So it is not irreligious, idle, or superfluous, but in the highest degree wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know whether of not his will has anything to do in matters pertaining to salvation. Indeed, let me tell you, this is the hinge on which our discussion turns, the crucial issue between us; our aim is, simply, to investigate what ability ‘free-will’ has, in what respect it is the subject of Divine action and how it stands related to the grace of God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatsoever of Christianity, and shall be in worse case than any people on earth…That God’s mercy works everything, and our will works nothing, but is rather the object of Divine working, else all will not be ascribed to God. (The Bondage of the Will, Luther’s Reply to Erasmus)
Here is a quote from R.C. Sproul that gets to the heart of the Reformers teaching on justification:
When we speak of justification by or through faith, we mean that faith is the instrumental cause of justification, not its ground. Justification is per fidem (by or through faith) but never propter fidem (on account of or on the ground of faith). Again we view justification as being propter Christum (on account of Christ). Sola fide (justification by faith alone) is theological shorthand for justification by Christ alone. We are justified by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone…The faith that links us to Christ is not a meritorious work. Indeed, saving faith is itself a gift of God wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
In The Gospel and the Enslaved Will 44 the issue of what an instrumental cause was dealt with. In this section the connection between the enslaved will and faith as an instrumental cause will be looked at. Just to be clear, the reason that the teaching on the enslaved will was so important during the Reformation was its necessary connection to justification by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. To the degree that salvation is by grace alone is the degree that the will is enslaved. If we back off of the teaching that the will is wholly helpless in sin apart from grace and leave room for a free-will, then we no longer have a salvation that is by grace alone. “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Rom 11:6).
Whatever actions or choices the soul does or takes that are not of grace are works of the flesh. Yet the slightest work the soul does in salvation denies that grace is totally grace in salvation.
The enslaved will is a necessary teaching to understand what the real issue is. The enslaved will cannot believe and has no ability to believe on its own. It must have grace to save it from itself and its own slavery to unbelief. This is a point that must be understood and rested in. If we hold that the will is free then in some way justification comes to the soul based on faith in the sense that the soul is saved on account of or because of faith. If the will is free, then by definition it is free from the internal working of God on that soul and God only works on souls to salvation by grace alone. So the will has to be free of grace if it is to be truly free. So a free-will is necessarily driven to the position of having salvation come to it on account of faith that comes to it apart from grace. That leaves us with a salvation that is not of grace alone and the slightest work makes grace to be something other than grace.
The faith that saves in accordance with grace is a faith that is an instrument. In other words, grace does not come to the soul because of grace. We can think of an instrument as something that a person uses to accomplish a purpose. Faith is the instrument that God uses to bring grace to the soul. If salvation is totally and wholly of grace, then salvation must not only be purchased by grace but it must be applied by grace as well. When faith is understood as a gift from God and comes to the soul by grace as well, then the picture of what it is and what it does becomes clearer. As Romans 4:16 states so clearly, “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants.” Salvation is by faith in order that it may be of grace and so that the promise of it is guaranteed to the descendants of Abraham to whom the promise was made.
Salvation is given to the soul by faith in order that it may be totally and wholly of grace. It is not given by faith in order that it may be possible for anyone who can work up something called faith can have. But instead it is in such a way that the promise of God to Abraham can be fulfilled. Faith, rather than being from a so-called free-will, is rather from God and is an instrument in the hand of God to give salvation by grace alone. In Ephesians 2:4-5 God makes sinners alive by nothing but His mercy, love, and grace. A soul that has been raised from the spiritual dead and has spiritual life is a soul that has faith. But the text knows nothing of a free-will in man, but only the freedom of God in His sovereign grace. It then goes on teach us that it is “by grace what you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). Grace saves through faith and a faith that is the gift of God. It is God’s gift that He uses as an instrument to, shall we say, pour grace through. It is not something a soul is able to come up with because true faith must come from a believing heart. The soul is declared just by God based on Christ alone and not on Christ and faith. The soul is justified by Christ alone when God unites the soul to Christ by grace and yet uses faith as His instrument to do so. True faith receives grace and does not earn it in any way. It is an instrument in the hands of God rather than the so-called free-will of man. That way salvation is wholly because of grace.
God Loves... Himself 
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