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)
As set out in the last few posts, Paul put the whole human world into two categories. One category is those who do work and the second category is those who do not work. In category one are those that do a lot of works and those who claim to do just one work and all those in between. In the second category are those that don’t work at all. Instead of working, they believe in God who justifies the ungodly. Now this does not make sense to the worldly person or to the very religious person, but despite that it is biblical and is fitting with the Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone. Those who make faith out to be by a ‘free-will’ and therefore by a work of the flesh, may not realize it but they are at odds with and actually are opposed to the Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone.
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
The text above (Ephesians 1:5-12) shows why God saves and the purposes that He saves for. Those who believe in ‘free-will’ think of God as providing salvation for sinners and the sinner obtains or receives that salvation when the sinner exercises faith or choice of the ‘free-will’. But that demands that salvation is contingent on the will and choice of the sinner and that demands that salvation is contingent on something other than God which makes salvation to be something less than grace alone, but instead it is grace plus something the sinner provides.
Instead of that, however, God saves sinners because He loves Himself and His own glory. The last part of Ephesians 1:5, when literally translated, is “according to the good pleasure of His will.” In other words, it is the pleasure of God’s will that determines salvation and not the will of the sinner. This is utterly vital to the Gospel of grace alone which demands that salvation is by Christ alone. The Gospel is also “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (1:6). To the degree that the will of the sinner’s so-called ‘free-will’ (and to be free it must be free from grace at least at one point in part of salvation) is involved in salvation, that is the degree that salvation is not to the praise of the glory of His grace. But the text tells us that God predestines and adopts sinners in accordance with His good pleasure and to the praise of the glory of His grace. So the doctrine of ‘free-will’ is opposed to the pleasure of God and the glory of His grace. It is opposed to the ultimate reasons that God saves sinners.
While it may sound crazy to say that, let the texts speak for themselves. If sinners are those who work up faith apart from grace (what ‘free-will’ does), then the Gospel is not by grace alone and so it is not to the praise of the glory of His grace. Let the glory of the grace of God be proclaimed and exalted until the end of time, and then let it be adored and worshipped in a fuller way for all eternity. But nothing must get in the way either theoretically or practically in a way that diminishes the grace and glory of God. That is precisely what ‘free-will’ does. God saves because it is according to the good pleasure of His will and not according to the will of the sinner. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace and not to the praise of the choice of the sinner. It is only when a sinner stops any and all works, including the one of the ‘free-will’, and looks to God alone, that salvation is truly by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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