Article 3: Total Inability

Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.

________________________________________

Whenever we address the subject of “total inability,” we need to be clear that we are speaking of but one of the major consequences of the Fall. The Bible clearly teaches that all are born guilty for Adam’s act of rebellion in Eden, since Adam acted for us and in our place as both the federal and biological head of the human race as God’s chosen representative for humanity (cf. Romans 5:12-19). Because of Adam's sin, the entire human race is under the just condemnation of God, and guilty (by imputation) for Adam’s act of rebellion from the very moment of our conception.

As we have seen throughout the prior articles, the biblical data demonstrates that we are born with what is called “original corruption.” As a consequence of Adam's fall, we are inclined toward all evil, we are darkened in our understanding, we are ignorant of the things of God, and separated from God at birth. We are without God and without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12-13). We are “turned in on ourselves” and, left to our own devices, we are unable to do any good (from God’s perspective) whatsoever. As the Canons indicate, we are unfit "for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in [our] sins, and slaves to sin.”

Total inability refers to the fact that our wills are in bondage to our inherited sinful nature, as well as weakened by the darkness of our intellectual faculties (Ephesians 4:17-19). The Reformers spoke of this in terms of “the bondage of the will” to the flesh (our sinful orientation). None of the fallen children of Adam are born “innocent,” nor are they “neutral” toward the things of God—as though the moral direction of each individual depends upon an act of the human will to follow either Christ’s good example or Adam’s bad one. This is, as the Canons point out, the heresy of Pelagianism.

To read the rest, follow the link below

Read More