Equipping University

If we are as desperately lost as the Bible indicates, then we must acknowledge and hold to what the Bible teaches about our condition. We cannot come to God, choose God, or believe in Jesus Christ on our own. This is a matter of ability as well as desire - which speaks of our will. Many people are troubled by the Calvinistic understanding of man's free will because it does not seem consistent with what they know of their natural and usual ability to choose what they want to choose and reject what they want to reject. We can just examine our own lives and the lives we see lived around us and see clearly that man enjoys a very real measure of freedom of choice. Is it possible for man to be free and God to be sovereign? One position makes the best sense of that seeming contradictory position.

The Calvinistic understanding of man's spiritual state is often caricatured as the destruction of the image of God in man. That is not accurate. The Bible plainly says that man is dead in his sin yet he is still very active in his willful rebellion against the holiness of God. However, many still insist on saying that man is not dead but merely "sick" or "dying." In this chapter, we will look at common misconceptions, a proper understanding, and the certain implications of this biblical doctrine of total depravity. We will never fully value to amazing grace of God until we fully understand the depths to which we have fallen in sin.

The Calvinistic understanding of man's spiritual state is often caricatured as the destruction of the image of God in man. That is not accurate. The Bible plainly says that man is dead in his sin yet he is still very active in his willful rebellion against the holiness of God. However, many still insist on saying that man is not dead but merely "sick" or "dying." In this chapter, we will look at common misconceptions, a proper understanding, and the certain implications of this biblical doctrine of total depravity. We will never fully value to amazing grace of God until we fully understand the depths to which we have fallen in sin.

To fail to fully realize the extent and state of fallen man is to fall into a dangerously incorrect understanding of God, man, and God���s grace towards man. You cannot grasp a full understanding and appreciation for the amazing grace of God unless you first grasp a full understanding and appreciation of the true spiritual condition of man. You cannot grasp a full understanding and appreciation of your salvation unless you first grasp a full understanding and appreciation of what you have been saved from.