Total Depravity

Driving home: We believe that there is nothing that we can do to secure our salvation. Even the faith we exercise is a gift that God implants within us. We cannot take the initiative in the salvation process by crying to the Lord for …

This analogy compares the Arminian view of man's fall (injured but alive, like falling from a second-story window) with the Reformed view (spiritually dead, like falling from a tall building and being a 'mass of pulp'). It illustrates the extent of man's incapacitation due to sin.

Now how does this position differ, you ask, from that of the Holy Spirit? It can perhaps best be explained by an example. The Arminians compare the unregenerate man to one who falls, say, from a second-story window. He breaks his leg, cracks a few ribs, but is still alive.

11:38 - 11:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Man was rebellious and bitter toward God right up to the end. He wanted nothing to do with the Lord. And yet God saved him. That, you see, is grace heaped upon grace.

This story presents two scenarios of murderers receiving clemency. The first, who shows remorse, represents the Arminian view of grace contingent on human initiative. The second, who remains rebellious but is still pardoned, illustrates the greater, sovereign grace of God in the Reformed understanding of salvation, where God acts without any prior human merit or desire.

Imagine a young man has been sentenced to die because of a first-degree murder. As he is waiting on death row, he is filled with remorse for his awful deed. He's had a complete change of heart. Never would he consider doing what he once did, taking someone's life in cold blood.

22:09 - 22:25 Read in full sermon