When talking about Total Depravity, total inability, and the bondage of the will, it is quite popular among Calvinists to talk about mankind being “dead in sin.”
The Bible frequently makes mention of people being dead in sin, or being spiritually dead, and this terminology is often used to defend the Calvinistic concepts of total inability and the bondage of the will to sin.
Humans are “Dead in Sin”
Here are some quotes from Calvinists showing how they understand and explain the “dead in sin” imagery in Scripture.
A dead man cannot exercise faith in Jesus Christ (Gordon H. Clark, The Biblical Doctrine of Man, 102)
A dead man is utterly incapable of willing anything (Pink, Sovereignty of God, 141).
A dead man cannot cooperate with an offer of healing (John H. Gerstner, A Predestination Primer, 18).
The corpse does not restore life to itself, after life is restored it becomes a living agent (Robert Dabney, The Five Points of Calvinism, 35).
The Calvinist holds to the plain teaching of Scripture and says: “No; he is dead. He cannot even open his mouth. Nor does he have any desire to call a doctor to help him. He is dead” … The Calvinist … would compare man to one who jumps off the top of the Empire State Building and is spattered over the sidewalk. Even if there were anything left of him when he landed, he could not know that he needed help, let alone cry out for it. That man is dead—lifeless—and cannot even desire to be made whole … And that is the picture of the sinner. He is dead in his sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1, 5). He does not want to be made whole, let alone even know that he should be made whole. He is dead. When Christ called to Lazarus to come out of the grave, Lazarus had no life in him so that he could hear, sit up, and emerge. There was not a flicker of life in him. If he was to be able to hear Jesus calling him and to go to Him, then Jesus would have to make him alive. Jesus did resurrect him and then Lazarus could respond (Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism, 17-18).
Could the Word of God show more plainly than it does that the depravity is total? And that our inability to desire or procure salvation is also total? The picture is one of death—spiritual death. We are like Lazarus in his tomb; we are bound hand and foot; corruption has taken hold upon us. Just as there was no glimmer of life in the dead body of Lazarus, so there is no “inner receptive spark” in our hearts. But the Lord performs the miracle—both with the physically dead, and the spiritually dead; for “you hath he quickened—made alive—who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Salvation, by its very nature, must be “of the Lord” (WJ Seaton, Five Points of Calvinism).
[A sinner] has all the passive properties belonging to a corpse… (Boice & Ryken, Doctrines of Grace, 74).
The natural man is enslaved to sin; he is a child of Satan, rebellious toward God, blind to truth, corrupt, unable to save himself or to prepare himself for salvation. In short, the unregenerate man is dead in sin, and his will is enslaved to his evil nature (Steele & Thomas, Five Points of Calvinism, 19).
In later posts we will look at some of the biblical texts used to support and defend this Calvinistic interpretation of people being dead in sin. For now, have you encountered this before? Do you think that when the Bible talks about being dead in sin, it refers to the total inability of humankind?
If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.
Yes… if total inability refers to humans not being able to save themselves by their own efforts. Of course, even in that state God always provided cover to those who found grace in His eyes by obedience and faith. Total inability to save themselves doesn’t equal total inability to please Him.
Yes, it’s a classic Calvinist line. But obviously, that can’t be what these verses means, or unbelievers could never choose to do anything good. Of course, many Calvinists would claim that indeed unbelievers never do choose to do any good. But such a notion is contradicted by common sense and looking around us. Unbelievers make good choices all the time.
My basic understanding of such texts is that they mean “as good as dead.” Those who are “dead in their sins” are on the path that leads to death. It’s like calling a man on death row a “dead man walking.” He’s not literally dead yet, but he might as well be.
Beyond all that, I agree with Calvinists that we can’t do anything to save ourselves. Salvation is entirely from God. Our own destruction, on the other hand, is from ourselves. Even if we can’t choose salvation, we can certainly choose destruction. (I don’t think Calvinists would have a problem with that.)
But thankfully, God is actively working to save every individual on earth. The only thing preventing God from saving us is our own resistance, which he honors because he gave us free wills. All we have to do is stop resisting his salvation.
