What Is Total Depravity?

Ephesians 2:1 (KJV) And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Romans 3:11-12 (KJV) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
"You are dead to me" is an old English saying that was used to announce that the person in question was disowned or would never be "seen, or heard" again. (you slept with my wife.....you're dead to me) The original aiel used the term in a Robert Jordan book as well, but in a more wordful way "You killed some one, you are dead to me and the rest of the True Aiel ......Turn away from me I wish not to see that face, my son had a face like yours, but alas he is dead to me?" -Urban Dictionary

Can you imagine a worst nightmare than to have God say to the sinner, You are dead to me? I wish not to see thy face again! Yet as a sinner that is what God is saying. You are dead in trespasses and sins. There is none that doeth good, no not one. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. Ephesians 2:2-3 TLB

Notice this, a sinner does not have free will, robotically he obeys his prince. Now this means when you became a Christian you did not accept Him as savior, He accepted you as sinner. (by grace ye are saved) People insist that they will not serve God robotically and that love demands they have a choice; but where in the Bible do we find this free choice. Listen, we were dead. We died in Adam. He exercised free will. He used up our chances and we all lost.

You may ask, "why am I not more evil than I am?" You are not as evil as Satan would like you to be. He seeks to devour you. God's common grace extends to sinners and restrains evil for the sake of humanity and that specifically means those closest to you. You would destroy them. Some people more than others demonstrate this evil in their lives by their behavior. Nevertheless we are all alike in depravity. There is none that does good!

Though I would like to be a theologian (I suppose I am an armchair theologian) nevertheless I am not. However I would like for someone to refute this notion that we are dead to God. You have probably not heard your pastor preach this clearly. He dare not! There has to be a little give in our system that explains human choice in salvation. There is none!

Paul says, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Eph 2:4-5. That means that God is the first cause and only cause if we are going to be saved. These two words should be the greatest words, "but God." This "first cause" is a cosmological argument for the existence of God. Your little life is but a vapor, here one moment and gone the next. Just a drop in the world's oceans. Your accumulations of goodness is of little consequence. You were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid. Before you did good or bad you were chosen. Paul says in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Eph 2:7 Eons later, after you have lived your short duration on this earth, you will be a demonstration before all heavenly occupants of His grace, not what you have done, but what He has done. The one who wrote the letter to the Ephesian congregation was struck down from a horse on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians to imprison them will silently sit together with all the assembled saints and observe intently your testimony of the marvelous grace of God. Loudly with all the heavenly host they will rejoice with you.

And all this for a "miserable wretched worm" such as I!