HUMAN DEPRAVITY AND DIVINE MERCY – Charles Spurgeon
Human Depravity and Divine Mercy
Introduction
“And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake; although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” —Genesis 8:21
In the book of Genesis, Peter draws an important parallel between Noah’s ark and baptism, using both as figures of salvation. Noah’s story reveals a profound spiritual truth. He was not saved by the gradual reformation of the world, but through a divine sentence of condemnation followed by death, burial, and resurrection. Noah had to enter the ark, becoming dead to the world. The floods descended from heaven, and the earth’s fountains erupted, burying Noah in water—this represented burial. After the floodwaters receded, Noah emerged into a new world, symbolizing resurrection life. Similarly, baptism signifies death to the old self and the rise into new life in Christ. It is not about purification or improvement, but a complete rejection of the old, sinful nature and embracing a new life.
Noah’s experience mirrors that of every believer who enters into Christ. Just as Noah entered the ark, so must we enter Christ. And just as Noah was shut in by God, so too are we sealed in Christ, secure in Him, unable to be lost. After the flood, Noah experienced a new world of resurrection life, and this is what baptism signifies—coming out of the waters as a new creation in Christ. The floodwaters also symbolize the believer’s spiritual struggles: as Noah faced the floods, believers face their own internal battles with sin. But just as Noah was protected in the ark, we are kept safe in Christ.
Noah’s deliverance points to the entire salvation process: death to the old self, burial, resurrection, and the assurance that God’s mercy prevails. As Noah’s ark finally settled on the mountain, so does the believer find rest in Christ. The floods of corruption recede, and the believer can stand firm in the security of Christ, grounded in the truth and peace He provides.
The Painful Reality of Human Depravity
Now, moving on to the main points of the text, we find a most painful fact—human depravity. Genesis 8:21 declares, “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” The depravity of man is not something that is merely an outward action, but an inward condition. The heart and mind of humanity are corrupt from their very beginnings, from the earliest stages of life. This is a grim reality that is evidenced throughout Scripture, and one that remains unchanged by time or circumstances.
Before the flood, God observed the wickedness of man and saw that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only continually evil” (Genesis 6:5). Even after the flood, God pronounces the same verdict: mankind’s heart is still evil. It is as if Noah’s survival in the ark could not wash away the deep-seated corruption of human nature. After a divine judgment that wiped out all of creation save for Noah and his family, you might think that man’s nature would be restored. But no, the same corrupt human nature continues after the flood.
The tragedy of humanity’s depravity is not just that it is a reality but that it is incurable by human means. No matter how much man may try to reform or better himself, his nature remains fundamentally broken. This is why we need a new heart and a new spirit, which only God can provide. The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and it would be impossible for us to turn back to God on our own. Without a new birth, we remain in our sinful state.
The Mercy of God: Extraordinary Reasoning
Despite this painful reality, we come to the extraordinary reasoning of God. In the same passage where God pronounces the corruption of man’s heart, He says, “I will not again curse the ground for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” This is a strange, yet profound statement. God acknowledges man’s evil, yet He declares that He will not destroy man again. Why? Because there is a sacrifice that makes all the difference. God sees the evil of man’s heart, but the presence of a sacrifice changes the outcome.
In the face of man’s depravity, God’s justice would demand destruction. But when a sacrifice is offered, mercy prevails. God sees the sacrifice of Christ and, in light of that, extends mercy to mankind. Though man is deserving of wrath, God, in His grace, looks to Christ’s sacrifice and says, “I will spare them.” This is the basis of our salvation. Our depravity does not excuse our sin, but God, in His mercy, finds a way to extend grace, not because of anything good in us, but because of Christ’s sacrifice.
This logic—God’s reasoning—can be understood by the fact that we fell as a race in Adam. Unlike fallen angels, who sinned individually, humanity fell as a whole. And just as humanity fell in Adam, we are saved in Christ. It is through Christ’s righteousness that we are made righteous. The fall of humanity was not personal, but federal; as Adam fell, so all fell, and thus in Christ, we all rise.
God’s Grace and Sovereignty in Salvation
God’s sovereign grace ensures that salvation is not based on anything in us. The reason why God can have mercy on us is because of His sovereign will and His covenant promises. He does not treat us as individuals who have fallen apart from one another, but as a race that has fallen together, and He saves us in that same manner. In Christ, we are made alive.
There is no reason before the bar of justice that God should save us. But in His mercy, He sees the way that Christ’s sacrifice has made a way for us to be reconciled. It is not because of our goodness, but because of Christ that we are saved. God made a way for us through Christ, and in Him, we are secure.
