There are two considerations which require the preaching of these truths. The first is the humbling of our pride, and the comprehending of the grace of God; the second is the nature of Christian faith. For the first; 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, efforts, 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 shall 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. So these truths are published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled and brought down to nothing, and so saved. The rest of men resist this humiliation; indeed, they condemn the teaching of self-despair; they want a little something left that they can do for themselves. Secretly they continue proud, and enemies of the grace of God. This, I repeat, is one reason—that those who fear God might in humility comprehend, claim and receive His gracious promise.
(Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will)
Luther wrote this classic work defending the Gospel of grace alone which comes to the sinner through faith alone. This book set out the heart of the Gospel and was the heart of the Gospel proclaimed during the Reformation. It was the Gospel that turned the world upside down. Luther was sure and loud about the utter necessity of the soul being humbled and broken before the soul would and could come to the point of experientially understanding that it was beyond hope in and of itself. The soul must arrive to the point that from the deepest part of the soul it is thoroughly persuaded that it cannot make contribute anything to its own salvation and that includes faith. That position is necessary for the soul to even understand what grace is and to rest in sovereign grace alone. What happens when people, even those who speak of total depravity and sovereign grace, do not teach that the soul must be humbled and broken to that degree? In the 1700’s Solomon Stoddard addressed that when he wrote this:
There are some who deny any necessity of the preparatory work of the Spirit of God in order to a closing with Christ. This is a very dark cloud, both as it is an evidence that men do not have the experience of that work in their own souls, and as it is a sight that such men are utterly unskillful in guiding others who are under this work. If this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion. It would expose men to think of themselves as converted when they are not (A Guide to Christ).
It is not that this humbling of the soul is just something that a few people must go through, but it is what all souls must go through if they are to be converted. God does not just write a few things down in a book and try to get people to agree that they are true or say that they believe those things are true, but He works these things into the depths of their soul and so the belief of the soul actually mirrors what is going on in the soul. God does not just promise grace and expect people to stand back and believe that they have it, but instead He works this grace in their souls. So the humbled soul must not just believe a few things, but instead it is to actually be broken from itself and its pride and so be brought to its face in utter emptiness of self before it will receive grace in reality.
Faith is not just a belief that the brain has, but it is the core and deepest controlling belief of the soul. Until a soul is broken from pride and self-love, it will always trust in itself to believe a few things revealed about God. The biblical doctrine of grace demands nothing less from the soul than to be utterly broken with no help or hope in or from self. Can really have true faith unless it “depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another—God alone” and nothing of self? What does it mean to believe on Christ apart from depending absolutely on Christ for the will, counsel, pleasure, and work of God to save it? But in our degenerate and frighteningly shallow age that is under the spiritual judgment of God we accept as true that all a soul must do is to believe some facts with the brain. The Bible is quite clear that a person must be born from above and become a new creature in Christ Jesus in order to be saved. Oh how religion has received its deadly wound by those who deny that the soul must be thoroughly humbled by grace before it can receive grace. We have little more than a religion of self in our day. What else can it be when the soul doesn’t have to be truly broken and humbled from self?
God Loves... Himself 
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