God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
The biblical doctrine of depravity means that every part of the human person is tainted by sin. It does not mean that all humans are equally depraved; most do not go near the depths they could go. Nor does it mean that humans are not capable of any good (cf. Luke 11:13). Nor does it mean that there is no dignity in man, for there certainly is, as he is the imperfect bearer of the divine image (Genesis 1:27).
We should never be angry but at sin, and this should always be that which we oppose in our anger. And when our spirits are stirred to oppose this evil, it should be as sin, or chiefly as it is against God. If there be no sin and no fault, then we have no cause to be angry; and if there be a fault or sin, then it is infinitely worse as against God than it is as against us, and therefore it requires the most opposition on that account. Persons sin in their anger when they are selfish in it; for we are not to act as if we were our own, or for ourselves simply, since we belong to God, and not to ourselves. When a fault is committed wherein God is sinned against, and persons are injured by it, they should be chiefly concerned, and their spirits chiefly moved against it, because it is against God; for they should be more solicitous for God's honor than for their own temporal interests.
