Man’s Sinfulness: Doctrine of Total Depravity (Romans 3:10-17; 23)

Man’s Sinfulness: Doctrine of Total Depravity

(Romans 3:10-17; 23)

As we continue in our study of Romans, we see that we have looked at the wrath of God. We have seen that God’s judgment will be against all of those who do not receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, who are still bound in their sins. The question we want answered today is: how sinful is man; How does it affect us? Today we will look at man’s sinfulness and how it affects his character, conversation, and conduct.

I. Sinful Character (vv. 10-12 – “As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."”)

Paul begins by seemingly answering the question “who is righteous” and the answer is very clear, Paul says, “There is none righteous”. No is sinless or righteous in the eyes of our holy God. Paul then goes on to answer another question that will naturally be brought up in relation to his previous answer, “well, what about Mary or Sister Theresa or Buddha or Gandhi or the Pope or Billy Graham, was she or he sinless or righteous” and his answer is an emphatic “no, not one”. There is not even one person there are no human exceptions. The only One ever born without sin was the God-man, the incarnate Son of God, our sinless Lord Jesus Christ. But other than Christ, mankind is universally evil and there are no exceptions. Paul is stating our absolute lack of righteous before God. Because of our sin nature our whole being is corrupt. The Biblical belief that our sin has tainted and corrupted our all that man is physically, mentally, and spiritually is call the total depravity of man. It doesn’t mean that we are as bad as we can be but that sin has infected every aspect of humanity. Sin has tainted and corrupted every thing we are and has made given us an inability to please God. There is no part of our being free from the stain of sin. The first thing it affects is our character. It has made us evil and separates us from acceptance with God. It affects in such a way that even the good that we humanly do is not even acceptable before God. The word ‘righteous’ that Paul uses is being understood as being right before God. Our evil, depraved nature robs us of pleasing God even in the best that we as humanity does. We have unsaved people that live pretty moral lives and that give help to the needy (like those helping in Haiti or Chile right now) but even in the best that humanity has to offer is still corrupted by our sin nature. There are great differences among people as to their love, kindness, generosity, honesty, etc. But even among the best there are none that come close to Christ’s righteous perfection. That is the standard that God demands, the righteous that God possesses, a righteous that was found only in Christ. Jesus Himself said in Matt. 5:48 – “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. For man this is an impossible task. Our depraved, sinful nature prevents us from being perfect. Our inability to save ourselves from sin, to be able to be in a relationship with God is best seen in Rom. 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. It’s like trying to jump from the Hawaiian islands to the coast of California. There are some athletes that can jump 25-30 feet; there are more people that can jump 10-15 feet, or someone like me that are out of shape that can barely jump 3 feet. Although many can do better than me it remains that we are all incapable to jump thousands of miles to the coast of California. Even though there are those who might be morally better people than others, good hearted sinners that have done great things from humanity, the sad fact is that there is none righteous, not even one; all people fall short of the glory of God. It evens says that we are spiritually ignorant (v. 11a), we don’t even have the ability on our own to know the way without God’s guidance (“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” – 1 Co. 2:14). It also makes our character rebellious, spiritually useless (“dead in trespasses and sins” – Eph. 2:1), and morally corrupt. We are totally lost, blind, and spiritually dead in our sins. We are doomed and there is nothing humanly possible that can change that fact, apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

II. Sinful Conversation (vv. 13-14 – “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”.)

There is so much more we could say of man’s character but what reveals it best, is his conversation. Jesus said in Mt. 12:34, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”; and in Prov. 10:31-32, “The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverse”. There are so many, many more verses just on conversation that we don’t have time to quote them all but it suffices to say this that a person’s real character will certainly be revealed in their conversation. We can see the result of this in the filthy conversations and slanderous gossip on TV and radio. We can also see the results of depraved conversation in the deception of false teachers of cults and false religions. No other time in history has deception been more prevalent than in our times. Jer. 9:3-5 bests describes the deception on our land in these verses, “And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the LORD. Everyone take heed to his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; For every brother will utterly supplant, And every neighbor will walk with slanderers. Everyone will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies”. Today, even politicians are noted for their lying and commercials lie about the products they sell. People openly talk of their sins and immorality and talk of the need of people to accept their perverse lifestyles. Corrupt hearts always will produce corrupt conversation.

III. Sinful Conduct (vv. 15-17 – “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known”)

If sinful mankind’s character and conversation are corrupt then most certainly their conduct will be the same. The conduct of this lost and sinful and godless world is seen the daily news of the evils man has done against man and God. In the United States 3.2% of our population is incarcerated in our prison and jail systems, 1 out of 31 people, that equals roughly 22 million people in jails, prisons, or on parole/probation. That’s just against the laws of the land, the percentage of those sinful before the laws of God are 100%. We have seen great evil committed in wars (ex. Hitler), oppressive governments (Communist China, Muslim countries), and in the daily news (murders, rapes, robberies, etc.). Our own country has made killing unborn children legal, they say that woman have the right to murder their own unborn child. Three states have made it legal to have physician assisted suicide and some have made same-sex marriage legal. Our president on his inauguration day had a homosexual clergy pray for him and also had openly homosexual choir to sing in it. He has overturned by presidential powers the ban against gays in the military. The conduct of the people of this nation shows sins corrupt influence from the top down. The conduct of our nation and other nations are against the God of heaven whose Word condemns them all. God’s judgment is against all who profane and violate His holy Law. God will warn nations and people to repent before it is too late. I just hope that people’s hearts will turn to God in repentance. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The picture of mankind’s sinful heart is reveled in three ways: their character, their conversation, and their conduct. It’s true that the entire world is born into total depravity and a total inability to reach God in our own strength and righteousness. But through the work of salvation by Christ, we have the remedy for a sinful heart. The blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all sin and deliver us from the eternal judgment of sin.