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)
The last five sentences of Luther should haunt the thinking soul and/or a soul that has been or is awakened. When the Scriptures are so clear that God justifies freely by His grace, and that means that there is no cause in the human being for why He justifies but rather all the cause is found in Himself, what good can be assigned to the ‘free-will’ in light of that? No matter what merit, ability, or freedom of act that is assigned to the ‘free-will,’ there is no place for it in the justification that God grants by grace alone. Justification is assigned to the grace of God and the grace of God alone. There is no room or place for the ‘free-will’ in light of grace alone.
In light of that, then what good is the endeavour of the will now? What can a will that is free from grace (by definition, a will that is free must be free from grace) actually do in a salvation that is all of grace? What can the will attempt or make efforts to do in a “system” that has no room for those attempts or efforts? Only those who stop working can receive this salvation that is by grace alone (Rom 4:1-6). So how can the will that is free from grace ever be free from its own efforts in order to receive grace which only comes apart from its efforts? Oh how awful it is to see people defending ‘free-will’ and those who teach it when in fact those who truly hold to it are holding to a form of teaching that is opposite to the Gospel of grace alone. What room is there for the efforts of the will when Christ and Christ alone saves sinners? Will the sinner try to contribute one little thing to his own salvation? What an abomination to God that would be to even try, but that is exactly what ‘free-will’ does.
The Scriptures set out so clearly that is not the efforts of man that matter, but rather the mercy of God. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom 9:16). The Scripture says so very clearly that it is not the man who wills, but all depends on God who has mercy. Matthew 11:25 gives us another angle on this: “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” Is the wise and intelligent person free to yank these hidden things from the power and wisdom to God and reveal them to himself? Is the wise and intelligent person able to just make himself an infant? Well, then what use is ‘free-will’ in terms of seeking or applying salvation to the soul? It is utterly and completely worthless.
Scripture has set out so very clearly that the righteousness of God comes to the soul apart from good works. So what benefit are good works for salvation? Should we tell a person that one good work will help in his or her salvation? Well, then why do we tell a person that salvation depends on that person making one act of the will which must be good or it is nothing but a work of the filthy flesh? What use is an act of the will in terms of justification? What can it benefit the soul? The Word of God takes its stand against ‘free-will’ and all that it supposedly can do when it says that justification is by grace alone. The Word of God leaves the ‘free-will’ with utterly nothing to do when it says that it is not of the man who wills (Rom 9:16). The Word of God does not leave the will anything to do when it tells us that sinners are dead in sins and trespasses and it is God’s grace alone that raises them from the dead (Eph 2:1-10). There is utterly no room for the ‘free-will’ to sneak in and do one little work that helps in any way for salvation.
Luther’s questions are very pointed and get the point home. There is no room for the ‘free-will’ of man and its activities in justification. There is no room for the works or efforts of the will because justification is apart from the willing of man and relies totally on the mercy and grace of God. In other words, people must repent of all that their wills can do when they are free from grace in order that they may rely on the grace of God in Christ alone. The will of man must be repented of in order that he may rest in Christ alone. The teaching of ‘free-will,’ then, is not just a little bit wrong, it is an attack on the Gospel of grace alone and Christ alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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