This post is part of my series Blogging Calvinism in which I blog my thoughts and reaction to Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election by Sam Storms.

In chapter four Storms considers the nature of man’s free will. He affirms that man does have free will but the question is what that will is free to do? The short answer is we are free to choose anything we desire to do. An unsaved person is free to choose Christ for salvation if they desire to do so.

The problem is that left to themselves no one will ever desire Christ. Scriptural evidence for this is abundant and the clearest statement of this is found in Romans 3:10-12 (Psalm 14:1-3):

Romans 3:10-12

10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.” (ESV)

Left to himself no one will seek God. We are all dead in trespasses and sins and have been so from the moment of our conception. That is not to say the unborn child in the womb commits sin but as descendants of Adam we all participate in the corruption of sin brought about through Adam. This is known as the doctrine of original sin.

The fact that none of us is able to do good, and thus none of us is able to choose Christ, is known as total depravity. The will of man is completely corrupt and has no desire for good. Thus though we are free to do what we will, what we will is always going to be evil.

Our only hope is for God to change the heart of an individual, enabling him to desire God. This has already been discussed some in previous chapters. Non-Calvinists believe in prevenient grace, grace that God gives to all people overcoming some of the effects of original sin so that all people are enabled to turn to God in faith. Prevenient grace does not completely undo original sin, people remain dead in their sins, but they are revived just enough so that they can exercise their will towards God.

The problem noted in previous posts is that this cannot be found in Scripture. The doctrine of prevenient grace makes sense but it seems to me to be missing from the Bible.

The Calvinist view of how God overcomes total depravity in people is for God to enable specific individuals to have faith in him, regenerating them so that a dead will is turned into a living will. Once regenerated and presented with the grace of Christ, that grace will be irresistible. To the person who has been made alive the beauty of God’s grace will be clearly evident and a truly alive person can do nothing but yield himself to the glory of God.

I just read a section in John Piper’s God is the Gospel that applies here:

…blinded persons consider the facts of the gospel but see no compelling spiritual beauty, no treasure, nothing supremely precious. They see facts. They may even agree that the historical facts are true. Satan surely does. But they do not have “true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them thence arising.”
…
Seeing this “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” is not neutral. One cannot see it and hate it. One cannot see it and reject it. If one claims to see it, only to reject it, one is “seeing” it only the way Satan sees it and wants us to see it. In that case we are still in the grip of his blinding power. No, the kind of seeing that Satan prevents is not the neutral seeing that sets you before a meal with no taste or distaste for what you see. The kind of seeing that Satan cancels and God creates is more like spiritual tasting than rational testing.
…
If you are blind, someone may persuade you that the sun is bright. But that persuasion is not what Paul is talking about [in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6] When your eyes are opened – that is, when God says, “Let there be light” – the persuasion is of a different kind. That’s what happens in the preaching of the gospel. It’s what happens when God moves with Creator power over the darkness of human hearts. John Piper, God is the Gospel, pages 62-64

As Storms notes, the doctrine of total depravity does not mean that “all people are as bad as they possibly can be.” (55) God does exercise grace and his will in the hearts of all people, restraining some from sinning as much as they might and giving good gifts and talents to all people so that all people are able to enjoy a measure of his grace. There are two sides to this grace God gives all people. First is what Storms describes as “negative or preventative. Its essential characteristic is that of restraint.” (56, emphasis his) The second is when God “bestows upon both nature and humanity manifold blessings both physical and spiritual.” (58)

I was a bit disappointed with Storms discussion of the first of these. Normally his discussions are filled with relevant Scripture passages that build a very compelling case but here arguments from Scripture were largely lacking. From our own experience we know that even lost individuals can do things we would call good. They feed the hungry, they give to victims of disaster, they help us in times of need. In the eyes of God such actions are not themselves good since “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23). Nonetheless, they are actions that make human interaction better and more enjoyable. Christians and non-Christians alike benefit from these good acts. If the will of man is totally depraved, why are individuals capable of anything resembling goodness? The answer is common grace. This is not prevenient grace of the non-Calvinist. In common grace nothing of the will of man is elevated above the state of total depravity. People remain evil in their hearts and motivations but God keeps people from carrying out as much evil as they could. Storms says that “one of the purposes of the Spirit’s activity in our world is to impede or inhibit or curb the outward expression of the inward propensities of the sinful heart.” (57, emphasis his) In other words, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to prevent the full manifestation of individual sin.

As I mentioned, all of this fits with our own experience. The biggest challenge to the doctrine of Total Depravity is that we experience people who seem basically good. Since total depravity is (I think) clear in Scripture something else must also be at work to prevent the full manifestation of man’s depravity. Common grace is the likely answer. I agree with Storms, I think he is right, but his argument in the chapter lacks biblical evidence. He quotes a number of theologians on this issue but he never quotes the Bible. (One of Storms quotes comes from Charles Hodge. In his Systematic Theology Hodge mentions just one Bible reference for Common Grace and that reference clearly refers to the work of the Spirit to believers, not unbelievers.)

Once again, I agree with Storms and others about common grace experienced by all people. This fits with our own experience and harmonizes with what the Bible teaches. I just wish Storms had a fuller discussion about how common grace can be demonstrated biblically.

So all people are totally depraved but people are generally restrained from the full exercise of their depravity. This means no one is able to choose God unless God enables them. They can freely exercise their will but their will can never be for God. Storms presents the question this way: “Why is it that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him? Is it because the Father prevents him from doing so? God forbid!” (60)

On this I have one point of disagreement with Storms and, for that matter, with non-Calvinist. I agree that it is sinfulness and total depravity that keeps people from being able to freely choose Christ. But I believe there are instances when God specifically ensures that people will not see or choose him. These times may be the exceptions to the general rule, but they are present in Scripture.

Consider what we find in John 12:36b-40:

John 12:36-40

36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.” (ESV)

Note verses 37-38 and 2 Corinthians 4:4-6). But either way the point seems to be that this unbelief at this time was the will of God. Thus, contra Storms, there are times when we can speak of God preventing people from coming to him.

I have mentioned before that though I am not a Calvinist I believe there are times when God enforces his will in matters of salvation. Some, like Paul, are compelled to be saved. Others, like Pharaoh, are hardened so that they will not repent and do the Lord’s will. The question is whether these sorts of instances are the exception or the rule. John 12:36-40 seems to be an exception, this is not the normal way for God to do things. Nonetheless it is an exception that cannot be overlooked. Here is one place where God does actively prevent people from seeing his truth. (Note that the quote from Isaiah is also used in Matthew 13:14-15 to explain why Jesus uses parables.)

There is quite a bit more in the chapter, including a section on Scripture references that demonstrate man’s total depravity. It is a good discussion but I will pass over it here, particularly since I am already essentially in agreement with Storms about total depravity and this post is already excessive in length. I will have a few words to say about John 6, which Storms uses in the chapter, but it is not directly related to the chapter so I will save it for its own post.

Just to summarize the biblical argument for total depravity, here are the primary passages used in the chapter: Psalm 14:2-3; Proverbs 22:15; Genesis 8:21; Psalm 58:3; Job 15:14-16;Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:3; John 3:6.