What, pray, can be said for grace against ‘free-will’ clearly and plainly, if Paul’s discourse here is not clear and plain? He exalts grace against ‘free-will’ in categorical terms; using the clearest and simplest words, he says that we are justified freely, and that grace is not grace if procured by works. With the greatest plainness he excludes all works in the matter of justification, and so sets up grace alone, and justification that is free. Yet in this light we still seek darkness, and because we cannot give ourselves great credit, yes, all the credit, for justification, we try to give ourselves some tiny little credit—solely in order that we may gain that point that justification by the grace of God is not free and without works! As though Paul’s denial that any of our greater works contributes to our justification were not much more a denial that our tiny little works do so! Especially when he has laid it down that we are justified only by God’s grace, without any works—indeed, without the law, in which all works, great, small, congruently or condignly meritorious, are contained. (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
So with great plainness we have set out before us that grace is not grace if justification is procured by a work or by works. There is simply no way around this teaching of Paul and then set out and pointed to by Luther. To seek justification by one work of by man is to fall from grace as a way of justification (Gal 5:4). This is the way that all works and any work is excluded in justification and grace alone is set up and declared which means that there is no cause of justification found within the sinner. While sinners may not like this and certainly desire to leave things to where they can do one thing to move God to save them, but that is simply not the way of grace. For justification to be by grace alone there can be no cause in the sinner that would move God, but instead all causes are within God Himself. This is the way of grace alone.
So Paul, in his letters to the churches, was very clear about a justification by grace alone. But sinners have sought something that they could take credit for. Perhaps the most basic desire was not to have some tiny little credit, but to have some control of salvation so that I can do something in order not to be at the sovereign mercy of God. Sinners love to hear of grace, but not grace alone. Sinners love to hear of grace as available to them at their mere choice or prayer, but they hate to hear that grace alone means that it is God’s choice and not theirs. Indeed, in their battle against grace alone and for the ‘free-will’ they end up taking credit for that act of the will or choice, but the real issue is that sinners hate the true Gospel of grace alone and want a justification that is not by grace alone, that is not free of human cause, and is not free of all works in a categorical sense. But instead, sinners fight for ‘free-will’ in order that they may have some control of the situation which is to say that they want to be saved by their own choosing and have it left up to them. But that choosing comes at a great cost as seen before. In rejecting a free of cause justification the sinner sets up the cause within himself and as such rejects grace alone. In rejecting a grace alone salvation the sinner sets up himself as having the ability to choose which is a work. That makes grace to be no longer grace and is destructive to a justification by grace alone.
It seems so clear that setting up ‘free-will’ instead of grace destroys the true Gospel. Paul sets out so clearly that justification is by grace alone and apart from any works for justification at all. While the Galatians had the Judaizers come in and try to say that it was grace plus the one work of circumcision, Paul said that the one work meant that they had fallen from grace as a way of justification and were now obligated to keep the whole Law. This is the point that we must keep returning to over and over. If one act of the ‘free-will’ (which amounts to one tiny work) is necessary to be saved, then keeping the whole Law is necessary for that will. Nothing can be added to grace and still have grace alone.
Luther’s words (or something like them) must be ringing in our ears if we are to maintain a clear Gospel of grace alone. “We are justified only by God’s grace, without any works—indeed, without the law, in which all works, great, small, congruently or condignly meritorious, are contained.” If the Gospel of grace alone is to be preached in our day or in any day, it must be preached in such a way that we make it plain and very clear that a grace apart from the law means a grace that is apart from any and all works no matter how small and even inconsequential we think our one little work may be. It should also be made clear to people that they may be trusting in something other than grace alone so grace needs to deliver sinners from faith in self. It is not that grace is just a concept that the brain must believe in, but grace is a reality of God and it must actually do the work in the soul so that the soul will not trust in anything of self or done by self.
God Loves... Himself 
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