Josh Philpot

Paul makes the point repeatedly that humans lack both the inclination and the will to do what God requires of them:

Rom 3:9-11—”Both Jews and Gentiles are under sin, as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God.'”

Rom 3:19—”Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

Rom 5:6, 8, 10—”While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . . While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. . . . While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”

Rom 5:19—”As by the one man’s disobedience [Adam], the many were made sinners.”

Rom 6:20-21—”When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the things which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.”

Rom 7:18—”For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”

Rom 8:7-8—”For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Totally depraved, indeed. Salvation, therefore, can only be by grace alone apart from human works:

Rom 3:24—”Being justified by his grace as a gift, though the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Rom 4:4-8—”Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.'”

Rom 5:15,17—”But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass [Adam], much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. . . . If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man Jesus Christ.”

Rom 11:6—”But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”