If the will can come up with it own faith, then faith is the work of something other than grace. Yet all things come to the soul through faith. So if free-will is that which by definition means that the will is free from the internal work of God in the soul and He always works good in the soul by faith, that means that God gives grace when man comes up with his own faith. Surely we can see that something is very wrong with that picture. But even more, for the whole of the Christian life that leaves man dependent on his own will rather than completely reliant on the grace of God. But Scripture is so clear that man is not dependent on his own will but is totally dependent on the will of God for all good. Apart from Christ man can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
The doctrine of justification by faith alone does not exist apart from its connection with other truths. It must be in accordance with the character and nature of God and the character and nature of the sinner. The nature of the sinner is that s/he is dead in sins and trespasses and has no spiritual ability at all. The nature of God is that He is under no obligation to anyone at all and cannot be brought into their obligation in any way other than Himself. He operates in the spiritual realm saving sinners by grace and grace alone to the glory of His name alone. Any view of justification that takes away from His grace and glory is not of God. The enslaved soul is the teaching of Scripture of the spiritual nature of human beings and a God who does all by grace alone to His glory alone is foundational to any teaching about God. Justification by grace alone through faith alone starts with sinners who are helpless and dead and have no way to help themselves other than crying out to God to save them. Justification by grace alone through faith alone has a God who saves sinners by grace alone and all the glory is His. A view of justification by faith alone that does not leave room for grace alone and to His glory alone is at best a deficient view of the Gospel of Scripture and to the Gospel that God spoke through the Reformers and changed the world with.
‘Justification by faith only’ is a truth that needs interpretation. The principle of sola fide is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia (Johnson and Packer’s introduction to Luther’s Bondage of the Will).
The above statement should have a book written about it. We are in a nation and perhaps world today that has virtually lost its view of the truth of justification because it does not think that justification by faith only needs interpretation and needs to be seen in the broader principle of grace alone. When we do not interpret justification by faith alone in its broader principle, we are not left with the Gospel of the Reformation but we are left with an easy believism, a rational teaching, or perhaps some form of Pelagianism. But justification by faith alone is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in grace alone. In other words, the Gospel itself is not understood until it is seen in light of grace alone. But it is not just seen in light of grace alone, it must be anchored in grace alone. When the words “justification by faith alone” are used with the words “grace alone” and justification is not understood or anchored in grace alone, the Gospel is virtually lost if not absolutely lost. The devil loves to hide the truth in the folds of other truths. Justification by faith alone is a teaching that is heresy apart from understanding it as anchored in grace alone. It is not simply a scholastic teaching that if the brain can comprehend the teachings of it and say they are true then a soul is saved. That is salvation by a rational understanding alone.
The grace that saves a soul is the grace of an active God who really acts in the soul. It is not just believing a few facts about Jesus and about grace, but instead it is the living God who really and actively works in the soul and gives the soul true spiritual life and Christ Himself is that life. A justification that comes to the sinner by believing a few facts is not the same justification that comes to the soul by the work of grace in the soul. It is true that justification is a legal declaration whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner, but this is not apart from the work of grace in giving the soul life and uniting the soul to Christ. Justification cannot be separated from the glorious teaching of the fact that all of salvation is the work of God’s sovereign work of grace and that grace is not just to be believed in by an act of the mind but it is a work in the soul as well. The work in the soul by God cannot be done by the sinner in the least of its acts. The soul must be regenerated and become spiritual before it can be a soul that does anything spiritual. Faith must be an act of the spiritual man since a work of the flesh is still the work of the unregenerate flesh. The soul must be united to Christ before it can bear spiritual fruit which can only come from the vine through the branches. The will that is free of the grace of God acting in it is a will that is free from any spiritual good at all. We must abide in Christ to bear fruit. If we are to abide in Christ to bear fruit, then we must be united to Him. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit and not of the flesh. The will can never do that work.
God Loves... Himself 
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