God Loves… Himself

Moreover, if Paul were not understood to affirm lack of potency, his argument would be without force; for Paul’s whole aim is to make grace necessary to all men, and if they could initiate something by themselves, they would not need grace. As it is, however, they need grace, just because they cannot do this….’Because of transgressions,’ he says; not, indeed, to restrain them, as Jerome dreams, for Paul is arguing that the removing and restraining of sins by the gift of righteousness was promised to the seed that was to come; but to increase transgressions, as he says in Rom. 5: ‘The law entered, that sin might abound’ (v. 20). But that sins were not committed in abundance without the law; but then they were not known to be transgressions and sins of such awful import, and the most and greatest of them were held to be righteousness! As long as sins are unknown, there is no room for a cure, and no hope of one; for sins that think they betoken health and need no physician will not endure the healer’s hand. The law is therefore necessary to give knowledge of sin, so that proud man, who thought he was whole, may be humbled by the discovery of his own great wickedness, and sigh and pant after the grace that is set forth in Christ.   (Luther, Bondage of the Will)

Jesus Christ is the Physician of souls and He tells us that those who don’t think they are sick will not come to Him. Christ came for sinners and not the righteous. It is so easy for people to smile to themselves because they know that they are sinners and so they think they are fine. They know that they cannot save themselves and so they ask Jesus to save them. The problem, however, is that they ask Jesus to save them from wrath and not from sin. Oh, perhaps some want to be saved from some bad habits or inconvenient sins, but they only want to be saved from the sins they want to be saved from. But Jesus saves sinners who want to be saved from the guilt of sin and from sin itself. He saves sinners who see that they are the worst of sinners and need new hearts. Jesus saves sinners who have become so sick of sin that they are ready to suffer whatever it takes to be rid of that vile thing that lives in their hearts. Jesus saves sinners who are like little children and know that they need to be turned by Him. Jesus saves sinners who are tired of their own pride and pitiful works. Jesus saves sinners who are tired of trusting in their own righteousness and see that their best of works is as filthy rags. Jesus saves sinners who are contrite and broken in heart. Jesus saves sinners who are so tired of their own hearts that they stop defending themselves. Jesus saves sinners who pant after the grace of God in Christ. Jesus saves sinners who want nothing but grace alone.

So many today think that a prayer or a tear is enough. They think that as long as they have admitted that they are sinners that they have confessed enough. They think that as long as they have shed a tear or prayed a prayer that they have done enough. What they don’t see is that God requires a heart that is His in all ways. What they don’t see is that Christ will save from all sin or none at all. A sinner that truly wants to be saved by grace is one that gives up all rights to self and all rights to sin. A sinner that truly wants indwelling grace desires for grace to deliver from the bondage and power of sin.

Wanting to be saved from the sins we want to be saved from is not an honest way to deal with the heart and is not a desire to be saved from sin. In fact, if the heart of sin is self and pride, wanting to be saved from some sin and not all sin is simply self wanting to be rid of some inconveniences for self. Jesus as Physician is not satisfied to just deal with things that are comfortable, He will deal with the real issues and the real sins of the heart. Jesus will deal with the things of self and work a true repentance in the heart of the sinner that is dead in sin. As long as sinners don’t want to be delivered from sins and transgressions, they don’t really want to be delivered from sin into the kingdom of grace. The Law reveals what is sin from God’s viewpoint which is precisely what man needs. As long as human beings are without the Law and without the Spirit’s work using the Law, they will not understand the true nature of sin and therefore of repentance and grace.

When sinners see parts of themselves that are not sinful or are whole, they will resist the hand of the Healer in those areas. This shows the utter paucity of evangelism today in that people think of Jesus as One who helps them some, but not as One who must utterly start with less than nothing. A sinner needing some help is not the same as a sinner who is dead in sins and trespasses and who sees that s/he has no ability to come to Christ or believe in Christ. Christ as Healer must make the sinner alive and He must bring the sinner to Himself in order that the sinner can come to the Father. When the sinfulness of sin is not made clear to the sinner, the sinner will not see the utter need and power of grace. When the sinfulness of sin and its power over the soul is not preached so that the sinner does not see his or her inability, the Law is not been preached and the power of Christ is not either.

