The most well-known feature of Calvinism is its famous five points, often referred to by Calvinists as “the doctrines of grace” and represented by the acronym TULIP.[1] There is much more to Calvinist theology than this, of course, but TULIP is definitely the centerpiece. The acronym summarizes the Calvinist understanding of salvation like this:
- Total Depravity
- Unconditional Election
- Limited Atonement
- Irresistible Grace
- Perseverance of the Saints
Each of these points expresses a key component of Calvinism’s understanding of how God saves people. In this article, we’ll take a look at “total depravity.”
Total Depravity
“And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:1-2)
Total Depravity describes human inability to save themselves. We are totally guilty and corrupt. The word “total” doesn’t mean that each person is as corrupt “as it is possible for him to be. Instead, the word ‘total’ is used to indicate that the whole of man’s being has been affected by sin.”[2]
In other words, total depravity isn’t claiming that each person is as corrupt as the Devil himself but that every part of the person is corrupted by sin: body, mind, soul, and will. As Michael Birds puts it, “There is no cavern of our mind, no recess of our soul, and no room of our heart that is not infected with the deadly virus of sin.”[3]
And the truth is, human depravity is probably the easiest doctrine of the Bible to verify. Listen to the news. Visit the self-help section of the bookstore. Read the comments on YouTube. We humans have issues!
That’s the point. Humans are broken and corrupt right down to the core of our beings. Jesus taught,
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22, NIV)
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.”
And this means we can’t save ourselves. We are “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). We need divine rescue.
As noted above, this doesn’t mean every person is as bad as they could be or that they are incapable of ever doing anything good. To accuse Calvinism of teaching that misrepresents what it means by total depravity. Humans still bear the image of God and therefore are capable of doing some good.
Nevertheless, every part of the person is still tainted by sin, and no person is capable of saving themselves.
So far so good.
But there is one key point here where Calvinists and non-Calvinists disagree. The Calvinist understanding of total depravity also entails the enslavement of the will. Humans “do not have the ABILITY to choose spiritual good over evil.”[4] They are unable to turn to God.
This is not a minor point or an optional extra for a super deluxe version of Calvinism. It is central. “Unconditional election” and “irresistible grace,” two other petals of the TULIP, are necessary because humans lack this ability. Because the will is enslaved, no one could respond to the call of the gospel without divine enablement. For Calvinism, this is an essential component of the inability to save yourself. If you can respond positively to the gospel, without God first changing you and giving you the ability, then can it truly be true that salvation is purely by God’s grace?
“Humans still bear the image of God and therefore are capable of doing some good.”
Non-Calvinists, however, disagree. They too believe that people are depraved, and they even believe God’s Spirit draws people to Christ. But people still retain the ability to choose. Non-Calvinists reject the idea that having the ability to choose to respond positively to the gospel equates to saving yourself or contributing to your salvation. Receiving someone’s generosity does not equal earning that generosity. This is true whether it is a friend offering you $10,000 to pay off a loan or God offering you salvation by his grace.
This point of disagreement marks a fundamental point of difference between Calvinism and non-Calvinism. Do human beings have free will or not? Calvinism equivocates. Calvinism argues that it believes in a kind of free will, namely that people are free as long as they choose what they want. But since they are completely corrupt, what they want is sin and rebellion against God. Therefore, they are incapable of choosing any spiritual good, and God must be the one that changes their will in order for them to begin wanting him.
Not only that, but according to Calvinism, God has already determined (“ordained”) all that is going happen in the world, including every choice each person will ever make. In fact, as we’ll see in the points below, even the choice of some to choose the gospel is determined by God and is irresistible. People only choose God because he made them want to.
Thus, while Calvinism does say that people choose, it doesn’t use the classic and common understanding of free will which includes the power to choose between opposites. We have no options. Between our own depravity and God’s sovereign power, each choice we make is pre-arranged.
“People only choose God because he made them want to.”
Non-Calvinists, on the other hand, retain the more common understanding of free will, which includes the power to choose between varying options. Our choices are, of course, affected and influenced by both internal (e.g., our character) and external factors, but they aren’t completely determined by those factors. The will is not enslaved. We still retain the ability to choose, and this includes the ability to hear and respond to the gospel.[5]
[1] Interestingly, this acronym didn’t appear until hundreds of years after Calvin as a convenient way to summarize the five points, and the five points originally were a response to a document protesting Calvinist teaching. See J. A. Medders, Humble Calvinism (Epsom, UK: The Good Book Company, 2019), 34-36, for a short history.
[2] David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented (Philipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1963), 25.
[3] In J. A. Medders. Humble Calvinism (The Good Book Company), 59.
[4] The Five Points of Calvinism, p. 25, emphasis in the original.
[5] Christian philosopher Dallas Willard emphasizes that will, the ability to choose, is central to human personhood and gives the person dignity. He describes the will “as the ability to originate or refrain from originating something.…Will is the capacity for radical and underivative origination of events and things. Therefore it is the core of who and what we are as individuals, for what arises from it is from us alone” (In Renovation of the Heart, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002), p. 144, emphasis in the original).
