Another thunderbolt is Paul’s statement that the righteousness of God is manifested and avails ‘unto all and upon all them that believe’ in Christ, and that ‘there is no difference.’ Here again in the plainest words he divides the whole human race into two. To believers he gives the righteousness of God; to unbelievers he denies it. Now, nobody is fool enough to doubt that the power and endeavour of ‘free-will’ is something distinct from faith in Jesus Christ! But Paul denies that anything apart from this faith is righteous before God. And if it is not righteous before God, it must be sin; for with God there remains nothing intermediate between righteousness and sin that is, as it were, neutral, being neither righteousness nor sin. Otherwise, Paul’s entire argument would be wholly ineffective, for its starting-point is just this dichotomy—all that is wrought and done among men is either righteousness or sin in God’s sight; righteousness, if faith is with it; sin, if faith is lacking. With men, indeed, it is the case that actions in which men who owe nothing to each other confer nothing on each other are called ‘intermediate’ and ‘neutral.’ But the ungodly man sins against God, whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, because he abases God’s creation by his ungodliness and persistent ingratitude, and does not from his heart give glory to God for a single moment. (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
A thunderbolt, in Luther’s thinking, or so I would think, is something that kills or obliterates what it hits. Luther was scared of thunderbolts and was knocked to the ground in terror by one earlier in life. So he is not just throwing out loose words, but instead he is speaking of something he thought of as powerful and destructive. In other words, Luther says that the words of this text is a thunderbolt against ‘free-will’ and the “gospel” that relies on the teaching and practice of ‘free-will.’ The context, once again, of the book is that Luther has set out to defend justification by grace alone. The only reason Luther defended faith alone is because he fought for grace alone. The reason that Luther fought against ‘free-will’ so hard is so that he could defend the Gospel of grace alone. When Luther attacks the teaching of ‘free-will,’ he is not just being cranky and mean against those who don’t agree with him, but instead he is defending the Gospel of grace alone. He is not defending against a mere difference of opinion or a philosophical difference at some obtuse level, he is defending the Gospel itself which was, is, and will always be the Gospel of grace alone. The doctrine of ‘free-will’ fights and militates against grace alone and the two cannot stand together. So Luther attacks ‘free-will’ in order to defend the glory of the Gospel of grace alone.
There is nothing apart from faith that can possibly be righteous. Yet, the espousers of ‘free-will’ seem to be asserting that the act of ‘free-will’ is righteous or at least is not unrighteous. A will that is free of true grace cannot be a will that has faith, so how can a will that is free of grace and faith be anything but wholly sinful? Can a ‘free-will’ have enough power and energy to do something that is not unrighteous? No, because those without faith are dead in their sins and trespasses and can do nothing apart from the life of Christ in them. The will that is apart from Christ has no faith and so cannot do anything but what is sinful and unrighteous. For the will to be free it would have to be free enough to be neutral or in the middle state, but Scripture does not leave human beings that middle state. Scripture sets out the fact that man is dead in sins and trespasses or that man is alive in Christ and totally dependant on Christ and His grace alone. So there is no neutral state for man to be in.
As Luther points out, the whole human race is divided into two. There is no room for a third. The human race is divided into believers and unbelievers. Believers are those who have Christ and unbelievers do not have Christ. Unbelievers are dead in sins and trespasses and are in bondage to sin and the devil. Believers are free in Christ, but can do nothing (spiritual or righteous) apart from Christ. There is no middle group of people who have free-will. All people are in bondage to sin and the flesh or they are in slaves of Christ. No unbeliever can please God because those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:8). The unbeliever cannot please God “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”
So unbelievers are not free to walk in salvation as they please, but instead they are hostile to God and have no ability to subject themselves to the law of God. If they are hostile to God and have no ability to subject themselves to the law of God, then clearly they are not free to do so. The person who cannot (not able) subject self to the law of God is not one who can come to God freely from his or her own faith. By definition, one would think, true faith that comes from humility demands that the soul submit itself to God. The unbeliever cannot submit self to God and as such does not have a ‘free-will’ in order to come up with faith.
God Loves... Himself 
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