Moreover, if Paul were not understood to affirm lack of potency, his argument would be without force; for Paul’s whole aim is to make grace necessary to all men, and if they could initiate something by themselves, they would not need grace. As it is, however, they need grace, just because they cannot do this….’Because of transgressions,’ he says; not, indeed, to restrain them, as Jerome dreams, for Paul is arguing that the removing and restraining of sins by the gift of righteousness was promised to the seed that was to come; but to increase transgressions, as he says in Rom. 5: ‘The law entered, that sin might abound’ (v. 20). But that sins were not committed in abundance without the law; but then they were not known to be transgressions and sins of such awful import, and the most and greatest of them were held to be righteousness! As long as sins are unknown, there is no room for a cure, and no hope of one; for sins that think they betoken health and need no physician will not endure the healer’s hand. The law is therefore necessary to give knowledge of sin, so that proud man, who thought he was whole, may be humbled by the discovery of his own great wickedness, and sigh and pant after the grace that is set forth in Christ.   (Luther, Bondage of the Will)

The first part of the quote above was to give some context as to why Luther is operating as he does. Luther is out to shred any hope or confidence that a sinner has in self, the righteousness of self, or the will of self in order to show sinners their need of grace, and not just some grace but all of grace. Sinners need to know that they cannot do something of themselves and that they are in utter need of grace. The reason for the way Luther is arguing, then, is to increase the gravity of sin (in the mind of the sinner, not in reality) and the helplessness of man so that sinners will see the utter necessity of grace and of the glory and power of grace. In the modern day it is almost universal that God is thought to respond to what man does, but that destroys (not in reality) the biblical teaching of God as sovereign and therefore of true grace. As long as man is thought to be the one that initiates, man does not need grace (biblical grace). Human beings need grace precisely because they cannot do something. It is grace that comes to man who hates true grace and does not want it. It is grace that begins to work on that heart so that man will see his great need of it and desire the benefits of it even though he still hates grace in truth.

The law, then, came to increase transgressions. It did not come to increase sin because sin is good, but in order that sinners would see and feel their helplessness and then their need of grace. As Luther points out, it was not that people were not committing the sins already, but apart from the Law they did not see them in terms of the number of sins nor the greatness of each sin. The Law, though it stands against sinners and all who sin against the Law are cursed by the Law, is actually a great benefit to those who come to bow before the dictates of the Law and see their helplessness and utter need of grace. Apart from the Law no one would see the true depths of his or her sin. Though it is true that nature alone renders human souls without excuse, but apart from the Law no one will be broken and be helpless before God, which is to say, they will not be led by this tutor to Christ. Apart from the Law no one will see the need to be saved from beginning to end by grace alone.

Instead of showing that God commands and therefore men must have ability to obey the Law, this line of thinking actually goes in the other direction. The Law shows that men don’t have the ability to obey the Law and therefore need Christ alone. The Law shows man that he needs grace alone rather than grace plus something man can give. Until the Law has slain man in his own eyes and he sees his own helplessness, he is like the sick person that thinks he is healthy. He will not want anything to do with the physician and will not listen to the words of the physician until he accepts the fact that he is sick. As long as the person thinks that he has enough health to do what it takes to remain healthy that person will not seek out a true physician. As long as the person thinks that he has enough health to take care of himself (such as an act of the healthy will) he will not seek the physician and will remain proud and secure in his own eyes. But once the light of the Law is let in and the sinner sees his dire condition and utter need of the great Physician, that sinner will seek Christ and will not trust in his own diseased will.

The Law, in one sense, can be compared to a machine that looks inside the person (so to speak). The person can see his or her own diseased organs and with horror know that must befall him. That is the person that will then give up all hope in self and the efforts of self. Woe to those who have ministers who will not preach the Law in order that sinners may see their great deadness of heart. Woe to those who will not behold their own hearts in the mirror of the Law. They will continue on with a dreadful and terminal disease without knowing about it. They will continue on thinking that they have enough health to just make a decision and all will be well. How deceived they really are as they continue to look to themselves to look to Christ rather than looking to Christ alone.