I’ve previously likened this to growing a beard. If you’re interested: http://www.beingfilled.com/2014/01/growing-beard-teach-us-about-grace.html
Great input, Chuck! I also agree that we cannot do anything good to gain, earn, or merit eternal life. I will come check out that post on growing beards. What a creative take! Of course, I cannot grow a beard … does that mean I am graceless?
Somehow I missed your response before now…
Well, at least you can grow a goatee. So I guess you’re not graceless, you’re just less graceful. Ha!
Death is NOT inanimation. By that I mean, naturally speaking, in physical death, it is not the spirit no longer moving the body, but seperation itself. Death is simply seperation. The death Adam and Eve experienced was immediate. They were seperated from God’s presence.
I submit that this was a function of their fallen minds. They ran and hid. God came right after them and said to Adam, “Where are YOU?” It was Adam who “left” God, God didn’t leave Adam.
Paul explains it like this: Once you were alienated from God and were enemies IN YOUR MINDS because of your evil behavior. (I Cor 1:21)
On the cross, when Jesus became sin for us, He experienced this when He said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”. He was reciting Psalm 22. But the Psalm goes on to say: For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one, He has NOT hidden His face from him, but He has listened to his cry for help.
In our fallen minds we “die” to the presence of God. We are blind, spiritual truth is foolishness to us. In Christ (Emmanuel – God with us) we are awakened again to the truth of His presence. Our eyes are opened. We see light. He has been here all along. He is the Father, waiting for his prodigal to return home.
That’s excellent. — seriously, good theology. You’ve given me hope that spirituality can be found even in Christendom.
Yes! Separation is a GREAT synonym for the biblical word “dead” or “death.”
I agree! Separation is a great relational analogy that carries more weight in a relational context with a relational God. I do believe we WERE all dead in our sins, and that why I LOVE prevenient grace so much from which we can now choose. I am constantly relishing in it’s loving view of God for all people. I am almost constantly saying to my Calvinist brothers….prevenient grace, prevenient grace, prevenient grace. It is a beautiful doctrine.
I think Chuck McKnight hit the nail on the head in his defining of what Paul means when using the figure “dead in sins”. Consider this text from Colossians:
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Col 2:13-14 NKJV
What Paul seems to clearly show here, is that there is a death sentence hanging over us, as sinners against God, and that it is, in this sense, which we are said to be dead. This is seen by the way that we are made alive. In forgiving our sins, Jesus has nailed this Death Decree to the cross, canceling it, thereby making us “alive”.
Phillips translates verse 14 this way:
…he has utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross.
The _wages_ of sin is death (Ro 6:23). Sin, _when it is full-grown_, brings forth death (Ja 1:15). This is how we should understand the relationship between sin and death. Death is not the immediate result of sin but its inevitable consequence. The bottom line is there is no reason, biblically speaking, to assume that men die spiritually as the result of committing sin. Or that we are born in that condition, for that matter. Rightly understood, then, it takes a lot of the wind out of the sails for the Calvinist and the underpinnings of his system.
Being Dead in sin is spiritual separation from God. The “Dead corpse” analogy is a fallacy considering Jesus’ words when He said before His ascension “I will send my Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin,Righteousness and judgement. Of sin BECAUSE they do not believe in Me,of Righteousness because I go to the Father and judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged. Remember in John 6:44 Jesus said “Those whom the Father gives Me will come to Me(But He does not stop there;please continue as a whole). Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him will come to Me.” People are “responsible” BECAUSE the Holy Spirit speaks to everyone (however He’s NOT obligated to chase after someone who CONTINUALLY REJECTS HIM..God will further harden the sinner as He did to Pharoah who hardened himself even before God did. He was unrepentant and did not have any regard for the God of Israel. Also,consider Matthew 23:37 and Acts 7:51. There is MUCH MORE to this. We believers,chosen “in Christ”, need the Spirit to understand these things and not our own theological/philosophical ideas with proof texts based on limited understanding and finiteness ect…