Theological Term of the Week: Inability

inability
The teaching that fallen humans cannot “discern and choose God’s way because we have no natural inclination Godward; our hearts are in bondage to sin, and only the grace of regeneration can free us from that slavery”.1 

• From scripture:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8 ESV) 

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:44, 64-65 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, Chapter 9: 

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 that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.

•  From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 247:

  With respect to [original sin’s] effect on man’s spiritual powers, it is called total inability. Here, again, it is necessary to distinguish. By ascribing total inability to the natural man we do not mean to say that it is impossible for him to do good in any sense of the word. Reformed theologians generally say that he is still able to perform: (1) natural good; (2) civil good or civil righteousness; and (3) externally religious good. It is admitted that even the unrenewed possess some virtue, revealing itself in the relations of social life, in many acts and sentiments that deserve the sincere approval and gratitude of their fellow-men, and that even meet with the approval of God to a certain extent. At the same time it is maintained that these same actions and feelings, when considered in relation to God, are radically defective. Their fatal defect is that they are not prompted by love to God, or by any regard for the will of God as requiring them. When we speak of man’s corruption as total inability, we mean two things: (1) that the unrenewed sinner cannot do any act, however insignificant, which fundamentally meets with God’s approval and answers to the demands of God’s holy law; and (2) that he cannot change his fundamental preference for sin and self to love for God, nor even make an approach to such a change. In a word, he is unable to do any spiritual good.

•  From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 247:

  With respect to [original sin’s] effect on man’s spiritual powers, it is called total inability. Here, again, it is necessary to distinguish. By ascribing total inability to the natural man we do not mean to say that it is impossible for him to do good in any sense of the word. Reformed theologians generally say that he is still able to perform: (1) natural good; (2) civil good or civil righteousness; and (3) externally religious good. It is admitted that even the unrenewed possess some virtue, revealing itself in the relations of social life, in many acts and sentiments that deserve the sincere approval and gratitude of their fellow-men, and that even meet with the approval of God to a certain extent. At the same time it is maintained that these same actions and feelings, when considered in relation to God, are radically defective. Their fatal defect is that they are not prompted by love to God, or by any regard for the will of God as requiring them. When we speak of man’s corruption as total inability, we mean two things: (1) that the unrenewed sinner cannot do any act, however insignificant, which fundamentally meets with God’s approval and answers to the demands of God’s holy law; and (2) that he cannot change his fundamental preference for sin and self to love for God, nor even make an approach to such a change. In a word, he is unable to do any spiritual good.

Learn more:

1. Ligonier Ministries: Total Moral Inability
2. Kim Riddlebarger: The Canons of Dort, Third/Fourth Head of Doctrine, Article Three
3. Loraine Boettner: Total Inability
4. Bob Burridge: You Are Worse Than You Think

Related terms:

• fall of man
• free agency
• noetic effects of sin
• original sin
• total depravity

1J. I. Packer, Concise Theology, page 86.

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Sunday Hymn: Come People of the Risen King

Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in. 

Refrain 
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice! 
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.

Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”! 

—Keith & Kristyn Getty & Stuart Townend

Theological Term of the Week: Soli Deo Gloria

soli Deo gloria
Literally, “glory to God alone.” The reformation slogan meaning that all glory is due to God alone. It is the overarching sola in the five solas, for it is becausesalvation is by grace alone (not earned or merited by us, but given to us by the Father), in Christ alone (grounded completely in the merit or work of Christ), through faith alone (by the instrumental means of  faith in Christ and his work, with this trust in Christ itself being given to us by the work of the Holy Spirit), that all the glory for salvation goes to God, since it is He alone who works it. 

• From scripture:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making knownto us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV).

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”(1 Corinthians 1:27-31 NASB)

• From The Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelical: 

Thesis Five: Soli Deo Gloria

We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone. 

•  From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke, pages 146:

  The seraphim declared in Isaiah 6:3, “The whole earth is full of [God’s] glory.” They affirmed that God is to receive glory in everything, even the damnation of the wicked, but the ultimate glory of God is that the earth is to be filled with the display of His saving grace. As Romans 5:21 says, “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” So the greatest display of God’s glory in the world is shown through the person of His Son. As Acts 3:13 says, “The God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus.”

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Why is soli Deo gloria important?
2. R. C. Sproul: What Does “Soli Deo Gloria” Mean?
3. Ligonier Ministries: Glory to God Alone
4. Stephen Nichols: Soli Deo Gloria: Glorifying God in Everything (video)
5. D. A. Carson: Soli Deo Gloria (video)

Related terms:

• five solas
• sola fide
• sola gratia
• sola scriptura
• solus Christus

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.