Here is the solution of the question with the Diatribe repeats so often all though the book: ‘if we can do nothing, what is the purpose of all the laws, precepts, threats, and promises?’ Paul here gives the answer; ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ His answer to the question is far different from the ideas of man, or of ‘free-will.’ He does not say that ‘free-will’ is proved by the law, nor that it co-operates unto righteousness; for by the law comes, not righteousness, but knowledge of sin. This is the fruit, the work, the office of the law; it is a light to the ignorant and blind, but one that displays disease, sin, evil, death, hell and the wrath of God. It does not help nor set them free from these things; it is content merely to point them out. When a man discovers the sickness of sin, he is cast down and afflicted; nay, he despairs. The law does not help him; much less can he heal himself. Another light is needed to reveal a remedy. This is the voice of the gospel, which displays Christ as the deliverer from all these evil things. But neither reason nor ‘free-will’ points to Him; how could reason point to Him, when it is itself darkness and needs the light of the law to show it its own sickness, which by its own light it fails to see, and thinks is sound health? (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

The Law does not provide the sinner any help or any hope of help. The Law does not give a person one hint of a way s/he can help him or herself. The Law is to provide light, but it is a light that shines on dark hearts and souls. It is a light that shows the soul its sin, its lack of righteousness, and the judgment of God upon it. The Law offers no help to the sinner and does not give any way for the sinner to heal himself or to help heal himself. The Law does not point to an ability or power of the ‘free-will’ in the sinner because the Law offers nothing but condemnation to the sinner. That is what Paul teaches.

The purpose of the Law is to point to sin and to show sin and perhaps even to provoke sin in order that human beings can see the nature of sin and of their own inability. When the Law brings the sinner to an end of all hope in self, the Law shows the great need of a true Savior. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what saves the sinner. The Gospel is the power of God to save (Rom 1:16) and that is what the sinner must have if the Law has done its work to show that the sinner has no power of self to save at all. The soul that thinks it can be saved by one or by many works is not a soul that is saved by grace alone (Rom 11:6). One drop of poison will spoil a glass of water and it is no longer a glass of pure water. One work of the will (‘free-will’) spoils a pure grace and makes pure grace to be something less than grace alone which makes it no grace at all.

The Law is not given at any point or for any purpose to show man that his will is free and that he has some ability to obey the Law. Rather, it is to show man that he has no ability to obey the Law and thus his will is not free to obey it. This shows man that the Gospel is what he really needs. This shows man that Christ alone can set man free from the bondage of sin and Christ alone can live in the soul to give it true life. If the Law shows man that he has the ability to do something that is righteous, “then Christ died needlessly” (Gal 2:21). The ramifications of teaching ‘free-will’ are actually quite enormous. If it is taught that man has some little ability (as Erasmus did and the teaching of ‘free-will’ cannot escape), then one must assert that there is one thing man can do that is righteous and can obtain righteousness. If it is taught that God gives sinners commands to keep and that means that they must have the power to keep them, then that also teaches that man can obtain some righteousness by the Law. It is inescapable.

The Law clearly teaches that there is nothing that a sinner can do that is righteous and the Gospel of grace teaches that sinners are saved by grace alone. Both the Law and the Gospel (team up so to speak) teach that sinners have no hope in themselves which includes their so-called ‘free-will.’ As long as a soul trusts in its own will, it has not realized the purpose of the Law and does not understand the true nature of the Gospel of grace alone. The purpose of the Law is meant to drive a person to the very end of self and all hope in self so that the soul despairs of self. The purpose of the Gospel of grace alone is to shine forth the beauty of the grace of God so that the soul will hope only in grace. In other words, God saves to the glory of His grace and those who try to depend on their own ‘free-will’ are not depending on grace alone but instead are looking to self to some degree. That looking to self is not in accordance with the Gospel of Christ alone.

Here is the solution of the question with the Diatribe repeats so often all though the book: ‘if we can do nothing, what is the purpose of all the laws, precepts, threats, and promises?’ Paul here gives the answer; ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ His answer to the question is far different from the ideas of man, or of ‘free-will.’ He does not say that ‘free-will’ is proved by the law, nor that it co-operates unto righteousness; for by the law comes, not righteousness, but knowledge of sin. This is the fruit, the work, the office of the law; it is a light to the ignorant and blind, but one that displays disease, sin, evil, death, hell and the wrath of God. It does not help nor set them free from these things; it is content merely to point them out. When a man discovers the sickness of sin, he is cast down and afflicted; nay, he despairs. The law does not help him; much less can he heal himself. Another light is needed to reveal a remedy. This is the voice of the gospel, which displays Christ as the deliverer from all these evil things. But neither reason nor ‘free-will’ points to Him; how could reason point to Him, when it is itself darkness and needs the light of the law to show it its own sickness, which by its own light it fails to see, and thinks is sound health? (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

The reason that God gives the law is to give the knowledge of sin. It is not to show people how to obtain salvation in any way, and it is not to show people their ability to keep the Law or to make a choice. Those who depend on ‘free-will’ made a deduction, but it is not a deduction that is taught in Scripture. The Scriptures teach us with a great deal of clarity why the Law was given. Galatians 3:19-24 is very clear and specific on this issue:

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

The question flows from the context of how salvation is based on the promise of God. Scripture gives us the question of why the Law and then tells us why it was given: “It was added because of transgressions” or “for the reason” of transgressions. What is the reason for transgressions? The Law was added to show what sin is and to shut people up under sin. The Law is the handmaiden of the promises of the Gospel of grace. We see that the Law is not contrary to the promises that God has given (v. 21). We see that the Law cannot give life (v. 22). The Law shuts up everyone under sin (v. 22). The Law shuts up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus might be given to those who believe (v. 22). The Law shuts souls up to faith (v. 23). The Law is a tutor to lead people to Christ so that they may be justified by faith.

There is nothing in these verses that would indicate that the Law was given because people have ‘free-will’ or because they have any power at all to do what it takes to be saved. The promises of God come by grace alone, and yet the Law that was given by God is not contrary to grace in the final analysis. The Law is contrary to grace alone if the soul has the ability to keep it, but it is not contrary to grace alone if the Law shows people that they cannot keep the Law and drives them to see that they must be saved apart from their ability and strength. Since the Law cannot give life, it points to Christ who is Life and can give life. But the Law does not point to the ‘free-will’ as having any power to obtain Christ so that it may have life. The Law shuts people up under sin, but it does not just partially shut them up leaving room for a ‘free-will.” The Law does not shut people up to mostly Christ and a little bit of ‘free-will’ that can do one thing to help in salvation, but it leaves people totally helpless and teaches them that Christ must do it all. The Law teaches people that they can do nothing so that they can be led to Christ alone to be justified by grace alone through faith alone.

These passages of Scripture are very clear. There is no room for ‘free-will’ in these passages. The Law was given to show people the utter necessity of Christ alone and not for the necessity of the ‘free-will’ to do something that Christ did not and does not do. In fact, rather than the Law demanding that we must have ‘free-will,’ it demands that we don’t have it. It leaves us totally in the hands of Christ and His grace, not in the hands of ‘free-will.’

Here is the solution of the question with the Diatribe repeats so often all though the book: ‘if we can do nothing, what is the purpose of all the laws, precepts, threats, and promises?’ Paul here gives the answer; ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ His answer to the question is far different from the ideas of man, or of ‘free-will.’ He does not say that ‘free-will’ is proved by the law, nor that it co-operates unto righteousness; for by the law comes, not righteousness, but knowledge of sin. This is the fruit, the work, the office of the law; it is a light to the ignorant and blind, but one that displays disease, sin, evil, death, hell and the wrath of God. It does not help nor set them free from these things; it is content merely to point them out. When a man discovers the sickness of sin, he is cast down and afflicted; nay, he despairs. The law does not help him; much less can he heal himself. Another light is needed to reveal a remedy. This is the voice of the gospel, which displays Christ as the deliverer from all these evil things. But neither reason nor ‘free-will’ points to Him; how could reason point to Him, when it is itself darkness and needs the light of the law to show it its own sickness, which by its own light it fails to see, and thinks is sound health? (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

At the risk of sounding redundant, this is another passage of Scripture that Luther opens up and sets before our eyes in a way that is so powerful. It is hard to imagine how anyone could possibly argue for ‘free-will’ after reading even this section by Luther, and it is also quite hard to see how anyone could not see the great danger of not standing against those who teach the pernicious doctrine of ‘free-will.’ It is so common for people to say that God would not command those who cannot do what He commands. They ask why He commands people to do things that they cannot do. So they convince themselves that since God commands them to do certain things that they must have the power of ‘free-will’ in order to obey.

Luther simply explodes that idea. In the words of a more modern writer (B.B Warfield), God commands us to show us what we ought to do and not what we can do. Paul tells us that ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ In other words, God commands us to do certain things in order that we could come to know our sin. If God commanded human beings to do certain things in order that they could do them from their own ability, then that would contradict the words of Paul in Scripture. The purpose of the law is not to show men that they have the ability to do what is commanded, but to show them their sin and that they cannot do what is commanded. The commands of God do not prove ‘free-will’ in the slightest, but in fact condemns it quite clearly.

