Luther gives Erasmus’ definition of ‘free-will” in the following quote: “‘Moreover, I conceive of “free-will” in this context as a power of the human will by which a man may apply himself to those things that lead to eternal salvation or turn away from the same.’” Luther then responds to that definition with words that applied to Erasmus but should also make people wake up today. The definition that Erasmus gave was what so many think is true today and is the root of so many so-called “gospel appeals.” Luther’s reply is a shot across the bow of practically every denomination today as well.
Luther’s reply to Erasmus (see The Gospel and the Enslaved Will 82 for another part) was devastating and virtually unanswerable. If the power of the human will is such that man may (and therefore can) apply to himself the things that lead to eternal salvation, then grace is no longer in the hands of God to give as He pleases and the sovereignty of grace is in the will of human beings. However, regardless of the fine points of various groups that hold to the teaching of ‘free-will,’ that is still true. As long as anyone holds to the so-called ‘free-will’ of man, that person has wrested grace from the hands of God and bestows it on the will of human beings. This is certainly something that the devil is quite proud of and is his work because it is nothing less than human beings wanting to be like God. That was his original promise to Eve.
Genesis 3:5 gives the heart of the original promise of Satan to the woman and tells us quite a bit about what the original sin looked like. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” It is the promise to be like God, but also knowing good and evil. In other words, one part of the attractiveness of this lie was that true freedom was to be able to choose for yourself what good and evil is. It at least includes the power of ‘free-will’ which is to do as the person pleases as s/he sets his or her own standard of good. So the person is able to choose what s/he chooses and think of it as good as s/he pleases. The ‘free-will,’ then, is at the heart of the fall. It is still at the heart of human souls wanting to be like God.
It is because of the so-called ‘free-will’ that human beings still trust in themselves to be able to choose grace and to choose to apply grace when they please. The freedom to apply grace is certainly an attempt to usurp the rights of God as God alone can give grace as He pleases. Luther saw this so clearly and, while his work on The Bondage of the Will remains a classic, it does not appear to be read carefully or at least agreed with much at all. While it is the document of the Reformation that sets out the heart of the biblical Gospel better than any other, it does not seem to be agreed with too much in our day. A ‘free-will’ is that which is to be at war with God over who can give grace and when it can be given. For a human being to assert that his will is free is to assume the role of Divinity and to say and believe that the will can do that which God alone is free to do.
The Scripture tells us that man is dead in sins and trespasses and must be make alive by God. The Scripture tells us that man is completely helpless. The Scripture tells us that apart from Christ man can do nothing spiritual and can bear nothing regarding spiritual fruit. Yet so many today tell us that man can apply grace to himself. That is what the teaching of ‘free-will’ means. It is true that many may not say that they believe that, but what do they think a ‘free-will’ does with its freedom? What is it free to do? Is the will free from grace (so a ‘free-will’ must be to be free) and yet applies grace to itself at the same time? The will is never free from its utter inability and insufficiency before God. It is always utterly dependent on God and so it is not free at all in the spiritual realm.
Luther was blunt and straight to the point on this one. He saw this as something less than Christianity and thought that it was Pelagian. “Which means that nobody since the Pelagians has written of ‘free-will’ more correctly than Erasmus! For I said above that ‘free-will’ is a divine term, and signifies a divine power. But no one to date, except the Pelagians, has ever assigned to it such power.” While Luther says that this view is Pelagian and perhaps even beyond what the early Pelagians had stated, that is what is being taught today (either explicitly or implicitly) about the will. While people do not call themselves Pelagians when they assert their own power of the will, they are in fact precisely Pelagian in the area of the will. While many think of this as a minor area, Luther thought of it as going to the heart of the Reformation and the Gospel. We need to think, study, and pray through these areas once again. We cannot hope to see a true revival apart from the true Gospel, though many false fires may erupt from false gospels. No true Gospel can be preached that relies on the Pelagian view of the will even if it is called Reformed. While that sounds harsh, we must be clear that the true Gospel is all of grace and grace alone. Period.
God Loves... Himself 
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