My Will be Done?

Total Depravity, a doctrine of the Gospel, is one that is too often misunderstood and maligned without good reason by those who seek to proclaim the necessity of man's will in the 'economy' of salvation. If the 'good news' is that man has been left with the responsibility to choose his saving faith, then God help us all. But since the God-breathed scriptures tell us that faith is a gift of God, not anything of our own doing, we have the confidence to trust in the providence of God. Salvation is His to give, not ours to appropriate. The great Reformer Martin Luther had this to say about the notion of man willing his saving faith:

“Granted that your friends assign to ‘free will as little as possible,’
nevertheless they teach us that by that little we can attain righteousness and
grace: and they solve the problem as to why God justifies one and abandons
another simply by presupposing ‘free-will,’ and saying: ‘the one endeavored and
the other did not; and God regards the one for his endeavor and despises the
other; and He would be unjust were He to do anything else!’...They [the
guardians of ‘free-will’] do not believe that He intercedes before God and
obtains grace for them by His blood, and ‘grace’ (as is here said) ‘for grace.’
And as they believe, so it is unto them. Christ is in truth an inexorable judge
to them, deservedly so; for they abandon Him in His office as a Mediator and
Kindest Savior, and account His blood and grace as of less worth than the
efforts and endeavors of ‘free-will’!”

One of the many perils of the modern gospel is that man, by the power of his own will, can be the initiator of his saving faith. Without getting into the historicity of this view and without going into detail, it is actually one that goes back to the 4th century (probably in manifestations before this) and was something that marked the Pelagian Heresy. Pelagius, a celtic monk, came into conflict with Augustine claiming that man has the free will to choose to put his faith in Jesus Christ thereby being the initiator of saving faith. Pelagianism has reared its ugly head in modern day evangelicalism and finds itself, unfortunately, being propagated as the Biblical Gospel. "Make a decision for Christ", "choose Christ", "invite Christ into your heart", are common refrains coming from the pulpits of evangelical churches. And while these examples themselves sound all well and good, the implication is the unbiblical notion that man has the ability, devoid of God, to make the decision to choose Him - that Jesus Christ has completed His work and now waits for men to choose Him out of an act of sheer will. That men and women, spiritually dead, can make a conscious decision to follow Christ and thereby be the impetus, in a sense, of their own salvation, is representative of the modern deficient gospel. The cause, in part, of this belief may be the notion that mankind is not spiritually dead but spiritually sick or spiritually handicapped. Usually coming from a faulty understanding of 'the fall' this notion implies that men are not dead to God but created "with a hole in their heart that needs to be filled by Jesus". Again while this might sound nice it is not biblical because it implies that a man need not be 'born again' but rather decide on his own to fill "the hole" with Jesus. This, when exposed to the light of Biblical Truth, is silly.

I heard one presbyter use an analogy similar to this: "an unregenerate man can no sooner choose on his own to follow Jesus than a corpse can get up and play tennis or discuss philosophy". To put this discussion in better hands, let's have a quick look at what God's Word has to say about man and his complete lack of saving will:

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. (Genesis 6:5)

...and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:19-20)

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8)

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. (Romans 9:16)

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

While I have only referred to five God-breathed verses I think the message is clear. The carnal mind is enmity towards God; the thoughts of the unbelievers heart are continually evil; those that are in the flesh - not regenerated of the Spirit of God - cannot please God. Men by nature love darkness - choose darkness - rather than light; faith comes not by "him that willeth" it so, but by the mercy of God; the believer is not born of blood, the will of the flesh nor of man, but by the power of God who is in full control. Not to me, not to my wife, not to those who witnessed to me, but to God be the thanks and to God be the Glory!

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;" (Hebrews 12:2)
[reformed]
[doctrine]