Once again we can see the great danger to souls that the teaching of ‘free-will’ brings. In effect it teaches men the opposite of what the law teaches and so it teaches them the exact opposite of what Paul teaches about the purpose of the law. The soul that listens to human reason rather than the Word of God on this matter will be brought low and it will be seen that it is trusting in a false gospel. If the law teaches ‘free-will’ in the sense that it teaches men what they can do, then the law does not teach men the full nature of their sin. But if men do not see the real nature of their sin and their bondage to it, they will not see the nature of the Gospel of free and sovereign grace that is found in Jesus Christ alone. If we teach in such a way where the law is seen to teach men that they have ‘free-will,’ then we cannot teach the pure doctrines of the helpless of man in utter need of grace and grace alone to save.

If the law teaches men in such a way that they see that they have ‘free-will,’ then instead of “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” we would have “by the law is the knowledge of some righteousness in man.” The teaching of ‘free-will’ leaves a man with some righteousness in his soul or his soul could not be free at some point and in some way. We cannot have it both ways. Either the law is given to give the knowledge of sin or it is given to reveal some sin and yet the ‘free-will’ of human souls. But since the law is quite clearly given to give the knowledge of sin, teaching the ‘free-will’ of human beings is not just a little wrong, but it is at best dangerously wrong. The law comes in to show sinners their desperate state and then the glory of grace in the Gospel. But when free-willers deny that the law shows sinners their truly desperate state and instead that it shows them that they have a little island of righteousness (‘free-will), this is a denial of the Scripture, what the Scripture teaches about depravity, but also what the Scripture teaches about the Gospel of grace alone. While so many “Reformed” men in the modern day think that it is gracious to call Pelagians and Arminians “brothers” and say that they teach the same Gospel as the Reformed do, this simply cannot be. The Gospel of grace alone cannot at the same time be of grace and ‘free-will.’ They may speak of the same Jesus in a sense, but this is not the same Gospel. We must be awakened!

‘By the law is the knowledge of sin,’ says Paul (Rom. 3:20). Here he shows how much and how far the law profits, teaching that ‘free-will’ is of itself so blind that it does not even know what sin is, but needs the law to teach it! And what can a man essay to do in order to take away sin, when he does not know what sin is? Surely this; mistake what is sin for what is not sin, and what is not sin for what is sin! Experience informs us clearly enough how the world, in the person of those whom it accounts its best and most zealous devotees if righteousness and godliness, hates and hounds down the righteousness of God preached in the gospel, and brands it heresy, error, and other opprobrious names, while flaunting and hawking its own works and devices (which are really sin and error) as righteousness and wisdom. By these words, therefore, Paul stops the mouth of ‘free-will’, teaching that by the law it is shown sin, as being ignorant of its sin; so far is he from allowing it any power to make endeavors towards good (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

The will of man is so blind that it does not know what sin is. Can the will of fallen man know what it means to repent and believe in its fallen and blind state? The will cannot know that and indeed must have the teaching of Scripture to set it out and declare it. The will of man is dark and must have the light to shine and teach it about itself and what repentance and faith truly are (is?). If we are taught by Scripture what it means to be dead in sins and trespasses, then we will know that a dead person does not have a ‘free-will.’ If we are taught by the Spirit the inward truth of what it means to be dead in sins and trespasses, then we will know that we have no power in and of ourselves to change our own hearts so that we can repent and believe.

The power to repent and believe is assuredly beyond the power of sinful man. Human souls are completely and totally in the hand of God and He must give the soul the power of life to repent and believe. But does the soul that is in darkness know that? No, when the soul that is dead in sin hears the command to repent and believe, it just assumes the Pelagian doctrine that it must have the power to do so. In other words, the human soul is in such darkness that it does not know what true repentance and faith are. It does not know its own state in death and what it would take for it to repent and believe. What is the great danger of not instructing souls about this truth?