The Universal Reality of Sin
To drive the point home, we must observe that sin is universal. This is not just a theological concept; it is a fact observed throughout human history. From the violence of the ancient tribes to the deceit of modern man, sin pervades every society. There is no part of humanity that has escaped this corruption. It’s not just the “wild” or “primitive” man who is sinful; even the most cultured and civilized people are still in need of redemption.
The Scriptures emphasize this truth. In Romans 3:10-19, Paul offers a sweeping indictment of humanity. He declares that no one is righteous, no one seeks God, and that all have gone astray. Every part of humanity is infected with sin, and this is a reality that we can observe in our own lives and throughout history.
Even when we look at children, as innocent as they might seem, we see the same propensity for sin. They are born with a fallen nature, and while they may be innocent in their actions for a time, their hearts are still inclined toward evil. No one is exempt from the effects of the fall.
Conclusion: A Call to Salvation
Given the universal depravity of mankind, it is clear that all people need salvation. And God, in His mercy, offers salvation to all who will call upon His name. The grace that has saved us is available to you as well. The same divine grace that called us can call you too. “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Trust in Christ’s sacrifice, believe in His atoning work, and you too can be saved from the depths of depravity. Just as Noah found mercy in the ark, so too can you find mercy in Christ. If you place your trust in Him, your sins will be forgiven, and you will be brought into the fellowship of His salvation. Turn to Him today, and receive the gift of eternal life.
May the Lord add His blessing to these words, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Reflections on Human Depravity and Divine Grace
Oh, I bless God that I did not fall first of all myself! I do bless the day, now, that I fell in Adam, for it may be if I had never fallen in Adam, I would have fallen in myself, and then, I would have been, like fallen angels, shut out forever from the presence of God, and in the flames of hell! One of the old divines used to say of Adam’s sin, “Beata culpa”—“Happy fault!” I dare not say that, but in one sense I will say, blessed fall that renders it possible for me to rise! Blessed way of ruin which renders it possible for the blessed way of salvation to be brought about—salvation by substitution! Salvation by sacrifice! Salvation by a new covenant Head, who for us is offered up that God may smell a sweet savor, and may deliver us! I hope nobody will misconstrue what I have said, and make out that I teach that human depravity is an excuse for sin—God forbid! It is only in the eyes of divine grace that it becomes the door of mercy.
You know, if your child has offended you, you do not want to chastise him, and yet you feel he deserves it. How you do try, if you are a loving parent, to find some reason why you may let him go. There is no reason—you know that; if you deal with him in terms of justice, there is no reason why, having sinned, he should not smart for it; but you keep casting about for an excuse—perhaps it is his mother’s birthday, and you let him off for that. Or else there was some little circumstance which softened the offense for which you may have him excused. I do not know whether the story is true, but it is said of Queen Victoria when she was just queen—just a girl—she was asked to sign a death warrant for a person who, by court martial, had been condemned to die. It is told that she said to the Duke, “Cannot you find any reason why this man should be pardoned?” The Duke said, “No, it was a very great offense; he ought to be punished.” “But was he a good soldier?” The Duke said he was a shamefully bad soldier, had always been noted as a bad soldier. “Well, cannot you invent for me any reason?” “Well,” he said, “I have every reason to believe from testimony that he was a good man as a man, although a bad soldier.” “That will do,” she said, and she wrote across the warrant, “pardoned”—not because the man deserved it—but because she wanted a reason for having mercy. So my God seems to look upon man, and after He has looked him through and through, and cannot see anything, at last He says, “He is evil from his youth,” and he writes, “Pardoned.” He smells the sweet savor first, and His heart is turned towards the poor rebel; then He turns to him with mercy and blesses him.
