If sin has touched every aspect of who we are, then we must not look within for the solution. We must look to Christ.…The doctrine of total depravity is not meant to leave us in despair, but to strip away false hope so that we might cling to the only true hope that is found in Jesus Christ, freely offered in the gospel.

Currently our men’s group is studying Dr. Rob Pacienza’s short book, How Firm a Foundation: Eight Truths for an Unshakeable Faith. In the fifth chapter he tackles the Problem of Sin. One of his opening statements is a well-familiar truth. He writes, sin has touched every aspect of human existence.¹ This is a succinct way of describing what our standards teach more fully and what is often called total depravity. Yet, in today’s evangelical world, this doctrine is frequently misunderstood, softened, or ignored altogether.

However, if we are to rightly understand the gospel, we must first rightly understand the depth of our need.

What Do We Mean?

The Westminster Larger Catechism provides remarkable clarity here. In Westminster Larger Catechism Question 25, we are reminded that the sinfulness of our estate consists in “the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature.”

That final phrase, “the corruption of his whole nature,” is key. We do not suffer from a partial immorality nor is it isolated to one aspect; it is comprehensive.

Questions 26–28 unfold this further, stating, that through Adam’s fall, all mankind is brought into a state of sin and misery and under God’s wrath, subject to death, and inclined toward all evil. Question 27 speaks of that corruption being conveyed to all our posterity, and question 28 catalogs the miseries that flow from this fallen condition both in this life and in that which is to come.

Then Questions 29–30 begin to turn our eyes toward the hope that God has not left mankind to perish in this estate but has provided a Redeemer.

But before we rush to the gospel, we must linger at the weightiness of sin.

A Corruption That Reaches Everywhere

To say that sin has touched every aspect of human existence is to say that there is no faculty of our being left untouched by the fall. The Scriptures speak to this comprehensively, and our own experience confirms it.

The Mind

Sin affects how we think. Paul writes that the Gentiles “walk…in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding” (Eph. 4:17–18). Likewise, Romans 1:21 tells us that although men knew God, “they did not honor him as God… but became futile in their thinking.”

This means we do not naturally perceive truth rightly. Our reasoning is not neutral, as many like to believe, it is bent toward wickedness.

Practically, this means that we are good at justifying sin with “sophisticated arguments,” we reinterpret clear biblical teaching to fit cultural norms, and we suppress uncomfortable truths rather than submit to them.

A man may convince himself that his anger is “righteous,” his greed and discontent is “ambition,” or his compromise is “wisdom.” The mind, touched by sin, becomes an accomplice to it.

The Heart

Sin affects what we love. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). Jesus teaches that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality…” (Matt. 15:19). Our problem is not merely external behavior, but also our internal desire.

We crave approval from others more than faithfulness to God. We love comfort more than obedience. We envy rather than give thanks.

Even our “good deeds” can be motivated by pride, fear of man, or desire for recognition. The heart does not simply need correction, it needs renewal.

The Will

Sin affects what we choose. Jesus says plainly, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Paul echoes this: when he writes that we were “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) and “dead in…trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

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