Jonathan Edwards tells us the danger by saying this: “If you imagine that you have it in your own power to work yourselves up to repentance, consider, that you must assuredly give up that imagination before you can have repentance wrought in you” (Seeking God, International Outreach). Luther instructs us that the soul does not even know what sin is until it is instructed by the law. This tells us that until a soul knows what sin really is and the depths of its own sin and inability, then it needs to hear more of the law. Not only hear more of the law, but hear more of the law teach it of its own inability. Until a soul has reached the point of knowing that it cannot work its own repentance, it has not reached the point of looking to grace alone to work this in it.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

In the text above there is no hint of the ability of man, any light in man, or any ‘free-will’ in man. There is nothing but the mercy, love, grace, life, and power of God. In verses 1-3 of Ephesians 2 we see that man is dead in sins and trespasses and is under the power of the lusts of the mind and of the flesh. But starting in verse 4 it all becomes about God and what He does. God takes the dead sinners and makes them alive. It is not about the sinners ‘free-will,’ but instead it is about God’s rich mercy and great love. It is God who raises sinners from the dead and seats them with Christ. Again, we don’t see even a hint of the ability of man or of the ‘free-will’ of man. It is God that does this in order to show the riches of His grace, and yet not a word of the worth or ability of man. Is it because man works up faith so that God will do this? No, this faith itself is a gift of God. Salvation is by grace alone and not one shred of it (even the smallest of shreds) is by the will or merit of man. The Gospel is that of a God who makes sinners alive by grace, and so we must teach sinners not to trust in their own wills. It is grace alone.

‘By the law is the knowledge of sin,’ says Paul (Rom. 3:20). Here he shows how much and how far the law profits, teaching that ‘free-will’ is of itself so blind that it does not even know what sin is, but needs to law to teach it! And what can a man essay to do in order to take away sin, when he does not know what sin is? Surely this; mistake what is sin for what is not sin, and what is not sin for what is sin! Experience informs us clearly enough how the world, in the person of those whom it accounts its best and most zealous devotees if righteousness and godliness, hates and hounds down the righteousness of God preached in the gospel, and brands it heresy, error, and other opprobrious names, while flaunting and hawking its own works and devices (which are really sin and error) as righteousness and wisdom. By these words, therefore, Paul stops the mouth of ‘free-will’, teaching that by the law it is shown sin, as being ignorant of its sin; so far is he from allowing it any power to make endeavors towards good (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

Luther drives a point home that is really another stake against those who adhere to ‘free-will’ and the gospel that depends on it. It should be pointed out that Luther drives this point home not only to those who adhere to ‘free-will’ but also those that do not fight against it. The doctrine or teaching of ‘free-will’ stands opposed to Paul and what he taught about the law, sin, and the Gospel. The will is not free from the law in its need to be taught what sin is. The will must be taught what is sin and so it is blind to the nature of sin. The will must also, then, listen to what the Bible teaches on the bondage of the will. If the will thinks it is free to keep the law or to make a choice in terms of salvation, then it must be free enough to make choices so that it can keep the law. How, then, can the will that must be taught by the law what sin really is, actually strive toward keeping the law in its own freedom?

The teaching of ‘free-will’ is simply opposed to what the Bible says about the extent of sin. It (’free-will’) wants to be free to determine what is good and evil (following the lie of the Serpent to Eve) and so it wants the freedom of ability to do what it thinks is good and evil. The will that thinks it is free, therefore, is deluded and deceived. The will that thinks it is free is blind to the true nature of sin and the bondage of that sin and is blind to the true glory of the grace of God. The will that thinks it is free is deceived at that point and those who will not try to instruct them are not trying to lead people out of the bondage of their sin and instruct them in the way of true grace.

Thomas Watson wrote to this point: “Examination of a man’s self is difficult because of self-love. As ignorance blinds, so self-love flatters. Every man is ready to think the best of himself. What Solomon says of love to our neighbor is most true of self-love; it hides a multitude of evil (Prov. 10:12). A man looking upon himself in Philautae speculo, in the mirror of self-love, shall think his virtues appear greater than they are and his sins lesser. Self-love makes one rather excuse what is amiss than examine it” (Heaven Taken by Storm). A soul that is dead in its sin of pride and self-love wants to delude itself regarding its own ability and power of the will. It thinks and feels that it is free, and so it will fight to the death to stand for its freedom. But Scripture tells us that the soul is not free to determine what sin is and is not free to obtain good at any point on its own. It is delusional to think it does.

Richard Baxter tells us that “A proud heart hath so little experimental sense of the great accusations which Scripture bringeth against the corrupted heart of man, that it is easily drawn into any heresy which denieth them: as about our original sin, and misery, and need of a Saviour; about the desperate wickedness of the heart, and man’s insufficiency and impotency to good, yea, averseness from it” (Baxter’s Practical Works, Vol 1). Why are so many people who claim to be Reformed so reticent to stand and preach the depravity of man as the Bible sets it out? Unless we preach the bondage of the will we cannot teach the sovereignty of grace. Unless we stand against the freedom of the will we cannot stand for the doctrines of grace in reality.

