Bible Truth #5 - Genesis 6:5

Genesis 6:5
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

As you can see, there is no exception listed anywhere in that verse (or anywhere else) of what God observed. EVERY imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was ONLY EVIL, CONTINUALLY. And the reason for that is when Adam sinned, he died spiritually. And every person born of man since, except Christ of course, is born with a dead spirit. That is why an unredeemed man, woman, boy or girl can do nothing to please God, they are DEAD in their sins. And even worse than that, EVERYTHING the unredeemed man does is not simply displeasing to God, it is sin (Romans 14:23). But that is entirely another topic.

A lost man, who can do ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY, is not able to do ANY good. Do we humans think a lost man can do good? Of Course!! We see lost men doing good all the time - “good” as we define it, but not as God defines it. And that’s where the confusion originates between what the Bible says and what Christians who are Arminian in their soteriology believe. Arminians believe that natural man is NOT Totally Depraved because:

- they believe a lost man is able to understand the things from the Holy Spirit

- they believe a lost man can believe God

- they believe a lost man is able to choose Christ

- they believe a lost man is able to repent

According to God’s Word, a lost man can do none of those.

So when God looked down and saw that EVERY imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was ONLY EVIL, CONTINUALLY, He was looking at lost men. The natural state of man now is no different than the natural state of man thousands of years ago during the antediluvian (pre-flood) period.

That is why if it were left up to men, NO ONE would be saved because no one would choose Christ. Every single person would make the “free will” choice to reject Christ. That is why God, in His Sovereign control of the Universe, chose a bride for His Son, put them IN Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and then at a point in time of the life of each of His Elect, He quickened their dead spirit through faith, the faith that God gives him (Romans 12:3; Ephesians 2:8) as a gift. God simultaneously gives him belief (John 6:29; Philippians 1:29), repentance (2 Timothy 2:25), and understanding (Luke 24:45, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Timothy 2:7). As the RESULT of God working in that person, he NOW believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and NOW will confess Christ as His Savior. ONLY those whom God has chosen will do that, and only AFTER God quickens their dead spirit. And when God quickens a dead man’s spirit, he is saved.

The bottom line - a lost man can do ONLY evil continually, which means he CAN’T do ANYTHING spiritually good - like believe, accept Jesus, or repent.