God can save us only by His own power, for His glory, merely in a way of grace and favor, solely by Christ, to the end we may love, adore, and praise Him; and yet the wish and will of man, notwithstanding the peculiar discoveries of the Christian religion, and the fullest conviction of infinite defect, is to be independent and self-saved. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
The fact that man can look at the freeness (without causation of any contribution by the man) of the Gospel of grace alone and still be obstinate in wanting to contribute something to his own salvation demonstrates the great evil of sin. The great evil of sin is not just that man violates a command of God, but that man lives independently of the goodness and will of God. The great evil of sin is seen in that man chooses what he says is good or evil for himself. The fact that man will not have God save man by grace alone and according to His glory shows that man is at enmity with the self-sufficiency of God who also does all things for His own glory.
It is true that many men will change some outward behaviors if they think they need to in order to be saved, though many will say that they are saved by faith alone and that their change in behavior simply reflects that. But the deceitful heart will deceive most at this point. The heart of man wants to contribute something at some point and in some way. The heart of man longs to be independent in some way in order not to be totally dependent. The heart of man longs to save himself in some way, but if it sees that is not possible it will settle for helping just a little in the matter. But what the heart will not settle for (apart from omnipotent grace) is to be completely dependent on God for all things regarding salvation.
Other things that the heart will deceive man about are the means of grace. Man wants to be able to read and study the Bible while depending upon his own intellect to understand, but that is once again a huge mistake. Apart from the Spirit enlightening the mind of man there will be no spiritual understanding at all. It is only to the degree that man is broken from self and utterly depends upon the Lord for grace to understand that a person will understand the Scriptures in truth. Regardless of how smart a person is or how academically accomplished a person is, apart from depending on the Spirit to enlighten the mind a person will be in spiritual darkness.
Men want to depend upon their own minds and wills to pray, but once again this is something that man cannot do apart from grace. How can a man who is flesh pray according to the Spirit apart from the work of the Holy Spirit? How can a man who is flesh love God with his own strength and power apart from the grace of God in working this in the heart of man? Prayer is not a work that man does, but instead prayer is a work of grace in the heart of man giving man the desires to pray as well as the content of prayer.
The heart of man is so wicked and absorbed with self in love and pride that it is blind to what it is actually doing in the realm of the Gospel and of the means of grace. Even the term “means of grace” is often twisted a little to the point where people think that God is obligate to give grace if people perform the means, but this is a great, great mistake that will bring men into bondage. The grace of God depends on God as the source and as the motive. The living and true God is never brought under obligation to the creature to show grace to the creature. At the point that God would be brought under obligation then grace becomes no longer grace.
God shows grace to the glory of His great name and He does not show it to the worthy, the independent, and to those who want to be self-saved at any point and to any degree. God will have mercy on whom He will show mercy and He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Instead of striving to maintain some degree of independency from God, men should seek the Lord for their hearts to be broken from such a horrible pride. Men fight to the death to maintain their illusion of free-will while indeed that is nothing but another concept for men to be independent of God and to save themselves in part. Until the wicked hearts of men are broken from their pride of independence and the gospel of self-salvation in part of whole, the heart of man will not love grace alone and Christ alone. It is really that simple and that plain.
God Loves... Himself 
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