Jonathan Edwards put it this way: “If you imagine that you have it in your own power to work yourselves up to repentance, consider, that you must assuredly give up that imagination before you can have repentance wrought in you” (Seeking God, International Outreach). As long as a person thinks of self as having the power of a ‘free-will’ (choice and ability) to repent and believe; Edwards teaches us that the person cannot have true repentance and true faith worked in him or her. This is not just some metaphysical nicety, this is vital to the Gospel. If we are to instruct souls as to the nature of sin and of how to be truly delivered from that bondage, we must teach them in such a way as to drive them from all hope in themselves and that includes the teaching of ‘free-will.’ The Gospel of grace alone is at stake in this issue. But if true, the Gospel of grace alone is not being preached very much today.

‘By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight’ (Rom. 3:20)….Had he said, the Jewish people, or the Pharisees, or certain ungodly persons, he might have appeared to be leaving out some who by the power of ‘free-will,’ and by the help of the law, were not altogether unprofitable. But when he condemns the very works of the law, and makes them ungodly in God’s sight, it becomes clear that he is condemning all that were mighty in zeal for the works of the law. And none were zealous for the works of the law but the best and most excellent men, and that only with their best and most excellent faculties, that is, their reason and their will. If, then, those who exercised themselves in the works of the law with the highest zeal and endeavour of reason and will, that is, with all the power of ‘free-will,’ and had the help of the wlaw as a God-given aid, instructing and spurring them on—if they are condemned for ungodliness, as not being hereby justified, and are declared to be ‘flesh’ in God’s sight, what then is left in the entire human race which is not ‘flesh’ and ungodly? For all who are of the works of the law are condemned alike. It makes no difference whether they exercised themselves in the law with the highest zeal, or with lukewarm zeal, or with not at all. They all could perform only works of the law; and works of the law do not justify; and if they do not justify, they prove that those who work them to be ungodly and merit the wrath of God! These things are so clear that none can whisper a word against them (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

The Reformation was in one sense a battle over authority, the nature of God, the nature of man, and the Gospel. In the doctrine of the will all four of these teachings are involved. What authority will the soul listen to over how much power the human will has or does not have? Will the soul listen to Scripture or to its own pride that screams out that God does not rule over it? Will the soul listen to the character of God rather than its own pride? Will the soul listen to the Gospel of grace alone or instead listen to the voices of its pride and of fallen philosophy? How does the soul view itself and what Scripture says about it? What the heart of the Reformation was over is still the heart of the problem in churches today. It is constantly the battle with what authority, the nature of God, the nature of man, and the Gospel.

The four issues listed above can in one sense be boiled down to two. It has to do with the nature of God and the nature of man. It is the pride of man that fights against the authority of the Word of God. It is the pride of man that wants God to be less than sovereign. It is the pride of man that wants the nature of man to be less depraved. It is the pride of man that wants a Gospel that depends on some little something (at least) of what man can do. The proud heart hates the Gospel of grace alone because proud man cannot control that in the slightest. In Scripture and in life we can see the battle of the gods (the true God versus proud souls) all day and every day.

Even among those who profess to be Reformed in the modern day there is a great hesitancy to bow in submission to a truly sovereign God and admit that man can do nothing (good or spiritual) apart from Christ. While the confessions speak of the obligation of man, now we want to allow for human responsibility. If the word “responsibility” is used as a synonym for “obligation,” then there is no problem. But too often a Pelagian can use the word “responsibility” and Reformed people will agree. There is no room for human ability to fit along with grace in the Gospel and regardless of a person’s theological title (Reformed or…) no room for human ability should be allowed. When Scripture speaks of no flesh being justified in His sight by the works of the law (as in the Luther quote above), it is making an enormous statement. All the acts (even the very best) of human souls, that is, the best acts of the mind, affections, will, are worthless in terms of justification. In other words, the soul (including the will) has no power at all to keep the Law in a way that saves or partially saves.

