SEMESTER 1
208 – The Fallen State of Man (His Condition)
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: SOTERIOLOGY I LESSON # 8
THE FALLEN STATE OF MAN (HIS CONDITION)
INTRODUCTION:
1. We mentioned in the previous lesson that man, character-wise, is a sinner.
2. In this lesson we will deal not so much with his moral character, as his spiritual condition.
3. This indeed, belongs to the subject of man’s fall (effectually).
4. We then are not just talking about the judicial effect of guilt or innocence (as a sinner). i.e., what did the fall do to his mentality, spirituality, affections, will, etc.?
5. The statement of man’s condition, as a result of the fall, is theologically referred to as human depravity, or total depravity.
6. Considerable attention must be given to this subject, but not all under this heading.
7. The importance of it is incontestable, for the doctrine of salvation stands or falls on a right view of sin.
I. TOTAL DEPRAVITY CONSIDERED NEGATIVELY
1. It does not state that man has no conscience or moral sensitivity.
2. Not that he can do no praiseworthy human act.
3. Not that he is prone to every form of sin.
4. Not incapable of action conforming to divine law.
5. Not that he is as bad as he can possibly be.
6. Not that he is destroyed in the substance of the soul.
7. He is no less a man. He has lost none of his faculties, as in the image of God.
8. The issue is not a change in his essence as a “living soul,” but his condition as the same.
II. TOTAL DEPRAVITY CONSIDERED POSITIVELY
The proposition is that sin has permeated every faculty of man’s being.
III: Consider a drop of poison in a barrel of water, not totally poison intensively, but extensively.
1. Biblical proof of this total depravity:
i. Of the mind – (Gen 6:5
)
ii. Of the heart – (Jer 17:9)
iii. Of the affections – (Joh 3:19, Rom 8:7)
iv. Of the conscience – (Tit 1:15, Heb 10:22)
v. Of the speech – (Psa 58:3, Jer 8:6, Rom 3:13)
vi. From head to foot – (Isa 1:5-6)
vii. From birth (not just environment) – (Psa 51:5, Psa 58:3)
2. The effect of total depravity.
i. Has no spiritual good in him by nature. (Rom 7:8)
ii. Cannot subject himself to God’s law. (1Co 2:14, Rom 8:7)
iii. Is spiritually dead. (Rom 5:12, Col 2:6, 1Jo. 3:14)
iv. Cannot repent and believe, without quickening. (Jer 13:23, Joh 6:44-45, Joh 12:39-40)