Total Depravity

Does the doctrine of total depravity teach that people are as evil as they can possibly be? Today, R.C. Sproul explains what it means—and doesn’t mean—that mankind is fallen, sinful, and depraved.

“Total depravity” is a very misleading term. People confuse total depravity with what we would call “utter depravity”—that is, that man is as bad as he could possibly be. I don’t know anybody who believes that. No matter how sinful we are, we can always conceive of ourselves of having done worse sins than we have done, and even sin more often than we in fact do. So there’s none of us who is utterly depraved. And remember when we speak of sinners and of human corruption, we’re talking about the fall of a creature who was created good, and our being created in the image of God is not annihilated or erased even by our sinfulness.

There’s still tremendous value to human beings. And we must do everything we can to protect the dignity of a human being. The term “total depravity” was coined to mean that sin affects the whole person, that the total essence of our humanity is fallen. That is, our minds are fallen, our wills are fallen, our bodies are fallen. The whole person is caught up in this fallenness.