We have been looking at the doctrine of depravity and how importance it is to teach it from a God-centered perspective and not a man-centered one. A man-centered perspective can have the appearance of orthodoxy and still have the poison of man-centeredness. We can teach that sin is bad and yet only because of the influence it has on human beings. We must show how heinous sin is because of the fact that it is against God and His glory. It is true that sin has clouded man’s reason, affections and choices. But to what extent has that occurred? We can teach that human beings are fallen and that they are tainted with sin, but the truth demands that we teach that man is dead in sins and trespasses and violates the Greatest Commandment with every single thing that s/he does. Not only is it the bad things and the so-called neutral things, but our very acts of righteousness are as very used menstrual cloths (Isaiah 64:6). Not only that, but our orthodox beliefs, practices and even our acts of mercy and outward love are as very used menstrual cloths to God without love. Our orthodox preaching is as menstrual cloths to God without true love which can only come from Him.
It is so hard to get people to see the true extent of their depravity. In fact, it is impossible for human beings to get others to see it. That is another aspect of depravity that we so often forget. The Holy Spirit alone can convict of sin and of righteousness though He uses the means of preaching and the Word to do so. There is nothing that a human being can do or not do that is something other than excrement and trash before a holy, holy, holy God unless it is moved from love for God and is intended as love for God. We even sin in refraining from sin because we refrain from selfish reasons and not out of love for God. The doctrine of depravity is not a clean and sterile teaching for a society that desires cleanness and sterility. It will make people upset and perhaps many will leave churches and our company if we teach it. But of course our books on how to “grow the church” will tell us to do otherwise. We are left with the choice of whether to honor God or human beings.
Isaiah 64:7 goes on, however. It tells us that “there is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You.” Here we see another great evil of depravity. Human beings get involved in efforts to bring relief to the poor. Human beings get involved in great efforts to do good works in many places. Human beings spend much effort to develop creeds and articulate things to believe. But how many arouse themselves to take hold of God? How many have such a love for God that they seek Him in truth with longings and cravings of soul? How many know God as the well of living water? How many long for Him as a deer longs for water in a dry land? It is much easier to do good works and set out creeds. But the doctrine of depravity teaches us that no one seeks for God and no one does any real good apart from love for God. This is hard for those who are proud of their own righteousness and perhaps proud of their works or religion, but God opposes the proud and especially when it is spiritual pride.
The doctrine of depravity teaches us about sin from a God-centered view. Sin separates from God. The greatest good is God and the greatest non-good is when God withdraws and leaves us to our own devices, selfishness and pride. Isaiah 59:2 says this: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Ezekiel 14:7 goes on to show another part of this: “For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person.”
The two texts above might not scare the unbeliever or professing believer on the face of it, but when those things are drawn out the utter horror of sin will be sin. God is the only One that keeps each person out of hell each moment. God is the only one that keeps people from sin by His restraining grace. When God turns from a person or a people, that person or people are being turned over to a hardened heart and being opened up to all sorts of evil. This also means that they are now unprotected from the evil one. Who can turn God back to a person? Only God can. Once the sin has been committed, it makes a person subject to physical and eternal death. Each sin the unbeliever commits makes that person a partaker of darkness and death a little more. Professing believers must understand the nature of sin from a God-centered perspective or they will only see sin as that which is bad for them in an earthly way. But if we try to be gracious and winsome on these things, we will not have done what true love for God or man requires. Without the God-centered aspect of the depravity of man in our modern day we have degenerated into a low form of man-centeredness. Without this truth we don’t see the true need for the cross or the true need of grace, nor do we even understand grace hardly at all. Some will also try to make peace with those who deny the true teaching of depravity because they themselves only hold to it from a man-centered version. This is what happens when God turns a people over to their creeds without being centered upon Him. Without seeing the doctrine of depravity in light of the glory of God we only see it from a man-centered perspective. Regardless of the creed, if man is at the center most creeds will be pretty much the same. We must have God or we will perish.
God Loves... Himself 
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