And what will the guardians of ‘free-will’ say to what follows: ‘being justified freely by His grace’? What does ‘freely’ mean? What does ‘be His grace’ mean? How will endeavour, and merit, accord with freely given righteousness? Perhaps they will here say that they assign to ‘free-will’ as little as possible, not by any means condign merit. But there are empty words; for what is being sought by means of ‘free-will’ is that merit may have its place…There is no such thing as merit at all, but all that are justified are justified freely, and this is ascribed to nothing but the grace of God. And when righteousness is given, then the kingdom and eternal life are given with it. Where is your endeavour now? And your effort? And your good works? And the merits of ‘free-will’? What use are they? (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
This is perhaps an unanswerable point by Luther when he points out what Paul wrote in Romans 3:24. The text of that passage says this: “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Where is there room for merit or the actions of a ‘free-will’ in this passage of Scripture? The older versions used the word “freely” while the newer versions use the word “gift.” Both the old and the new are trying to get at the point of the text, but perhaps both miss the main point just a little in terms of modern ways of thinking. The modern thought of a gift is that it is given because it is a certain time of year. The modern thought of the word “free” is just that it did not cost anything. But the Scripture use is different.
In John 15:25 we have the same language used. There we have Jesus’ recorded saying about what other thought of Him: “’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’” What is translated as “freely” or as “gift” in Romans 3:24 is translated “without cause” in John 15:25. This gets at the real issue behind what a true “freely” and a true “gift” really point to. As Jesus was hated free of a true cause and was hated because of no link to merit (gift), so God justifies sinners on the basis of something they are free from. In other words, there is no cause within them to justify them. The cause for justification is found completely and wholly in God and in God alone as He has merited salvation by Jesus Christ and Him alone.
How does the word “freely,” then, fit with the teaching of ‘free-will’ at all? It does not. If God justifies sinners when they of their own ‘free-will’ choose Him, then He is justifying them based on something they have done or something in them rather than by grace and grace alone. If His justification of sinners is based on something that the sinner has done, even if in the slightest way, then sinners are not justified apart from anything in them or apart from any merit or cause other than Christ alone. If righteousness comes to the soul as a gift based on what Christ has done alone, then salvation can still be as a free (uncaused by the sinner in any way) gift and apart from any merit whatsoever. But if righteousness comes as a result of the smallest act of the sinner that does not come from grace, then the Gospel is not of grace alone and of Christ alone.
What we end up with, then, is a justification that is either sought by grace alone because of Christ alone or a justification that has been purchased by Christ and is up to the so-called ‘free-will’ alone to do something. It is a justification that in some way depends on the ‘free-will’ of the human soul rather than the free-grace of God in Christ Jesus. Each position says that it is of grace and each says that it is of Christ alone, but the ‘free-will’ position leaves us with a gospel that depends on the efforts and will of human beings rather than Christ alone and grace alone. This should show us quite clearly which position is in line with Scripture.
The teaching of ‘free-will’ is a false teaching concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While it says that a person must trust in Christ alone, underneath that it is saying that a person must trust in self to trust in Christ alone. While it says that the Gospel is by grace alone, underneath that it is saying that an act of the will which is free of the power of grace must enable the soul to rest in grace alone. What the teaching of ‘free-will’ does, then, is destroy the Gospel of Christ alone and of grace alone and move the soul to trust in itself and in something it does. It is a return to a works salvation though in a sneakier way. It is not possible to teach ‘free-will’ and the Gospel of free-grace and Christ alone at the same time. For those who are Reformed, it is not possible to truly preach a Gospel of grace alone while saying that Arminians and Pelagians are preaching the same Gospel. Something is wrong at some point and we must wake up to this.
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