Paul, writing to the Romans, enters upon his argument for the grace of God against ‘free-will’ as follows: ‘The wrath of God’ (he says) ‘is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold down the truth in unrighteousness’ (Rom. 1:18). Do you not hear this general judgment against all men, but that they are under the wrath of God? What does this mean, but that they merit wrath and punishment? He assigns the reason for the wrath by saying that they do only that which merits wrath and punishment—that they are all ungodly and unrighteous, and hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Where now is the power of ‘free-will’ to endeavour after some good? Paul makes it merit the wrath of God, and pronounces it ungodly and unrighteous! And that which deserves wrath and is ungodly is endeavouring and availing, not for grace, but against it. (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
If it is true, as Luther stated in accordance with Scripture, that all that men can strive for is that which merits wrath, what can the will do in all of its striving and choosing? What can a person do that is born dead in sins and trespasses and by nature a child of wrath? No one has a will that is free from the bondage of sin and of the devil and of being by nature a child of wrath but those who have been born from above. Human beings are born Pelagians and are constantly trying to do things in their own power. At some point a person may be awakened and realize the need for the help of grace, but that does not mean that the heart of the person is broken from seeking grace by some means of self. When the soul seeks for grace by any means of self, works, or self-effort, that soul is not seeking grace but is seeking something else in reality.
Romans 11:6 stands against that line of thinking: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Whatever is of works is no longer of grace and no longer of grace at all. What is of grace and grace alone does not correspond with any effort to earn or merit it in the slightest. In fact, the very nature of grace is that it is free of any cause that is found in the human soul. Grace can only be shown as a result of God Himself and His reasons are found in Himself. When the soul tries to do something as a way to obtain grace from God based on what the soul does, the soul is no longer seeking true grace at all. In other words, in the words of Luther, “that which deserves wrath and is ungodly is endeavouring and availing, not for grace, but against it.” The teaching of ‘free-will’ is not teaching a way of obtaining grace, but a way of striving against grace. The teaching of ‘free-will’ does not teach grace alone but the act of the ‘free-will’ plus grace. There can be no grace alone as long as a person thinks that a ‘free-will’ has anything to do with obtaining grace. The teaching of ‘free-will’ cannot stand alongside of free-grace. The two are opposed to each other and cannot be reconciled.
In an effort to state the above teaching even more clearly, those who adhere to the teaching of ‘free-will’ say that the will is free when it is free from inner influence to make a decision. But when the will is free from the influence and power of grace, that shows without question that salvation is not by grace alone because the will is free from grace alone. At that point there is synergism involved (synergism = two or more workers) rather than the glory of the Gospel of grace alone as taught in monergism (one worker alone). The will that is free from grace is the will that is working for something in its own power and as such will never stop working by its own power and look to grace alone. The will that is free from grace is not working by grace and so all it does it deserves and merits wrath and is not endeavoring for biblical grace, but is actually fighting against it.
Here we see one of the great dangers in modern day versions of “Christianity.” Very little is said against ‘free-will’ and even those who deny it in theory don’t seem to proclaim what grace alone really means. To put it differently, if we don’t proclaim a grace that is free and a will that is bound in sin the Gospel of grace alone will, at the very least, not be proclaimed very clearly. On the other hand, if what has been written in this short BLOG is true, then even preaching about grace alone is not enough unless it is shown that the will is not free to obtain it. The preaching of grace alone requires us to preach and teach that the will is not free or we are not preaching grace alone in a way that can be understood. The grace of God will have no help from sinners in salvation or God would be sharing His glory with another. So regardless of what people profess with their mouths and with their creeds to believe, if they will not stand and fight against the teaching of ‘free-will’ in all corners that it is found they are not preaching and standing for the Gospel of grace alone. We must preach the inability of the will to be free if we are going to preach the Gospel of grace alone from the conviction of sin to the giving of faith as a gift. There is no other way of preaching grace from beginning to end.
God Loves... Himself 
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