The guardians of ‘free-will’ have exemplified the saying: ‘out of the frying-pan, into the fire.’ In their zeal to disagree with the Pelagians they start denying condign merit, and by the very form of their denial they set it up more firmly! By word and pen they deny it, but really, in their hearts, they establish it, and are worse than the Pelagians upon two counts. In the first place, the Pelagians confess and assert condign merit straightforwardly, candidly and honestly, calling a spade a spade and teaching what they really hold. But our friends here, who hold and teach the same view, try to fool us with lying words and false appearances, giving out that they disagree with the Pelagians, when there is nothing that they are further from doing! ‘If you regard our pretences, we appear as the Pelagians’ bitterest foes; but if you regard the facts and our hearts, we are Pelagians double-dyed.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
The doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace; but it actually expressed for them only one aspect of this principle, and that not its deepest aspect. The sovereignty of grace found expression in their thinking at a profounder level still, in the doctrine of monergistic regeneration—the doctrine, that is, that the faith which receives Christ for justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God, bestowing by spiritual regeneration in the act of effectual calling. (“Historical and Theological Introduction” to Bondage of the Will)
We have seen how justification by faith alone is meant to safeguard the principle of sovereign grace and that any teaching of justification by faith alone that does not safeguard sovereign grace is a different doctrine of justification than what Martin Luther taught the Scripture taught. But the doctrine of justification by faith alone does not just point to something called “sovereign grace” in some abstract way, but is inextricably linked with monergistic (God as the sole worker) regeneration through and by sovereign grace. In other words, the true and biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, as set out by the Reformers, cannot be separated from monergistic regeneration which can only happen by sovereign grace. In order for grace to be truly grace there must be no works of the sinner involved at all (Rom 11:6). In order for a true faith to be a true faith, it can only be in accordance with grace and grace alone. The only job of faith is to receive grace.
In getting back to Luther and his assertion in the first paragraph above, we must note that he wrote that against Erasmus and Roman Catholicism who condemned Pelagianism but then turned around and taught it with different words. He said that it was worse to teach it under a guise than to teach it openly. So when people today (or any other day) teach that sinners are justified by faith alone and yet teach something other than a sovereign grace and teaching something different than monergistic regeneration, those people are not teaching the truth about justification by faith alone and are using it as a guise to teach a gospel that is less than grace alone.
If justification is to be by faith alone, then the soul must be regenerated by grace alone and faith itself must come to the soul by grace alone. If faith is not a free gift, then salvation as a whole is not a free gift and is God’s response to the work of a will that is free from grace. The Gospel hinges on this issue and it must not be let go of. It will not do to simply say that a person is justified by faith alone and then have no concern with some of the details. The devil is in the details of the Gospel and he will blind, distort, and deceive in order to twist the thinking and the souls of people so that they will not see the truth in the details that the Gospel hinges on.
In reality, however, the issues with monergistic (sole worker) regeneration are far more than mere details. They are at the heart of the Gospel. The sinner is taught to either look to himself for what is lacking or to look to God alone for what needs to be done in the soul. If some part of justification depends on the sinner himself, then the sinner is not looking to God and His grace alone in the matter but is looking to self to do something. If God is waiting on the sinner to respond or do something, then salvation is God responding to the act of the sinner and so salvation in some way depends on what the sinner does. This is one way the devil sneaks his way in the details. He gets people focused on “faith alone” and they forget that salvation is by the work of God alone by grace alone. They use words that say “grace alone” and “glory alone,” but the biblical view of justification by faith alone will not stand with the true views of their hearts. Those who use orthodox words (faith and grace alone, justification by faith alone), but do not tie them together to show the utter necessity of sovereign grace and monergistic regeneration, are teaching a false gospel with orthodox words. They are more dangerous than those who teach a false gospel openly.
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