Does the Doctrine of Total Depravity Teach That We Have Lost the Image of God?

Does the doctrine of total depravity teach that sin has destroyed the image of God in humanity? Today, listen to the answer R.C. Sproul gave when he was asked about the extent and effects of sin’s corruption.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: During one of Ligonier's live events, Dr. Sproul was asked whether believing the doctrine of total depravity means that we believe people have lost the image of God. Here's his answer.

DR. R.C. SPROUL: Alright. Total depravity teaches that the fallenness of our corruption, of our condition, affects the radix, the core of our being. It's a radical thing, that there's no part of our humanity that's not profoundly affected by the fall and by sin. The mind, the heart, the will, the body"the whole person in totality has been radically affected by sin. But that affectation does not destroy or annihilate the image of God.

When you get in Noah's time, that when God institutes capital punishment for first-degree murder, He does it because the person who has murdered another human being, that human being was in the image of God. So there the Bible talks about people after Adam, who were in their fallen condition, though the image was marred and distorted and blurred and all the rest, it was not annihilated. If total depravity meant the total destruction of the imago Dei, of the image of God, we wouldn't be able to add two and two and come up with four. We wouldn't be able to think at all. We wouldn't be able to have a faculty of choosing. We would have no legitimate affection for anything. So, our humanity would be destroyed along with the image.