The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to those who recognize it as good news. Those who recognize it as good news are those who understand how bad the bad news is. The announcement of an apple and a small sandwich is not good news to those who are used to large steaks, but to a starving person the small meal is like a feast. When a person thinks that s/he has a free-will and that the good news is that God will save him or her the moment s/he makes a choice and an act of the will, the Gospel is good news but only to a degree. It is nothing pressing. But to the soul that has experientially discovered that it is in bondage to sin and self, the promises of grace to receive a new heart and new life are great news. That is the soul that feels the weight of its enslavement and the weight of its own pride. The sound of deliverance by grace alone from those enslavements is really good news.
God has surely promised His grace to the humbled; that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another—God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God; but plans out for himself (or at least hopes and longs for) a position, an occasion, a work, which will bring him final salvation. But he who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely on the will of God despairs entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him; and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation.
Ephesians 2 is the classic passage on salvation being by grace through faith and not as a result of works at all. There is no room for boasting even if one has many works, because the saved soul is the work of God and is created for good works that God has prepared beforehand. The soul that God raises from the spiritual dead is dead in sins and trespasses and is by nature a child of wrath. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (vv. 8-9). While this text does not explicitly and with extreme clarity say what Luther said in the quote from above, for the text to be true what Luther says must be true. A person cannot be delivered from trusting or believing in his or her own works until s/he realizes that salvation is utterly beyond his own powers. A person dead in sins and trespasses (Eph 2:1-3) with a nature that is a child of wrath cannot do one spiritual thing to please God. The person is dead in sin and cannot do anything but sin. There is no contribution that the person can make to his or her salvation because the person is still looking to self for that one little thing. This person is still looking to self for one little thing which will guarantee salvation. That one little thing really becomes one gigantic thing which the person is trusting wholly in for salvation. That is a salvation by works.
It is only to the degree that we accept that our own soul is enslaved (dead) can we believe in the Gospel of grace alone. As long as we don’t think of our own soul as dead and enslaved we will look to our own soul for at least one work though we may call it something else. We should also remember that the slightest work makes grace to be no grace at all (Rom 11:6). Grace, in order to be biblical grace, cannot be added to or assisted. So Luther’s point is not going beyond the bounds of Scripture at all, but is simply explaining what Scripture teaches. It is not until the soul arrives at the point of realization and submitting to the fact that his or her eternal destiny depends entirely on the will of God that the person will despair of any hope in his or her own will or works of that will. It is not until then that a person can look to grace alone. Until a person has reached the point of having no hope in his or her own will that person will not look to grace alone to be saved. The grace of God will have no help from any work of the human will in salvation so that salvation may be by grace alone and to His glory alone.
Luther was right. The soul must despair of any hope in itself or it will look to self for one little thing. But that one little thing is poison to the Gospel of grace alone. That one little thing, as some would call it, is actually a very large thing. It is enough to make salvation to be by grace plus one work. While it seems small, in actuality it is the attempt to wrest the Gospel from the hand of God by the act of the will of man. For salvation to be by grace alone it must be the will of God alone that chooses to give grace and it must be God’s will alone that applies grace. The unbroken heart of man desires to choose for God to give him or her grace and apply that grace at his or her own choice. It is nothing but a proud heart wanting to have God do what it wants and when it wants it. That is not a humbled heart looking to grace alone, it is a proud heart looking to self alone to do what it thinks God cannot do.
God Loves... Himself 
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