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.
Continuous evil.
This is how Genesis 6 begins. This is where Genesis 3 and 4 have left us. When Adam and Eve sinned it wasn’t a small leak that we simply have to keep our eye on. It was a flood of wickedness that has overtaken the entire world, including what’s on the inside of people – every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.
Over the years this idea has come to be called total depravity. Depravity is just a fancy way of saying sinful or bad. When we say that we are “totally depraved” we mean that we are totally sinful. What does that mean?
First, it means that every part of us is sinful. There is no part of us that is not selfish. From what we do all the way down to why we do it. EVERY intention and thought of the heart is corrupted by sin. The word intention here is the word imagination. Genesis 6 describes people that can only imagine evil and then they turn their evil imagination into wicked thoughts and wicked deeds.
Second, it means that EVERY single person is infected with this evil – the wickedness of man(kind) was great on the earth. Often in the movies there is a bad guy who is wicked, but then there are good guys who are not wicked. The good guys have to stop the bad guys. But Genesis 6 is telling us that everyone is a bad guy. Everyone wants to do whatever they want to do, even if it is mean and selfish. The Bibles doesn’t say that there are a handful of bad guys that need to be locked up. By Genesis 6, everyone’s a bad guy.
By the way, this is why when you hear people or movies say that you need to follow your heart and pursue your dreams you should stop and remember what Genesis 6 says – that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Without Jesus, following your heart will only lead to becoming more selfish and uncaring.
Third, it means that no one can save themselves. This is why we need a savior to come and rescue us from ourselves. We are so sinful, so totally depraved even down to our very core, that we could never come up with the idea to love and obey God on our own. Only if God comes to us first would we ever come to him.
In Genesis 6 we see that people are so sinful that God decides to destroy the whole Earth:
Genesis 6:7-8. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
God will always judge our sin because he is perfect holiness, but he will also always make a way to escape that judgment. In Genesis 6, that way will come through a man named Noah – But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Total depravity doesn’t mean that we are unable to receive God’s grace. Noah is proof of that. But it does mean that we all need grace. You need God’s grace every single day. And so do I.
Questions: Do you agree that you are totally depraved, totally sinful and unable to save yourself? How do we know that God loves us even though we are totally sinful?
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