Here is the solution of the question with the Diatribe repeats so often all though the book: ‘if we can do nothing, what is the purpose of all the laws, precepts, threats, and promises?’ Paul here gives the answer; ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ His answer to the question is far different from the ideas of man, or of ‘free-will.’ He does not say that ‘free-will’ is proved by the law, nor that it co-operates unto righteousness; for by the law comes, not righteousness, but knowledge of sin. This is the fruit, the work, the office of the law; it is a light to the ignorant and blind, but one that displays disease, sin, evil, death, hell and the wrath of God. It does not help nor set them free from these things; it is content merely to point them out. When a man discovers the sickness of sin, he is cast down and afflicted; nay, he despairs. The law does not help him; much less can he heal himself. Another light is needed to reveal a remedy. This is the voice of the gospel, which displays Christ as the deliverer from all these evil things. But neither reason nor ‘free-will’ points to Him; how could reason point to Him, when it is itself darkness and needs the light of the law to show it its own sickness, which by its own light it fails to see, and thinks is sound health? (Luther, Bondage of the Will).
The Law does not provide the sinner any help or any hope of help. The Law does not give a person one hint of a way s/he can help him or herself. The Law is to provide light, but it is a light that shines on dark hearts and souls. It is a light that shows the soul its sin, its lack of righteousness, and the judgment of God upon it. The Law offers no help to the sinner and does not give any way for the sinner to heal himself or to help heal himself. The Law does not point to an ability or power of the ‘free-will’ in the sinner because the Law offers nothing but condemnation to the sinner. That is what Paul teaches.
The purpose of the Law is to point to sin and to show sin and perhaps even to provoke sin in order that human beings can see the nature of sin and of their own inability. When the Law brings the sinner to an end of all hope in self, the Law shows the great need of a true Savior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what saves the sinner. The Gospel is the power of God to save (Rom 1:16) and that is what the sinner must have if the Law has done its work to show that the sinner has no power of self to save at all. The soul that thinks it can be saved by one or by many works is not a soul that is saved by grace alone (Rom 11:6). One drop of poison will spoil a glass of water and it is no longer a glass of pure water. One work of the will (‘free-will’) spoils a pure grace and makes pure grace to be something less than grace alone which makes it no grace at all.
The Law is not given at any point or for any purpose to show man that his will is free and that he has some ability to obey the Law. Rather, it is to show man that he has no ability to obey the Law and thus his will is not free to obey it. This shows man that the Gospel is what he really needs. This shows man that Christ alone can set man free from the bondage of sin and Christ alone can live in the soul to give it true life. If the Law shows man that he has the ability to do something that is righteous, “then Christ died needlessly” (Gal 2:21). The ramifications of teaching ‘free-will’ are actually quite enormous. If it is taught that man has some little ability (as Erasmus did and the teaching of ‘free-will’ cannot escape), then one must assert that there is one thing man can do that is righteous and can obtain righteousness. If it is taught that God gives sinners commands to keep and that means that they must have the power to keep them, then that also teaches that man can obtain some righteousness by the Law. It is inescapable.
The Law clearly teaches that there is nothing that a sinner can do that is righteous and the Gospel of grace teaches that sinners are saved by grace alone. Both the Law and the Gospel (team up so to speak) teach that sinners have no hope in themselves which includes their so-called ‘free-will.’ As long as a soul trusts in its own will, it has not realized the purpose of the Law and does not understand the true nature of the Gospel of grace alone. The purpose of the Law is meant to drive a person to the very end of self and all hope in self so that the soul despairs of self. The purpose of the Gospel of grace alone is to shine forth the beauty of the grace of God so that the soul will hope only in grace. In other words, God saves to the glory of His grace and those who try to depend on their own ‘free-will’ are not depending on grace alone but instead are looking to self to some degree. That looking to self is not in accordance with the Gospel of Christ alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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