Then, in the second place, this hypocrisy of theirs results in their valuing and seeking to purchase the grace of God at a much cheaper rate than the Pelagians. The latter assert that it is not by a feeble something within us that we obtain grace, but by efforts and works that are complete, entire, perfect, many and mighty; but our friends here tell us that it is by something very small, almost nothing, that we merit grace.
Now, if there must be error, those who say that the grace of God is priced high, and account it dear and costly, err less shamefully and presumptuously than those who teach that its price is a tiny trifle, and account it cheap and contemptible. Paul, however pounds both errors to a single pulp with one word when he says that all are justified freely, without the law, and without the works of the law. The assertion that justification is free to all that are justified leaves none to work, merit or prepare themselves, and leaves no work that can be said to carry either congruent or condign merit. By the one cast of this thunderbolt, Paul shatters both the Pelagians with their total merit and the Sophists with their tiny merit. Free justification does not permit you to set men working for it, for free donation and preparation by working are manifestly incompatible. Furthermore, justification by grace does not permit you to regard the worthiness of any person, as Paul later says in the eleventh chapter: ‘if by grace, then it is no more or works; otherwise, grace is not grace’ (v. 6). So, too, he says in the fourth chapter: ‘Now to him that worketh the reward is reckoned, not of grace, but of debt’ (v. 4). And so my good Paul, the scourge of ‘free-will’, stands undefeated! He lays low two armies with a single word! For if we are justified without works, all works are condemned, whether small or great; Paul exempts none, but thunders impartially against all. (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
It is clear from the quote above that Luther, the one that God primarily used to rediscover justification by faith alone, was vehemently against ‘free-will’ because he saw it as against the free-grace of God in the Gospel. Not only does the Gospel of justification by grace alone determine what ‘faith alone’ means, it stands opposed to any and all works for salvation. Since justification by grace alone is the larger principle that determines what faith alone means, that shows us that the works (in any way, shape, form, or fashion) that are not consistent with the Gospel of grace alone are not consistent with justification by faith alone. The teaching of ‘free-will’ is that the will is free and (logically) so free of grace and of depravity in the sense that it can make a choice for Christ. However, the will that is free must be free from total depravity and must be free of grace in order to be free, and that shows that salvation is not by grace alone. But if salvation is not by grace alone, it cannot be by faith alone either.
So we are left with Luther’s position that ‘free-will’ is simply a work that is added to the Gospel of grace alone. Luther goes on to use two verses that he has used before, but they are powerful texts in this regard. One, Romans 11:6 sets out that it salvation is by grace then it is no longer of works or grace is no longer grace. In other words, salvation is only grace to the degree it is not of works. So when one sets out that the ‘free-will’ must make a choice and God then moves to save the soul, that one act of the will is a work (because not of grace) and so grace is no longer grace. This simply cannot be stressed too much. One act of a ‘free-will’ in effect destroys the doctrine of grace alone and that one act of what is thought to be a ‘free-will’ by an individual person destroys the soul of that person because that person is trusting in self rather than grace alone.
The second passage Luther uses is Romans 4:4, which says that “to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.” In the context of a ‘free-will’ this teaches us that even if there is only one work for a salvation that is based on that one work would then not be grace but a wage. But again, a ‘free-will’ is a will that is free from grace (at least to a degree) and as such is a work that a human being does that God rewards with salvation. Instead of God being moved by Himself and all causation in salvation being by grace alone and by Christ alone, the teaching of ‘free-will’ leaves the human soul with one little work to do. But that one little work in appearance is a gigantic work in effect because it destroys the person’s hope of looking to grace alone and instead leaves the person trusting in self to trust in Christ and trusting in self to trust in grace. But again, while it appears to be one small or tiny little work, it is gigantic at least in its effects. One little work makes grace to be something other than grace alone and so it is not really grace at all. One little work makes salvation to be contingent on a wage of the human soul and again that makes grace no longer to be grace. The teaching of ‘free-will’ is opposed to the biblical Gospel and it should be fought against at every opportunity as a false gospel.
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