"Engaging God's World" Chapter 3

The subject of total depravity has been a difficult topic for me for much of my life. I have been raised in a CRC home and have been a part of a CRC church my whole life. I have read the catechisms many times, but still I take issue with the idea of total depravity. All of us are made in the image of God, and to say that we are completely sinful I think sends the wrong message. We are, in fact, inherently good, we are so because God made us so. While sin has twisted us, I don't believe it has removed all the initial good that was in us. There seems to be something wrong with telling a surgeon who has just saved a life that what he did was not a good thing, because he is incapable of doing good. In addition, would telling a person this lead him toward God? toward Christianity? I don't think so.

The message of the New Testament is one of salvation by grace, and certainly we need God's grace. We are imperfect beings, and we do not deserve to be together with God, a perfect being. We fall short of his glory. However, in order for our glory to fall short of God's, we must have some glory in the first place, granted to us by God. If nothing we do can be good, why make the effort? We would never be able to succeed. I take a far more optimistic view: that we can do good deeds, and we can in fact work for the kingdom of God here on Earth. Even non-believers can unknowingly work for God's kingdom, doing His will.

I also want to point out that to assume knowledge of every working of the mind of God is a dangerous thing. God's plan for humanity is God's plan for humanity, not meant to be known by us. While I do believe certain things about God because of what has been revealed by the Bible and the world he has created, I would never claim to know what God has in store for us or how he views our lives. Approaching such theological issues with humility is ultimately the best approach, so that such disagreements are not divisive, but simply bring us closer to God in our quest to understand Him.