If nature had been left to contrive the way of salvation, it would have rather put it into the hands of saints or angels to sell it, than of Christ who gives it freely, whom therefore it suspects. It would have set up a way to purchase by doing; therefore it abominates the merits of Christ, as the most destructive thing to it. Nature would do anything to be saved rather than go to Christ, or close with Christ. Christ will have nothing, the soul would force something of its own upon Christ. Here is that great controversy. Consider, did you ever yet see the merits of Christ, and the infinite satisfaction made by His death? Did you ever see this when the burden of sin and the wrath of God lay heavy on your conscience? That is grace. The greatness of Christ’s merit is not known but to a poor soul in the greatest distress. Slight convictions will but have slight prizings of Christ’s blood and merits. Thomas Willcox
What an insightful thought it is to think of how nature would work to come up with a way of salvation. But of course selfish man would think of this from two different ways. One, how can man do something to obtain this for himself? Two, how can man profit from this? Willcox thinks of it from the first question, but the second question points to the heart of man as well as men would sell it if they could and so they think that they must do something in order to obtain it. Oh how the freeness of grace and the singularity of grace is beyond the natural man’s way of thinking and doing.
When one reads the statement by Willcox above the system of Roman Catholicism comes to mind, but of course the application is far broader than that as well. Essentially one can think of Roman Catholicism as having salvation for sale. If one has enough money, one can pay to have priests constantly pray and do what they do for souls in purgatory and so they souls who had or families who have enough money can actually get their relatives out of purgatory a lot faster than those without money. One can also give money to the “Church” and receive greater blessings from the priests. But this simply points out how men always want to think that salvation is something that they can buy or do something to obtain.
The freeness of the Gospel of grace alone in Christ despite the ill-merits of sinful men is beyond the selfish nature of man and his way of thinking. Man, in great pride and the power of self-love, has an impossible time (apart from grace) coming to the point of accepting that he can do nothing to obtain righteousness and that all he does is unrighteous in the heavenly accounting system. Man thinks he can do something and that he can make it more likely that he can obtain merits. Men think that by an act of their “free-will” that they can do something to receive this Gospel, but that is part of their sinful heart that is opposed to a Gospel that is free of cost and free of cause as far as they are concerned.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ provides a perfect righteousness free of cost and free of causation within men, but men hate that and wants salvation to be in his own control and wants to do something to control it in some way. The natural man wants something to do and wants to cause and control, but the Gospel of grace alone does not work in that way. The Gospel of grace alone requires men to be turned by grace in order that men would not trust in self or anything that self has done, can do, or will ever do. Nothing good has ever come from the sinful heart of man and will never do so either. The Gospel is all about what Christ has done and will do in the sinful hearts of men.
But the natural man hates grace alone. The natural man will do anything to be saved in his own way or at least where he can do something and have some control of the situation. While some think of man as having free-will and having to do this one small thing, that one small thing is really man retaining control of the situation in his own mind and putting the grace of God at the disposal of his own will. But Christ will only give grace as He pleases and as such man’s free-will is at war with the grace of God over who will dispense grace at his or His pleasure.
The hearts of people must be examined so man will see what s/he is really trusting in. It is so easy to use the language of grace in a way that overlooks the sinful and selfish heart of man who will fight to the death with tenacity to retain some control and some sufficiency in the matter of salvation. Man will do everything in order to avoid doing nothing. Man will fight with great tenacity in order to avoid resting in Christ alone. Man will do one work or many in order to avoid grace alone. How the heart should be examined to see what is in our own hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
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