Statement of the doctrine: In the Westminster Confession the doctrine of total inability is stated as follows: “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.”
Paul, Augustine, and Calvin have as their starting point the fact that all mankind sinned in Adam and that all men are without excuse (Rom 2:1). Time and again Paul tells us that we are dead in trespasses and sins, estranged from God, and helpless. In writing to the Ephesian Christians, he reminded them that before they received the gospel they were “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). There we notice the fivefold emphasis as he piles phrase on top of phrase to stress this truth.
