Total Depravity

Theologians of a certain sort talk about the total depravity of man. Not that man is totally evil and utterly corrupt but rather there is no part of man that is NOT corrupt. In all things and in every way, sin lingers, stains, and destroys the image of God in him. Israel was a test case for the nations that prosperity from the outside does not transform the inside. They also proved that both the poor and rich are corrupt. The history of Israel as Jeremiah outlines in one of the darker chapters in the book (Jeremiah 5) is proof that mankind needs more than material blessings to be changed. They need a savior. 

Jeremiah has examined the nation and found none seeking God.

Jeremiah 5:1 (ESV) Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.

They propagated lies in God's name:

Jeremiah 5:2 (ESV) Though they say, “As the LORD lives,” yet they swear falsely.

They committed fornication. 

Jeremiah 5:7 (ESV) “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.

They broke their covenants in marriage.

Jeremiah 5:8 (ESV) They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

They rejected God's authority over their behavior.

Jeremiah 5:12 (ESV) They have spoken falsely of the LORD and have said, ‘He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.

They listened to spirit-less prophets. 

Jeremiah 5:13 (ESV) The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!’ ”

They had no fear of God. 

Jeremiah 5:24 (ESV) They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’

Now throughout the chapter, Jeremiah continues to remind Israel that everything good in them and for them is from the Lord whom they reject. Blessings do not transform the heart. In many ways, they turn the heart from God for they can blind us to our dependency on Him for everything. 

Jeremiah indicts them on this very thing as well:

Jeremiah 5:28 (ESV) they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

So what do we do with a passage like this? We consider our own condition. We look at the ways our own lives can get so busy and perhaps even so blessed that we forget the Lord. To have everything this world offers and not have Him is total loss. Then we do well to consider our need for inward change. To ask the Lord to rule and reign in us so that the things outside of us do not rule. 

Jeremiah makes clear in this passage, no one is exempt from the stain of sin. Therefore all people are in need of salvation within. In Christ, we have the offer of total forgiveness and cleansing. And in Him, we our families, and communities are transformed from the inside out.