I was reading in a book last night in which the writer shares his astonishment that people sing the hymn “Amazing Grace.” He is horrified by that well-known verse that ends: “that saved a wretch like me.” He joins many professing Christians and non-Christians who find the doctrine of depravity too offensive to accept.
Depravity is one of those church words that does not sit well in the ears of most people. I like the word’s origin as a guide to its meaning, though. It comes from a Latin word for “crooked.” To be depraved is to be totally crooked, bent out of shape, or distorted from the original.
The doctrine of total depravity (total meaning “every part”) is one of those Scriptural doctrines for which people often have little trouble finding empirical support. Sketch any noble portrait of humanity out of Genesis 1 and 2 and then go look at people as they truly are — not as we imagine ourselves to be — and it is not hard to understand why the doctrine of the fall makes so much sense to so many Christians.
No matter how eager we are to point at others and notice the ways they fall short of the glory of God, many of us are not quite as eager to take not of the crookedness in our own hearts.
I am reminded of all this as I read John Wesley’s great sermon “The Repentance of Believers,” which contains this paragraph:
Repentance frequently means an inward change, a change of mind from sin to holiness. But we now speak of it in a quite different sense, as it is one kind of self-knowledge, the knowing ourselves sinners, yea, guilty, helpless sinners, even though we know we are children of God.
We United Methodists are always touting Wesley as the advocate of “both/and” thinking rather than “either/or.” This is no place more apparent than in this sermon, in which he insists we are both sinners and children of God. We are both forgiven by the grace of God and in need of grace upon grace to cleanse us from the sin that still remains and thrives within our hearts.
You were a wretch, which means a “stranger or exile” from God. You are, even now, at least most of you and certainly me, one in whom all manner of sins do dwell. It is by grace that you were found. It is by grace that sin that dwells in our hearts is prevented from reigning there. It is by grace that it one day may be purged entirely.
Far being things to banish from our hymns, these words remind us of the gospel itself and the love of Christ. Let us sing that verse with gusto.
I am a part-time local pastor serving 
This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God; and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Thank you John.
I absolutely do not believe we need to wallow in guilt and allow ourselves to be crippled by some sense of depravity. It is absolutely true that some brands of religion, and some individual preachers, use guilt to manupulate people and keep them in the pews, addicted to some particular theology as the promised cure for their sin, a cure that they supposedly can only get in one place.
Having said that, the experience of feeling like a wretch, on occasion, seems to me to be a healthy sign of humility. If we never sense how far we fall short of being like God the Messiah and the apostles and prophets then we really do have an inflated view of our own virtue and competence. Either that or we don’t grasp what discipleship, death to self, and self-sacrificial love really are,
Obviously, the author’s previous experience is key to understanding why he feels as he does. What he saw of how depravity was taught and the effect it had could justify his distaste for the word. If he endorses humility, for example, somewhere else in his book, then he obviously endorses a healthier expression of the feeling of wretchedness. You know, hard-like Calvinists can be very, very ugly when it comes to depravity.