References:
Heidelberg
ESV Bible Online
John Piper Article
"You cannot use a method that is fundamentally self-centered to invite people into a moral universe that is fundamentally God-centered."
--- Dwight L. Moody
"I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You will not find that in any place in Scripture."
--- Paul Washer, HeartCry Missionary Society
Of "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" and the Depravity of Man
"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." How many times have you used this phrase as a way to lure sinners to Jesus? Or, "God loves you just the way you are." Or the one that I see taken out of context is Revelation 3:20, telling unregenerate sinners that Jesus is knocking at the door of their hearts. All of these are used so that unregenerate people can make "decisions" for Christ, but they are totally unbiblical. John the Baptizer, Jesus, and the apostles never used this method, and neither should we. People are not naturally good, but are bad, totally depraved and wicked. They will not respond with true Godly repentance and faith if they are wooed into the Kingdom by the “love hermeneutic.” I’m not saying you should not tell an unbeliever that God loves them, just don’t tell them the good news before telling them the bad news. We should preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
The Heidelberg Catechism is correct when answering question # 8: “Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?”
Answer: Indeed we are; (a) except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. (b)
(a) Gen.8:21 The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Gen.6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit. Isa.53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(b) John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 1 Cor.12:3 herefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 2 Cor.3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
There are many other verses that describe man's depravity (also see the end of this article):
Psalms 14:1-3 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Romans 3:10: as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Romans 3:18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Even the apostle Paul, the man who by God's divine direction wrote much of the New Testament, wrote about his own wretchedness:
Romans 7:18: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:21-25 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Even Paul was humble enough to know there was nothing he could do apart from Jesus Christ spiritually. The carnal mind has nothing good in him, that is, spiritually speaking. In Romans Paul writes about the spiritual vs. the unspiritual:
Romans 8:5-8
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And in Ephesians, his point is driven home, that the regenerate man was once dead in sin:
Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
A personal witness encounter, preaching, and teaching for the unregenerate heart must start with the bad news before the good news of the gospel is given. God is love; this is true. But this news won’t be fully understood unless they know that there is no one who is good by nature. Even Jesus corrected the rich young ruler's understanding of good:
Mark 10
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will shave treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And even Jesus let this young man go. He did not chase after him. He did not ask this man to come to church or a discipleship class. He gave this man the law, which revealed that he was self-righteous and ultimately unwilling to give up his idol – riches. Paul said in Romans 7, verse 7: “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”
There is no one who is good. Look at Luke 18 where the tax collector cries out to God. And also look at the Pharisee, who thought there was something “good” in him deserving of God’s love:
Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The tax collector realized he was a wretch and cried out for mercy. But the Pharisee’s heart was still corrupt.
So, this is the response God demands - the beating of the breast, the calling out to Him for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! The only way a man is brought to this state is to realize he is a wretch without any hope, and his sin was against a Holy, Just God. The Holy Spirit convicts men and women of sin through preaching the Word. When preaching or teaching, don’t neglect to mention sin – it is man’s problem. And, in a personal witness encounter, ask the Holy Spirit to be with you to enable you to use biblical words to bring them to know they are enemies of God and God’s wrath abides on them unless they repent and put their total trust in Jesus.
Bible verses for future study about the depravity of man:
Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
1 John 1:8 - If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John 8:44 - You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Romans 5:19 - For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Psalm 51:5 - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Ephesians 2:1-3 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Romans 7:18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Genesis 8:21 - And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Ephesians 4:17 - Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
1 Timothy 6:5 - and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
1 Corinthians 2:14 - The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Proverbs 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Jeremiah 4:22 - “For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ‘wise’—in doing evil! But how to do good they know not.”
Isaiah 5:20 - Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Romans 1:18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Titus 1:15 - To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Hebrews 9:14 - how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
1 Timothy 4:2 - through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared
Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Mark 7:20-23 - And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Matthew 7:18 - A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
2 Thessalonians 2:12 - in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Titus 2:12 - training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
1 Timothy 6:9 - But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
Romans 7:23-24 - but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Colossians 2:13 - And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses
John 8:34 - Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
Romans 6:20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
2 Peter 2:19 - They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
2 Timothy 2:26 - and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
Job 15:16 - how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!
Romans 8:7-8 - For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
John 5:40 - yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 6:44 - No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”
John 11:43-44 - When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.
Romans 3:10-12 - as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible toplease him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Genesis 6:5 - The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Romans 9:19-20 - You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
2 Peter2:14 - They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
References:
http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/heidelberg.html
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/piper/depravity.html
P.S. The author of this article is also a totally depraved wretched sinner like the rest of mankind.