LZ Granderson: Total depravity is what happens when God preaches the law to you and shows you your sin. LZ: Utter depravity says you are wicked beyond the love of Christ, something like this. And I think if the liberal collapses sin into creation, in other words, we're not really fallen and guilty because we're created worthy. The fundamentalist collapses creation into total depravity. We are not worth anything because we are fallen.
Many churches preach that your biggest problem is that you’re not living your best life now. Rather than calling people to repentance, they call them to “try harder, do better” so that they can be fulfilled, healthy, and happy. Reformed theology provides a doctrine to help counter this wrong diagnosis of our true problem: total depravity. But sometimes, this doctrine sounds much more like “utter depravity,” leaving nothing good or redeemable about humanity. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller consider how we hold total depravity in tension with the goodness of humanity.