Andrew Fuller said this:
“This doctrine, it will be said, must drive sinners to despair. Be it so; it is such despair as I wish to see prevail. Until a sinner despair of any help from himself, he will never fall into the arms of sovereign mercy; but if once we are convinced that there is no help in us, and that this, so far from excusing us, is a proof of the greatest wickedness, we shall then begin to pray as lost sinners; and such prayer, offered in the name of Jesus, will be heard” (Works of Fuller, Volume II, p. 382).
The doctrine of man’s inability is an important part of understanding the Gospel. If we think of man having responsibility in terms of his ability to respond or him being able to respond with ability, then we are not driving man to this despair that Fuller talks about. If we tell men that they can do something that is good or something that God will respond to and save them, we are not being faithful to the Gospel of grace alone. Men must be driven to total despair of themselves or they will not leave off trusting in themselves.
Faith is meant to destroy all works for salvation so that we are saved by grace alone, but man changes the idea of faith and uses it as a way to save himself without hard work. God saves by faith in order to destroy any hope of man adding to salvation, yet man uses the idea of faith to bolster himself into believing that there is one little thing he can do in terms of control for salvation. Any addition to grace alone by any work no matter how small does not leave us a Gospel that is of grace alone. Romans 11:6 is clear that works make grace to be no grace at all. This is so vital to any conception of the Gospel that it must be stressed.
We say we are saved by faith, but what we really mean is that we are saved through faith. Salvation comes to us in the main sense and “by” refers to how it is received versus what we do to be saved. God saves us by faith, that is, through the gift of faith He gives us. We are saved by faith in the sense that faith is the instrument (in a manner of speaking) that receives salvation. In another sense faith is that which unites a person to Christ and so one is united to Christ by faith and it is Christ alone that saves. If at any point a person means with the words “saved by faith” that a person needs to work up a belief in order to be saved, that destroys salvation by Christ alone. If we mean that in the OT many works were needed but now we just need one work and that of faith, we still believe in some scheme of works for salvation. One work for salvation is not any better than many. It is still not grace alone.
A person that still clings to his own ability in the realm of faith and looks to himself for faith has not been driven to the despair that Fuller spoke of. Hear his words again: “until a sinner despair of any help from himself, he will never fall into the arms of sovereign mercy.” It is not until a sinner despairs of any help from himself, that is, of any help at all, he will never (not may not, but never) fall into the arms of sovereign mercy. As long as we have any hope in ourselves, we do not trust in mercy alone. As long as we look for any help in ourselves, we do not see mercy as sovereign. If this is true, then the doctrine of inability is really at the very heart of the Gospel and of Reformed theology. No matter what a person believes about other things, if he does not attempt to drive sinners to complete despair of the ability and strength of self he is not teaching the depravity of man in truth and is not teaching the Gospel of grace alone in truth.
We must begin to wake up in our day and see that while there is a rise in Reformed theology in many ways, the truth of the Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone will not be seen until we drive men to utter despair of any help from themselves. If one would read the writings of men like Martin Luther, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, Anthony Burgess, Solomon Stoddard and Jonathan Edwards they would see that this is really at the heart of the Gospel as taught in history. Fuller was not stepping out of line with the historical teachings; he was simply teaching what he had learned from the writings of Jonathan Edwards and Scripture. Human beings must be brought to despair of themselves or they will never trust in Christ and grace alone. A prayer in the name of Jesus means for His sake and by His power and grace. One will never pray that until one is delivered from all hope in self.
The teaching of Scripture on faith teaches us the same issue. If we are to believe in Christ alone then that means we trust Christ alone and all that He did in His life, on the cross, in the resurrection, and then even now while at the right hand of the Father. To believe in Christ alone means that we cannot believe in ourselves, our goodness and power even the slightest. We must despair of any and all help from ourselves in order to trust in Christ alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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