Total depravity is a very misleading term.

People confuse total depravity with what we would call utter depravity, that is, that

man is as bad as he could possibly be.

I don't know anybody who believes that. No matter how sinful we are,

we can always conceive of ourselves of having done worse sins than we have done and even sin

more often than we in fact do. So there's none of us who is utterly depraved. And remember,

when we speak of sinners and of human corruption, we're talking about the fall

of a creature who was created good.

And our being created in the image of God is not annihilated or erased even by our sinfulness.

There's still tremendous value to human beings, and we must do everything we can to protect

the dignity of a human being.

The term total depravity was coined to mean that sin affects the whole person, that the total

essence of our humanity is fallen. That is, our minds are

fallen, our wills are fallen, our bodies are fallen, the whole person is caught up in this

fallenness. You've been listening to Ultimately with R.C. Sproll.

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