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)
‘Justification by faith only’ is a truth that needs interpretation. The principle of sola fide is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia. What is the source and status of faith? Is it the God-given means whereby the God-given justification is received, or is it a condition of justification which it is left to man to fulfill? Is it a part of God’s gift of salvation, or is it man’s own contribution to salvation? Is our salvation wholly of God, or does it ultimately depend on something that we do for ourselves? (“Historical and Theological Introduction” to Bondage of the Will)
If a person teaches another that s/he needs to come up with faith and does not teach them about what faith is and where it comes from, then that person is in reality teaching a person to look to self and trust in self for salvation. It may be that the person is taught to look to Christ alone in words, but if the soul looks to itself to look to Christ then it is trusting in itself to trust in Christ and that is a work. That is nothing different than teaching a person that s/he has a condition for salvation to fulfill and that if that condition is fulfilled God will justify that soul. Since human beings are born Pelagians and all Pelagians look to self for all things, every soul will look to self first for what is needed. If the soul is not taught that faith is a gift of God, it will simply assume that it can have faith on its own. It will naturally (what is according to its Pelagian nature) assume that faith is what it must do.
The Gospel of Scripture is that of grace alone (Rom 3:24-4:9; 11:6; Eph 2:4-10). There is no work that Christ did not do and as such leave it for men to obtain or work up on their own. Instead of looking to themselves for faith, men should look to God for a new heart so that they can believe. In this way and in this way alone is salvation wholly of God and does not depend on the human will for many or one work for salvation. The work of salvation has been accomplished by Christ and only the Holy Spirit alone can apply it to the soul. There is nothing the human soul can do to obtain salvation or even to obtain faith by which Christ is received. This is wholly the work of God and it is by grace alone apart from all works of human beings.
If the heart of sin is unbelief, then to be rescued from the bondage of evil and of sin includes the rescue from a heart that is dead in its unbelief and made alive in faith and unity with Christ. A heart of belief cannot be the work of unbelief and a heart of faith cannot come from non-faith. A work of life cannot be by the work of death and a work of the Spirit cannot come from the heart of the flesh. A work that pleases God cannot come from a heart that is at enmity with Him and a work of love for God cannot come from a heart that hates God. A work of grace cannot come from an unregenerate heart and a work through Christ cannot come from one who is not in Christ. The salvation of God cannot depend on the work of man and a new heart by the work of the Spirit cannot depend on the act of the old heart. This all shows how absurd it is to depend on the work of faith from the human soul.
This should also show the danger of not teaching people where faith comes from. We can be very orthodox in teaching what God does in order to justify sinners, but if we don’t tell sinners all the works of God in salvation and how justification is applied we are ultimately leaving the sinner in their own hands to come up with faith. If we teach sinners that they must believe and yet do not teach them that they must be born again to believe and how true faith really comes, then how are we telling them the whole story of the Gospel? How are we being anything worse than Pelagians if we ultimately give sinners part of the Gospel of grace alone and then leave them in their own hands (practically speaking) to come up with faith and a believing heart?
God Loves... Himself 
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