Inferences from Human Depravity
But now, thirdly, by your leave and patience, I shall have to lead you to a few inferences from the doctrine of the depravity of man. If the heart is so evil, then it is impossible for us to enter heaven as we are. We cannot suppose that those holy gates shall enclose those whose imaginations and thoughts are evil, and evil continually. No, if that is the place into which nothing shall enter that defiles, then, no man, being what he was in his first birth, can ever stand there. Another step; then, it is quite clear that if I am to enter heaven, no outward reform will ever do, for if I wash my face, that does not change my heart; and if I give up all my outward sins, and become outwardly what I ought to be, yet still, if it is true that my heart is the villainous thing which Scripture says it is, then my outward reformation cannot touch that, and I am still shut out of heaven. If inside that cup and platter there is all this filthiness, I may cleanse the outside, but I have not touched that which will shut me out of heaven. I go, then, a little farther and I observe that I must have a new nature—not new practice only, but a new nature—not new thoughts or new words, but a new nature so as to become a totally new man. And when I draw the inference, I have Scripture to back me at once, for what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? “You must be born again.” But what is to be born again? To my first birth, I owe all I am by nature; I must get a second birth to which I am to owe all I am as I enter heaven. Multitudes of persons have been saying, “What is regeneration?” Here they have been writing hundreds of pamphlets, and no two of them agree upon what regeneration is except that they say that a man may be regenerated and not converted. Here is an extraordinary thing! An unconverted man who is regenerated? One who is an enemy to God, and yet he has in himself a new nature? He has been born-again, and yet is not converted to God? What? A regeneration that does not convert; regeneration, in fact, that leaves men just where they were before? But to every babe in Christ the word, “regenerate,” is as plain as possible—he needs no definition, no description. “To be born again? Why,” he says, “I comprehend that it is to be made over again, a new creature in Christ Jesus! My first birth makes me a creature—my second birth makes me a new creature, and I become what I never was before.” I must remember that what is needed in me is not to bring out and develop what is good in me, for, according to God’s Word in the 6th of Genesis, there is nothing good, it is only evil! Grace does not enter to educate the germs of holiness within me, for there is no germ of good in man at all—he is “evil continually”—and every imagination is “only evil.” I must, then, die to sin! My old nature must be slain, it cannot be mended! It is too bad, too rotten to be patched up— that must die. By the death of Jesus, it must be destroyed; it must be buried with Christ, and I must rise in resurrection life to conformity with my Lord Jesus. Well then, advancing one step further—it is clear if I must be this before I can enter heaven, that I cannot give myself a new nature. A crab tree cannot transform itself into an apple tree! If I am a wolf, I cannot make myself a sheep. Water can rise to its own proper level, but it cannot go beyond it without pressure.
I must have, then, something worked in me more than I can work in myself, and this, indeed, is good Scriptural doctrine. “That which is born of the flesh”—what is it? When the flesh has done its very best, what is it?—“That which is born of the flesh is flesh”—it is filthy to begin with, and filth comes of it—only “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit: marvel not that I said unto you you must be born again.” My soul must come under the hand of the Spirit; just as a piece of clay is on the potter’s wheel and is made to revolve and is touched by the fingers of the potter and molded into what he wishes it to be, so must I lie passively in the hands of the Spirit of God, and He must work in me to will and to do of His own good pleasure. And then, I shall begin to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, but never, never till then! I must have more than nature can give me, more than my mother gave me, more than my father gave me, more than flesh and blood can produce under the most favorable circumstances. I must have the Spirit of God from heaven. Then comes this inquiry, “Have I received it? What is the best evidence of it?” The best evidence of it is this—am I resting upon Christ Jesus, alone, for salvation? You generally find on potters’ vessels that there is a certain mark so that you can know who made them. I need to know whether I am a vessel fit for the Master’s use, molded by His hands, and fashioned by His Spirit. Now, every single vessel that comes out of God’s hands has a cross on it. Have you the cross on you? Are you resting upon Christ’s bloody atonement made on Calvary? Is He to your soul your one Rock of Refuge—your one only hope? Can you say this morning— “Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Your cross I cling— Naked, come to You for dress; Helpless, look to You for grace; Black, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die!”? Then, my brethren, you have a new heart and a right spirit! You are a new creature in Christ Jesus, for simple faith in Christ is what the old Adam never could attain! A simple faith in Jesus is the great, sure mark of a work of the Holy Spirit in your soul by which you are made to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you take Him to be God’s anointed to you? Do you trust yourself to Him to plead for you, to work for you, to fulfill the law for you, to offer atonement for you? If so, if Jesus is the Christ to you—you are born of God. The Spirit which is in you now will drive out the old nature, slay it utterly, cut it up root and branch, and you shall one day bear the image of the heavenly, even as you have till now borne the image of the earthly. May God bless these words of mine to your souls’ good. “Eternal Spirit, we confess And sing the wonders of Your grace! Your power conveys our blessings down From God the Father, and the Son. Enlightened by Your heavenly ray, Our shades and darkness turn to day. Your inward teachings make us know Our danger, and our refuge, too. Your power and glory works within, And breaks the chains of reigning sin, Does our imperious lusts subdue, And forms our wretched hearts anew. The troubled conscience knows Your voice, Your cheering Words awake our joys; Your Words allay the stormy wind, And calm the surges of the mind.”
Charles Spurgeon