God tells us through His prophet Isaiah that man is depraved, “From the sole of the foot even unto the head.” J.I. Packer defines depravity as a, “universal deformity of human nature, found at every point in every person.” It is total in its degree of corruption, both in our moral and spiritual makeup. No part of us is left untouched by sin. Therefore, total depravity necessitates total inability. We need God’s divine intervention in our lives from start to finish.
We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners, and it’s our nature to do so. The external life may look healthy, but the inward is eaten up with cancerous sin. As C.S. Lewis states, “Of all created beings the wickedest is one who originally stood in the immediate presence of God.” Dress a corpse with all the niceties you will, but it is still putrefying within. Cosmetics can’t change that.
We see horrible things happening all around us today, and invariably someone will say, “If I know my heart, I could never do such a thing.” The truth is we do not know our hearts. The Bible tells us that it’s, “… deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” We are like Peter when the Lord told him the hideous thing he was about to do; he believed others could do such a thing, but never himself. My friend, we are capable of the vilest acts; therefore, let us humble ourselves, bowing in the dust before our God, trusting Him to keep us.
All of mankind has black hearts hiding behind white vests!
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