Paul's Passing Thoughts

A reader sent me a post by Tullian Tchividjian on total depravity that I think is a repost from several months ago: “Are Christians Totally Depraved?” As I have come to assert of late, New Calvinists know their cuts of authentic Reformed meat very well. Total depravity has always included the saints in authentic Reformed theology.

And like their Reformed forefathers, these mystic despots are masters of nuance and doublespeak—adorning ambiguity in lofty verbiage. What they really believe about the gospel is a higher knowledge that the totally depraved zombie sheep are not “ready” for.

So, instead of unwinding all of Tchividjian’s  Ya, like, this is a very important question, and like, we aren’t totally depraved per se, but like, we are, and here is why, and like ya, we are totally depraved, I will just save us a bunch of time by totally refuting total depravity with an elementary level Sunday School lesson that any eight-year-old could teach.

Tchividjian finally gets down to the nitty gritty towards the end of the post:

While it is gloriously true for the Christian that there is nowhere Christ has not arrived by his Spirit, it is equally true that there is no part of any Christian in this life that is free of sin. Because of the totality of sins effect, therefore, we never outgrow our need for Christ’s finished work on our behalf–we never graduate beyond our desperate need for Christ’s righteousness and his strong and perfect blood-soaked plea “before the throne of God above.”

The fact of the matter is, when we become Christian’s the “totality” of sin’s effect on us is broken, and that’s why we don’t need the continual WASHING that Tchividjian advocates. John 13: 5-11;

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

I’m not sure what could be clearer. Not being clean clearly refers to the need of the washing of salvation. The total washing no longer needs to be revisited, but only a washing of the feet. I believe this indicates a different repentance than the “deep repentance” propagated by Reformed theologians that advocates a continual returning to the washing of the whole body.

Again, these guys have authentic Reformed theology correct. Tullian cites Luther’s  simul justus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinful) i.e., we remain “sinful.” No distinction is made between the washing that breaks our bondage to sin, and the foot washing that is necessary to deal with the remnant of sin left in our mortal bodies. Reformed theology holds to the idea that Christians are still in bondage to sin and need a progressive justification accordingly. Hence, not only that, Jesus needs to obey for us in sanctification. “Jesus for us” is a Reformed mantra that means exactly that among other things.

Though the Reformed of our day whine and moan like alley cats screaming in the night that they are not Gnostic quietist antinomians, they most certainly are. And the pestilent children of the Reformation have returned and aided greatly in that understanding—bringing attention to it by their arrogant tyranny.

paul