Total Depravity

“Just as it is written, “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless.”  Romans 3:10-12

 The doctrine of total depravity is what the devotional calls it. God made us to need Him. If we were able to be holy and righteous on our own, we would not need God. Instead, we are destitute without Him. There is nothing in us that can save us. No matter how hard we try, we cannot overcome sin on our own. Neither can we account for and recompense all of our past sins. Many people feel like they have to clean up their act and become good before they can come to God. The truth is quite the opposite, we can never clean up our act until we come to God. That’s because we require His mercy.

 Again, the devotional shared it well, “Mercy is not getting what we deserve…” The Bible is clear that the penalty for sin is death as we explored yesterday. We don’t want to think about it this way, we don’t want to face it, but the truth is that death is what we deserve. All of us. I think of my oldest son, dangling from a rock at the top of a climbing gym when he was about 11 years old crying out, “I’m too young to die!” But the truth is, even at his young age, he had committed his share of sins. But through God’s mercy, He provides a way for us to overcome sin through His righteousness. Instead of death, He gave us what we did not deserve, grace.

 Continuing with the devotional’s thought “… and grace is getting what we do not deserve.” We do not deserve what Jesus did for us. We are not worthy of it and we never can be. Knowing thus, God provided for us by His grace. This is not a shortcoming on God’s design of us, but rather an ingenious provision. He created a God-sized hole in our hearts that only He can fill. Nothing else we try to do or consume will take His place. He created us to be in relationship with Him.

Here's the Thing: God loved us so much that He provided a way for us to love Him too. Without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, we are unable to seek God, to obey God, to love God on our own. But He wanted us to be with Him, because of His mercy, so He provided a way, because of His grace.

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