In short, Paul sets ‘him that worketh’ and ‘him that worketh not’ side by side and leaves none in the middle between them. He declares that righteousness is not reckoned to him that worketh, but is reckoned to him that worketh not, if only he believes. There is no way by which ‘free-will,’ with its effort and endeavour, can dodge or escape; it must either be numbered with ‘him that worketh’ or with ‘him that worketh not.’ If with ‘him that worketh’, you have heard Paul say that righteousness is not reckoned to it, If with ‘him that worketh not, but believeth’ on God, righteousness is reckoned to it. But then it will not be the power of ‘free-will’, but a new creation by faith, and if righteousness is not reckoned to ‘him that worketh’, it becomes clear that his works are nothing but sins, evil and ungodly in God’s sight. (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
One way to look at this issue is to see what comes from a will that is called “free” by its adherents and defenders. Against them, Luther tells us that all the works of the ‘free-will’ are “nothing but sins, evil and ungodly in God’s sight.” What can the power of ‘free-will’ actually do that pleases God? What can a will do that is free from grace (required of a ‘free-will’)? On the other hand, is the will really free from depravity and even total depravity? But even if the will could be free from total depravity, even just a tiny little bit, could it actually do something to obtain righteousness? What righteousness could and would that obtain before a holy God?
Paul set out in Romans four (and Luther built on that foundation) that there are only two types of people. Every person in the whole universe fits into one of those two camps. One is either with those who work or with those who don’t work. In the group of those who work there are those who trust in many works and then all the way down to those who trust in the one work of the will that is free. But those who trust in that one work of their own (‘free-will’) and that choice are those in the group that works. So even if the will that is free (according to those who claim that) could do one tiny work, it is still in the group of those who work. Paul said that those with faith were those who did not work. So that leaves the ‘free-will’ camp in the group of those that work and not in the group of those that have faith. True faith does not look to any work of self but looks, receives, and trusts in grace alone from beginning to end.
But even though many think the ‘free-will’ is capable of one tiny work and that enough to move God to save the soul, the Bible teaches quite the contrary. The soul that still trusts in its ability to choose or to make some little choice is a soul that still trusts in itself. It is not a soul that has quit trusting in itself and has been broken of its pride, but it is a soul that is still proud enough to trust in something of itself. It is not a soul like Paul in Romans 7 where the Law aroused coveting in him so much that he died to his ability and strength to keep the Law, but instead it is a soul that has many things hidden to it. The Law did such a work in Paul that he died to his own ability to keep the Law. The ability to keep the Law at least includes the will in any conception of the will, so if a will is free it is free to keep the Law. But Paul died to his ability to keep the Law. It was only then that he could rest in grace alone and live by grace alone.
What comes from the soul that thinks it has ‘free-will’ or any soul that has not died to self? The only thing that can come from that soul is sin. The works of that soul, since they do not come from Christ the Vine, “are nothing but sins, evil and ungodly in God’s sight.” There is nothing that a will can do apart from the Vine that is anything but a work of the flesh and as such it is evil and ungodly. The will is not free enough to make one choice or do one thing apart from or free from Christ that is not a fleshly act and as such it is evil and ungodly. Until the will is renewed and Christ is living in the soul, there is nothing that the will can do that is pleasing to God. But in that case the will is not free from the flesh and is not free to do something good apart from Christ. All of the works of the human soul and its will are sin and nothing but sin as long as that soul is apart from Christ and no amount of vaunted freedom can change that. For the will to be truly free it must be free from Christ and yet there is nothing that the soul can do apart from Christ that is acceptable to God. Anything a soul does apart from Christ is wickedness. It is easy to conclude, then, that to trust in the freedom of the will or to set out a theology that requires people to trust in an act of the ‘free-will’ is to set out a gospel that is not of grace alone and is not of Christ alone. The will can never be free from its utter helplessness to do anything but evil apart from Christ and it can never be free from its utter need of Christ to do anything good. Since that is true, the Gospel of grace alone and of Christ alone stands firmly and decidedly against the teaching of ‘free-will’ at any and all points in relation to the Gospel and holiness.
God Loves... Himself 
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