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)
Arminianism was, indeed, in Reformed eyes a renunciation of New Testament Christianity in favor of New Testament Judaism; for to rely on oneself for faith is no different in principle from relying on oneself for works, and the one is as un-Christian and anti-Christian as the other. In the light of what Luther says to Erasmus, there is no doubt that he would have endorsed this judgment. (“Historical and Theological Introduction” to Bondage of the Will)
In order to appear before men as gracious and winsome or perhaps as humble, the Arminian error and effort of inserting works into the Gospel of grace alone is said to be wrong but not wrong enough to make it a false gospel. But of course, if trusting in self for circumcision is enough to cause one to fall from grace (as a way of salvation) as Galatians teaches, then surely trusting in self to come up with faith in order to trust in Christ is even more of an egregious error. This is not just a small error, but it is a monumental error at its very heart. It leaves sinners looking to themselves for faith rather than looking to God to give them faith by giving them a new heart to believe. This goes at the very heart of what used to be Reformed evangelism which was to have sinners seek God to give them a new heart. But now we have sinners looking to themselves for faith and evidently they don’t really need a new heart to believe as it was once taught by Jesus in John 3:3-8 and by John in John 1:12-13.
Again, the insertion of a ‘free-will’ into the faith issue is a monumental error that attacks so many of the primary teachings of Scripture. We have seen how it attacks the Gospel of grace alone by inserting the work of faith. It attacks the Gospel of Christ alone because now there is one work left for man to do and so Christ did not complete all the work. It attacks the sufficiency of God as it says that man is sufficient to come up with one work that God cannot do for man. It attacks the background of the total depravity of man which implies that man don’t need salvation by grace alone since there is one little part in man that does not need to be redeemed and that one little part plays a large part in salvation. It destroys the true concept of faith which is to behold the glory of Christ and to receive Christ alone by grace alone, but now it is look to self alone for faith in order for God to respond and save that soul.
Another important point is to look again at the picture that Paul gives of circumcision and of grace in Galatians 5. He tells us that if a person received circumcision, Christ was of no benefit to that person. He went on to say that if a person received circumcision, that person was then obligated to keep the whole Law. The one act of circumcision added to the Gospel of grace alone meant that Christ was of no benefit to that person and that the person was obligated to keep the whole Law. What does Arminianism say but that a person must come up with faith from his or her own ‘free-will’ in order to be saved? What is that but adding a work to the Gospel? Can we say anything less of Arminianism than of the Judaizers? I don’t think that we can. If a person is looking to and trusting in self for faith, then Christ is of no benefit to that person. If a person is looking to and trusting in self for faith, then for that person to be saved that person must keep the whole Law to do so.
In other words, to rely on self for faith is in principle a return to works as said in the Introduction above, but it is even more than that. It is a return to works for salvation to that person. God will accept no work for salvation as the Gospel is a Gospel of grace alone. Salvation is by grace alone from beginning to end and that includes faith. To add one work to that is to make Christ of on benefit to that person and so that leaves them in their system of works. The Gospel is of grace alone and the only other choice is a gospel of works alone. It is one or the other and cannot be of any mixture at all. The person who trusts in self for faith is also obligated to trust in self to keep the Law. The person that rests in Christ alone and grace alone looks to God for a new heart which is able to believe and so the faith itself is a gift by His free grace. Those who will not stand against the so-called gospel of faith by self and the rest by grace are not really standing for the Gospel of grace alone, but instead are actually standing with those who teach the gospel of self-faith and so are standing with Pelagianism in its false gospel. But of course they deny that they are Pelagian and in their words and creeds they are not. But their deeds declare that their Reformed words are covering over a Pelagian heart.
God Loves... Himself 
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