The only thing that a soul can do that does not have the grace of God is keep the law. But keeping the law does not save fully or in part. The law has no power to save and the soul has no power to keep the law if Christ Himself is not the life of that soul. The will is not free to make the law a way to be saved or a partial way to be saved. The will is not free to keep the law in order to make it possible to do anything toward saving itself. The will is not free to be saved by grace alone and yet have a small or large part in that salvation. The will is not free to do one good thing or one partially good thing apart from grace in the soul. When Jesus said in John 15:5 that “apart from Me you can do nothing,” He meant it. The will is not free to do one good thing apart from the grace that flows from the throne of God through Christ to His people. If anyone teaches otherwise, that person teaches a false Gospel contrary to the authority of Scripture, the nature of God, the nature of man, and the Gospel.

‘By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight’ (Rom. 3:20)….Had he said, the Jewish people, or the Pharisees, or certain ungodly persons, he might have appeared to be leaving out some who by the power of ‘free-will,’ and by the help of the law, were not altogether unprofitable. But when he condemns the very works of the law, and makes them ungodly in God’s sight, it becomes clear that he is condemning all that were mighty in zeal for the works of the law. And none were zealous for the works of the law but the best and most excellent men, and that only with their best and most excellent faculties, that is, their reason and their will. If, then, those who exercised themselves in the works of the law with the highest zeal and endeavour of reason and will, that is, with all the power of ‘free-will,’ and had the help of the wlaw as a God-given aid, instructing and spurring them on—if they are condemned for ungodliness, as not being hereby justified, and are declared to be ‘flesh’ in God’s sight, what then is left in the entire human race which is not ‘flesh’ and ungodly? For all who are of the works of the law are condemned alike. It makes no difference whether they exercised themselves in the law with the highest zeal, or with lukewarm zeal, or with not at all. They all could perform only works of the law; and works of the law do not justify; and if they do not justify, they prove that those who work them to be ungodly and merit the wrath of God! These things are so clear that nonce can whisper a word against them (Luther, Bondage of the Will).

When the Scripture sets out that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight,” it means something. It tells us that the law is utterly powerless to justify a person and Scripture clearly says that the law was not even given for that reason. The law was given in order to make sin known. So if the law was not given in order to justify a person, then why is it that we still think that there is something that a ‘free-will’ can do in salvation? What can the will do that is not in accordance with the law? Doesn’t it follow that if no one can do anything according to the law in order to be justified that there is nothing that a person can do in order to be justified? If the will is not free to justify itself, then what can the will do to partly justify itself or contribute to its justification?

When the Scripture sets out that no one will be justified by the deeds of the law, it is telling us that on person can be justified by the deeds of the law. That is a universal statement and it does not leave any single person out. When the Scripture tells us that no one will be justified by the deeds of the law, it includes all the works of the law as well. Not of deed is left out and not one law is left out. All deeds and all laws are included in the statement. But, as Luther points out, many will think that they are more moral and have a better will than others. But Scripture tells us without equivocation that no one can do this. No one has the power of the will to do this. The law was not given in order that by keeping it men may be justified by it. The will has no power to keep the law and cannot do one deed in accordance with keeping the law.

Sinners are left utterly and totally helpless in utter need of grace and grace alone to save them. When God decides to save a sinner, He does not do so based on what the sinner can do and what the sinner’s will can perform. God needs no one but Himself in order to save sinners. God started off with a dead womb in the case of Sarah and that ended with Abraham and Sarah having Isaac the child of promise. God started off with a virgin with Mary and He needed no help in the conception of Jesus. In much the same way God starts off with sinners who are dead in sins and trespasses, who are by nature children of wrath, and who are in the bondage of sin. God does not need any help and if He did the sinners could not help Him. He is totally sufficient to save by His grace alone and sinners are totally without the slightest shred of sufficiency in themselves.

The Scriptures are constant in the witness to the total sufficiency of God and the total insufficiency of human souls. When the sinner looks to self to be saved, that sinner is not looking to the total sufficiency of God. When the sinner looks to self to just believe in Christ to be saved, the sinner is not looking to Christ alone to be saved. The Gospel of grace alone is virtually unknown in our land today while the gospel of works (whether one work of faith or many works) goes on boldly being proclaimed. Pelagianism is widely taught and Arminianism is as well. Each of those systems looks to self to do something in order to be saved, whether they use that language or not. “Reformed” people will not teach the utter helplessness of man to sinners in need of salvation, so people continue to look to self. Where are those who will drive men to the end of self so that they may look to Christ alone? They are afraid that they will run people off or make some in the denomination angry. So they don’t preach the Gospel.