But this word ‘without’ does away with morally good works, and moral righteousness, and preparation for grace. Imagine any power you can think of as belonging to ‘free-will’, and Paul will still stand firm and say: ‘the righteousness of God exists without it!’ And though I should grant that ‘free-will by its endeavours can advance in some direction, namely, in the direction of good works, or the righteousness of the civil or moral law, yet it does not advance towards God’s righteousness, nor does God deem its efforts in any respect worthy to gain His righteousness; for He says that His righteousness stands without the law. And if ‘free-will’ does not advance towards God’s righteousness, what will it gain even it by its works and endeavours it advances towards angelic holiness?—if that were possible. I do not think there are any obscure and ambiguous words here, nor that room is left here for any figures of speech. Paul clearly distinguishes the two righteousnesses, assigning the one to the law and the other to grace; and he declares that the latter is given without the former and without its works, and that the former without the latter does not justify or avail anything. I should like to see how ‘free-will’ can stand and be defended against these texts! (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
In this section of Luther’s writings it is seen once again that the Gospel of grace alone is incompatible with ‘free-will.’ One cannot consistently hold to a teaching of ‘free-will’ and yet hold from the depths of the heart that God saves by grace alone. What does the ‘free-will’ do after all? Is it free to do good works that are acceptable to God? No, that cannot be because the righteousness of God is without or apart from our good works. Besides, if it came from the will of the human as free it would not be the righteousness of God. What does the ‘free-will’ do? Can it obtain moral righteousness? Well, the Law was not given so that men may earn righteousness. Instead, it was given to show how sinful man is and perhaps even to incite sin in the heart. But even beyond that, even if man could obtain some form of moral righteousness, it would not be the righteousness of God. What can the ‘free-will’ do? It cannot prepare itself for grace because that would mean grace is no longer grace since God would be giving it based on what man does to prepare him or herself. For grace to be grace it must be shown without cause in the human being or grace would be moved by something in the human soul rather than God Himself.
This should show human beings how dangerous and even deadly ‘free-will’ is to the Gospel. ‘Free-will’ has no power to obtain or prepare the soul for grace. Romans 3 is very clear on this issue: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Justification is a gift by His grace which would be better translated “being justified without cause by His grace.” There is no cause within the human being for which God justifies the person for or moves God to justify the sinner. If there is a cause, even the cause of an act of the ‘free-will’ in anything, then salvation is not by grace alone and there is a righteousness in man that is not of the righteousness of God.
What can the ‘free-will’ do to obtain righteousness? Romans 4:4-5 explains this: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” To the one that works, what he gets according to that work is not grace but what is owed. However, the person who does not work and believes that God justifies the ungodly, that person’s faith is reckoned as righteousness. Notice what is going on here. A will that is free is a will that is free from the inner work of grace. So we have God giving people righteousness if they will make a decision and do an act of faith on their own. That is then God giving righteousness because of what a person did. It would then be God giving a person what is his or her due. But Romans 4 will not let us go down that road. It tells us quite clearly that this righteousness is given to the person that does not work, but rather it is given to the ungodly. It is not given to a person because of a righteous act of faith that a person does, but it is given to the ungodly.
Notice again how dangerous and deadly ‘free-will’ is to the Gospel of grace alone. ‘Free-will’ attacks the Gospel at virtually all fronts. It attacks the Gospel at the issue of the sovereignty of God by asserting the sovereignty of its own will. It attacks the Gospel by asserting that it can do one act by which God responds to it by giving it righteousness. In other words, if the will can come up with faith God must give it righteousness because He has promised. So salvation is no longer by grace alone but by grace plus the act of a will meeting a standard. There is not one little act of ‘free-will’ going on here, it boils down to an act apart from the grace of God that obligates God to show grace. In the issue of ‘free-will,’ the Gospel of grace alone is at stake. Luther saw that ever so clearly.
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