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)
The great danger that is produced by those who will not work to see that souls are humbled and brought to despair of themselves is that the soul that does not despair of itself will always look for one little thing that depends on self rather than rest in grace alone. So regardless of whether a person is professing to be Reformed or not, if there is left in the soul one little thing for the soul to do the soul will rest in that one little thing. What is the great danger of that? The soul must despair entirely of self in order to wait for God to work in the soul. What is the great danger of that? Salvation is the work of God in the soul by grace alone. The activity of the self will spoil grace since grace must never have the addition of anything to it or it is no longer grace (Rom 11:6). As Luther points out, the truth of self-despair or the teaching of the enslaved will is “published for the sake of the elect, that they may be humbled, brought to nothing, and so saved.” Luther’s strong belief in publishing his book The Bondage of the Will was that it was explaining justification by grace alone. Until a soul is utterly emptied of self and has no hope in self it will not look to grace alone to be saved. It will always leave something for itself to do so it may lean on self, even a little.
Those who are uncomfortable with the teaching of grace alone will condemn this teaching. That is in order that they may rely on themselves and excuse themselves in their own eyes in terms of their ministries because they did not teach this. Once a person sees the need for the soul to be utterly humbled and to lose all hope in self, it sees that leading people in a prayer or encouraging them to exercise choice is not only false but misleading people so that they trust in themselves rather than grace. It is not just a teaching, but it is also guiding souls to a deeper and deeper mistrust of self so that the inner person is really doing it. A soul must not just accept the facts that s/he must have no trust in self, but the soul must actually have no trust in self. Those who are not saved by the truth are also not humbled past the point of trusting in self. Many outwardly great things in religion can be done without this teaching, but the Gospel cannot be preached without it. The good news is to be preached to the poor, that is, the poor in spirit. As Luther points out, those who resist this work (whether in theology or in their hearts) “secretly they continue proud, and enemies of the grace of God.” No one is an enemy of the grace of God if grace is seen as that which supplies salvation where man can accept or refuse it as he pleases and when he pleases.
The soul that arrives at the intellectual understanding that the soul must be delivered from all hope in itself in order to rest in grace alone is rare today. But even rarer, it appears, is the soul that understands that the actual deliverance from all hope in self is something that actually must happen to the soul. This is the work of grace in the soul. Being delivered from all hope in self is not the work of self, but is the work of grace in its work of irresistible grace. It is in this light that we can understand that Luther viewed those who condemned the teaching of self-despair as enemies of the grace of God. These are hard words, but they are true words. Those who teach that the soul does not have to be brought to an utter end of itself in despair of any help or hope in self are enemies of the grace of God in truth. They are, despite their creeds, enemies to the truth of justification by faith alone. The denial of the Spirit’s work of convincing men of the depths of their sin is a denial of irresistible grace and practically a denial of the Gospel of grace alone. One can be orthodox in creed without this, but one cannot preach grace alone without it.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment