Depravity is Disastrous

By depravity I refer to the carnal nature that remains in a person after they are saved. Salvation saves us from our acts of sin, whereas entire sanctification removes the sin nature, i.e. carnality or depravity, and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the charge to every believer to be filled with the Spirit of God. Ephesians 5:18 The rejection of this truth can lead to disastrous results. The following account reveals how totally disastrous the carnal nature can be in a Christian’s life when it is allowed to remain.

“Unsanctified heart, do you want relief? You’ll never—you’ll never stand with that carnal thing in your heart. If I could take you back several months ago—I was in a meeting in Pennsylvania, and a man came to me and said, ‘Will you go with us and talk with our daughter? She’s in jail.’

I went in to where this girl was. She was just writhing. And she kept saying, ‘Oh, my carnal nature.’

She said, ‘Do you know I was saved when this thing rose up in me?’ She said, ‘Do you know that I have never in all my life, that I can remember, stolen anything?’ She began to name her virtues. She said, ‘I have been a Sunday School teacher. I was a Sunday School teacher and a saved woman when I committed this crime.’

She said, ‘We had a revival meeting and the Lord dealt with me about my carnal nature—and I didn’t do anything about it, and now here I am three weeks after the meeting.’ She said, ‘Oh, it’s my carnal nature that caused it. If I had known I would have let the Lord take it out of my heart.’ She went on and on, and I felt like I was standing in the chills of hell.

She said to me, ‘As you travel across the country, will you tell young people—will you tell older people to let God deal with their carnal nature?’”

Certainly, most people will not end up in jail due to their carnal nature. The story points out the danger of not dealing with carnality when you hear the truth about entire sanctification. Carnality should be dealt with as soon as you learn that there is a cure for it. Resisting the Holy Spirit always leads to tragedy. That tragedy might be sitting in a pew every Sunday knowing you are not right with God, but being comfortable. It might be interfering with the work of God because your depravity likes things the way they are and you don’t want preaching that gets close to your sin. Reader, we are to seek holiness. We are to die out to our carnal traits and let the fire of God cleanse us from our sin nature. That was Jesus’ prayer (John 17:17), Paul’s prayer (I Thessalonians 5:23), and Peter’s charge (I Peter 1:15-16). Today, will you acknowledge that depravity is disastrous and take steps to remove it from your life?