John MacArthur on Original sin & the human will
Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed
"man lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death, became subject to the wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt and utterly incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace. With no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself, man is hopelessly lost."
THE POSITION
Total depravity with explicit federal headship: humanity was united with Adam as its representative, so both the guilt of his sin and a corrupted nature are transmitted to every subsequent person. The corruption is total enough that man has "no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself."
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
17 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, from 1969 until his death in July 2025. Expositional preaching, hard cessationism, dispensational premillennialism. Researched from the church's own Doctrinal Statement, covering all 15 loci in one document.
Cite this page
"John MacArthur on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/macarthur/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/macarthur/original-sin).