Again: If God promised grace before the law, as Paul argues here and in Galatians, then it does not come by works or by law, else the promise would come to nothing; and faith also (by which Abraham was justified before the law was given) would come to nothing, should works avail. (Luther, Bondage of the Will )
The human soul can never be free to choose a third option. Souls are declared just by God on the basis of grace alone or by the law. Some try to intermingle those, but a grace that comes by law is not grace at all. This leaves all people with only two ways of salvation. It is either by grace alone or works to some degree, though Scripture is quite clear that if you want to have one work in salvation then you are obligated to keep the whole law. But the Gospel is about God’s promise to save and it is wholly based on His promise and so it all depends on grace alone. This is so important to keep in mind, for as Galatians 2:21 puts it, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” If the Gospel has one work which means one act of a ‘free-will’ that participates, then the grace of God is nullified and righteousness comes in a way that is not according to Christ alone and grace alone.
Again, this is so vital. God promised grace before He gave the law. This shows that the promise of God does not depend on the Law, but instead the fulfilling of the Law depends on His promise. God declares sinners just based on Christ alone and they are declared just totally and only because of Christ. Jesus Christ went to the cross because of the promise of God and not because sinners kept the Law in any way, but rather because they had broken the Law in all ways. Many people agree with what Christ has done on the cross and agree that there is no way for God’s justice for one sin or all sins to be satisfied other than by Christ. But how does a person obtain the righteousness needed to be declared righteous? The text above (Gal 2:21) says that “if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” In other words, the righteousness that a sinner needs does not come by the sinner keeping the Law, but instead that righteousness comes by Christ alone.
The point seems to be rather clear. God promised that He would justify sinners, but to do so He had to do two things. One, He had to take the sins of sinners away in a just way so that He could be both just and the Justifier of the one that has Christ (Rom 3:26). Two, He had to give a perfect righteousness to sinners in a just way or as a holy God of perfect truth He could not declare them just. But both the taking away the sins of sinners and granting to them a perfect righteousness is based on His promise rather than the sinner keeping of fulfilling the Law. If the salvation of the sinner depends on the sinner’s ‘free-will’ at any point, then salvation is not completely and totally of grace and of promise.
Abraham was declared just through faith before the Law was given and Galatians shows that all sinners that are declared just in the eyes of God are declared just based on grace rather than the Law. Abraham stands against all who would teach that sinners are justified by anything they do. He was justified through faith apart from any work of the Law at all because the Law was not given until close to 500 years later. Abraham looked to the promise of God alone and apart from the Law and He was declared just. All sinners must look to the promise of God alone apart from the Law as well. Looking to the promise of God alone is not looking to the ‘free-will’ to make a choice, but instead it is looking to God for new life. When the sinner is declared just by God, the sinner has Christ as his or her life and now has Christ as his or her life. When Christ is the life of the sinner, Christ is the true vine for that sinner and as such all righteousness continues to come from Christ.
The soul of each sinner either looks to Christ alone or to self alone or to Christ plus some degree of self. When a sinner looks to the ‘free-will’ to do something that is free from grace, that sinner is looking to a work of the flesh to do something in order to obtain something from God. But the only way to obtain grace from God is for God to decide to show grace and for it to come by promise rather than by anything that the sinner can do. The Law came in to increase the transgression, as Romans 5:20 teaches: “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase.” The Law was never given as a way of justification or as something to have any part of justification. The will was never given as a way to keep the Law in order to obtain any part of justification either. The whole Gospel depends on one thing and one thing alone and that is on God Himself and His promise of grace. The Gospel of grace alone is so glorious and so beautiful and must not be tarnished by adding an act of the will to it.
God Loves... Himself 
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