Last time I spoke of dealing with “T” (total depravity) and ran out of space before I got to it much at all. Total depravity does not mean what the caricatures set it out to mean, but is instead the doctrine of how depraved man is in light of who God is. We must never forget that the reason we show human beings the true nature of their depravity and sin is not to make them feel bad, it is to show them that they must be broken of their pride and despair of anything within themselves in order that God may give them life by grace. If we continue with the focus on human beings, we have fallen far short of what we are to do. A person will desire to escape hell and will never be delivered from his own strength and so believe in his own strength and be damned. Sinners must see their depravity in the light of the glory of God in order to be delivered from their own strength and then by the work of the Spirit hope in God and His glory through Christ and Christ alone.
Romans 5:6 tells us this about depravity: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Whatever language people use when describing depravity we can know that human beings are helpless and without strength. Sinners are helpless and without strength and so Christ died for them as the ungodly. When does the Holy Spirit come to them and make them alive? It is while they are dead in sins and trespasses (Eph 2:1-7). So Christ died for sinners while they were helpless and without strength and the Spirit makes them alive when they are dead in sins and trespasses. In our evangelism we must take these things into account. Sinners are spiritually dead and so have no strength in the spiritual realm. What are we to tell them to do? What is being done today is that we tell people to do what they cannot do and yet we don’t tell them anything about the fact that they cannot do it. To put this in different words, when a person is spiritually dead and does not understand that and another comes along and tells the person to do something without telling the person that s/he is dead, that person will respond with a work of the flesh and think that s/he has in truth believed. The “T” is not a theological point that is just there to fit with tulip, but it is a vital truth about human beings. If we do not get the “T” right in theology and evangelism, we will not practice biblical evangelism and we will not teach people the truth about the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and the new birth. Being God-centered is at the heart of all of this.
We go out and do evangelism without God at the center of it and think we are doing the will of God. That can be something like the Pharisees who traveled over land and sea to make converts and made them twice the sons of hell that they were (Mat 23:15). Where is God in our evangelism and in all the other things we do? Do we really believe in sola scriptura any longer? If so, where do we find a Scriptural mandate for what we are doing? Could it be that those within Calvinistic circles who are professing Calvinists and hold to the five-points of Calvinism actually practice evangelism with the same methods and virtually the same theology as the Arminians do? How could that be? Where is the God-centeredness in that type of evangelistic methodology? If you are following the flow of thought, you will see something very important. It is that the heart of Arminian evangelism which is based on Arminian theology and view of the Gospel can be virtually the same as that practiced by the modern Calvinists. In fact, there are Calvinists who use the evangelistic programs of Arminians. There is no wonder, then, that many modern Calvinists can be at peace with Arminian teachings and practice the same evangelism. The reason is that their Reformed theology is not applied at this point and so there is virtually no difference with the Arminian view at that point. But if there is no difference at that point, where is the real difference? Where is God in reality in what Calvinists and Arminians are doing other than the use of His name at a few points? If the doctrine of total depravity is virtually set aside in evangelism, then the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion will be virtually ignored and the emphasis will all be on what the sinner must do. Of course some might give lip service to this but unless we teach men that they are dead in sin we will not teach them what it means to be helpless and without strength. We will then not teach them what is needful for them to be broken and trust in Christ alone.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment