAVED NATURE: Psalms 51:5: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. (22 Scripture in NT).

Romans 1: 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Romans 3:10 "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one… There is no fear of God before their eyes"

TOTAL DEPRAVED HEART: The human heart is the area that encompasses the thinking faculty, the mind, the emotions, intuition, etc… In essence, it is the soul of man.

The human heart has no virtue in and of itself. Though the human being has a conscience, the unconverted heart is wicked and deceitful all the time...

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The heart of man is not a trustworthy guide. That is why we must instead follow God’s word and instruction above our own hearts.

When God decided to destroy the world with a flood, the Bible says, “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”(Gen 6:5)

Even the “good” man attempts to do is from a corrupt motivation: John Piper says; “There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his glad submission to God, then even his "virtue" is evil in the sight of God.” [This establishes that there is no godly goodness at all in the human heart] “all our righteousness is as filthy rags…”

Romans 14:23 "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

This establishes that mans nature is so thoroughly corrupted by sin that it is incapable of producing anything good. There is nothing which the sinner can do which is pleasing in the sight of God.

TOTAL DEPRAVED MIND: Due to the Condition of the Depraved Human Heart, the Mind is in Enmity Against God:
Romans 8:6-7 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

TOTAL BLINDNESS TO THE TRUTH: 2 Corinthians 4:4 “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

TOTAL SPIRITUAL DEATH: Ephesians 2:1 says that we Christians were all once "dead in trespasses and sins." The point of deadness is that we were incapable of any life with God. That is why we need to be born of God… or “Born-Again” (Ephesians 4:18; Ezekiel 36:26). Until one is born of God (converted) he is spiritually dead in sin.

TOTAL INABILITY TO SAVE, REDEEM OR JUSTIFY OURSELVES: John 6:44: Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

In summary, total depravity means that our rebellion against God is total, everything we do in this rebellion is sin, our inability to submit to God or reform ourselves is total, and we are therefore totally deserving of eternal punishment.

DIVINE JUSTICE – The Wrath of God on Sinful Humanity.
Our sinful condition has put Humanity at war against God and mankind has been sentenced to the just punishment of eternal condemnation in hell as established by scripture. In fact the Bible says that those outside of Christ are condemned already, and if they die outside of God’s grace, they will perish eternally in hell. In fact, Ephesians 2:3 says that sinners are “by nature children of wrath…” God’s Divine Justice and wrath on sin is justified for the following reasons…

1) Gods Just, Righteous, and Holy Nature. Psalm 89:14 “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne…”

God is Just: 2 Thessalonians 1: 5 “All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

God is Righteous: Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
Revelation 16:5-6 'You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was and who is to be, because You have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due."

God is Holy: Habakkuk 1:13 "Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you can not look on wickedness with favor."
1 Peter 1:16 "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 19:2)

2) Man’s transgression against God’s Law.

1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (10 Commandments)

Galatians 3:19 What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions…

Isaiah 1:28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

To sin is to commit a crime against a holy, righteous, infinite, eternal God.

Jonathan Edwards: “"The glory of God is the greatest good; it is that which is the chief end of creation; it is of greater importance than anything else. But this is one way wherein God will glorify Himself, as in the eternal destruction of ungodly men He will glorify His justice. Therein He will appear as a just governor of the world. The vindictive justice of God will appear strict, exact, awful, and terrible, and therefore glorious."

Every sin exalts the sinner over God. For God to look past or leave a sin unpunished would to be for Him to say He does not mind that His glory is second place and that a idol is exalted over Him. God's justice and holiness cannot allow this. God will vindicate His name and display the glory of His wrath and justice in hell.

3) Man’s Disobedience against God in spite of God’s attempts to save him.

John 3:19: "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil."

Romans 1:18-19 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

Romans 1:32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

4) Man’s Rebellion against God is totally deserving of eternal punishment.

John Piper: The reality of hell is God's clear indictment of the infiniteness of our guilt. If our corruption were not deserving of an eternal punishment God would be unjust to threaten us with a punishment so severe as eternal torment. But the Scriptures teach that God is just in condemning unbelievers to eternal hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9; Matthew 5:29f; 10:28; 13:49f; 18:8f; 25:46; Revelation 14:9-11; 20:10). Therefore, to the extent that hell is a total sentence of condemnation, to that extent must we think of ourselves as totally blameworthy apart from the saving grace of God.

Hell represents the furry of God's just wrath upon deserved sinners. The severity of this punshment reveals the extreme seriousness with which God views sin. Sin is so evil in the sight of God, that He has set the sentence for committing sin to the degree that Hell is described in scripture... a place of eternal, perpetual torment, "where their thirst is not quenched and their worm (torment) never dies."

These two subject combined reveal to us the amazing grace and mercy of a loving God, in that while we were yet sinners and deserving of this terrible punishment, He sent His son to take our punishment upon Himself in order that we could be redeemed and forgiven.

NEXT WEEK: SALVATION - REPENTANCE & FAITH BY DIVINE CONVERSION