It is certainly what God aims at in the disposition of things in redemption, (if we allow the Scriptures to be a revelation of God’s mind) that God should appear full, and man in himself empty, that God should appear all, and man nothing. It is God’s declared design that others should not “glory in his presence;” which implies that it is his design to advance his own comparative glory. So much the more man glories in God’s presence, so much the less glory is ascribed to God.
By its being thus ordered, that the creature should have so absolute and universal a dependence on God, provision is made that God should have our whole souls, and should be the object of our undivided respect. If we had our dependence partly on God, and partly on something else, man’s respect would be divided to those different things on which he had dependence. Thus it would be if we depended on God only for a part of our good, and on ourselves, or some other being, for another part: or if we had our good only from God, and through another that was not God, and in something else distinct from both, our hearts would be divided between the good itself, and him from whom, and him through whom, we received it. But now there is no occasion for this, God being not only he from or of whom we have all good, but also through whom, and is that good itself, that we have from him and through him. So that whatsoever there is to attract our respect, the tendency is still directly towards God, all unites in him as the centre. (Jonathan Edwards, God Glorified in Man’s Dependence)
The desire man has to keep some semblance of control and some decision in the matter of salvation is an attack on the complete sufficiency of God and the complete and utter dependence of human beings on God and His sufficiency. Human beings do not want to wait on and be utterly dependent on the grace of God, but instead they want to do it all of themselves or perhaps have God do all that they cannot do. Either way, the human soul is not completely dependent on God. When the soul tries to keep something of a ‘free-will’ so it can choose as it pleases, what it is doing is trusting in self. Its real trust is in self, though it says it is trusting in God. But it is trusting in itself to trust in God. This is not faith in Christ alone, but is instead faith in self to trust in Christ. It is not faith in grace alone, but is instead faith in itself to trust in grace. One can hold to a creed of justification by faith alone, but unless the soul is looking to God for grace to give it faith as well it is not really looking to grace alone but to its own faith.
God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, but sinners want to be saved in a way that they can share in some of the glory. What they don’t realize is that God will not share His glory with another. So when they look to their so-called ‘free-will’ in the things of salvation, they are not looking to grace alone and they are not looking to a Gospel that is to the glory of God alone. The Gospel must be proclaimed in such a way that shows how utterly men are dependent on God and His grace alone so that the Gospel would be to His glory alone. Yet when ‘free-will’ sticks up its ugly head, what we see is that human beings share in that glory. Men and women clap for those who have made decisions to be saved, rather than bowing before the shining forth of the glory of God in salvation. Men and women give testimonies to their choices rather than to the grace of God, though indeed they give some words to the grace of God, but the focus is still on their choice. After all, if we believe in a ‘free-will’ then it was our choice that made the final decision. It was our choice that everything hinged on.
Jonathan Edwards saw so clearly that for salvation to be by grace alone it must mean that sinners are dependent on God alone and in all ways. Martin Luther saw so clearly that the Gospel cannot be of grace alone and Christ alone if the will is free. There has never been a Gospel that has been anything other than by grace alone. There never will be a Gospel that will be anything but by grace alone. That means that the salvation of sinners has never been dependent on their ‘free-wills’ and it never will be either. Whatever is of grace is of grace. Whatever is of works is of works. Whatever a will does that is free of grace (for a will to be free it must be free of grace) is a will that is moved by the self and by the flesh. God will not share His glory with another. The Gospel of grace alone is antithetical to the teaching of ‘free-will.’ This is one reason that we are in such a dark time in our modern day. We focus on the so-called ‘free-will’ of man rather than on the free grace of God. We focus on the ‘free-will’ of man by trying to persuade man based on fleshly reason, entertainment, music, and appealing to what man naturally likes. While we can obtain many decisions like that, they are but decisions of the flesh and in doing so we are destroying the preaching of the Gospel of grace alone. If we will not seek to destroy all the dependence men have in themselves and their ‘free-will,’ we cannot preach the Gospel of grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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