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Selections from: The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther

Written in response to Erasmus' book FREEDOM OF THE WILL

(iii) Of the importance of knowing what power free will has

It is not irreligious, idle, or superfluous, but in the highest degree
wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know whether or not
his will has anything to do in matters pertaining to salvation.
Indeed, let me tell you, this is the hinge on which our discussion
turns, the crucial issue between us; our aim is, simply, to
investigate what ability free will has, in what respect it is the
subject of Divine action and how it stands related to the grace of
God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing
whatsoever of Christianity, and shall be in worse case than any
people on earth! He who dissents from that statement should
acknowledge that he is no Christian; and he who ridicules or
derides it should realize that he is the Christian's chief foe. For if I
am ignorant in the nature, extent and limits of what I can and must
do with reference to God, I shall be equally ignorant and uncertain
of the nature, extent and limits of what God can and will do in me
- though God, in fact, works all in all [ICor 12:6]. Now, if I am
ignorant of God's works and power, I am ignorant of God himself;
and if I do not know God, I cannot worship, praise, give thanks or
serve Him, for I do not know how much I should attribute to
myself and how much to Him. We need, therefore, to have in
mind a clear-cut distinction between God's power and ours, and
God's work and ours, if we would live a godly life.


(iv) Of the necessitating foreknowledge of God

It is fundamentally necessary and wholesome for Christians to
know that God foreknows nothing contingently, but that He
foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His own
immutable, eternal and infallible will. This bombshell knocks
free-will flat, and utterly shatters it; so that those who want to
assert it must either deny my bombshell, or pretend not to notice it,
or find some other way of dodging it.

Surely it was you, my good Erasmus, who a moment ago asserted
that God is by nature just, and kindness itself? If this is true, does
it not follow that He is immutably just and kind? that, as His nature
remains unchanged to all eternity, so do His justice and kindness?
And what is said of His justice and kindness must be said also of
His knowledge, His wisdom, His goodness, His will, and the other
Divine attributes. But if it is religious, godly and wholesome, to
affirm these things of God, as you do, what has come over you,
that now you should contradict yourself by affirming that it is
irreligious, idle and vain to say that God foreknows by necessity?
You insist that we should learn the immutability of God's will,
while forbidding us to know the immutably of His foreknowledge!
Do you suppose that He does not will what He foreknows, or that
He does not foreknow what He wills? If he wills what He
foreknows, His will is eternal and changeless, because His nature
is so. From which it follows, by resistless logic, that all we do,
however it may appear to us to be done mutably and contingently,
is in reality done necessarily and immutably in respect of God's
will. For the will of God is effective and cannot be impeded, since
power belongs to God's nature; and His wisdom is such that He
cannot be deceived. Since, then His will is not impeded, what is
done cannot but be done where, when, how, as far as, and by
whom, He foresees and wills...

I could wish, indeed, that a better term was available for our
discussion than the accepted one, necessity, which cannot
accurately be used of either man's will or God's. Its meaning is too
harsh, and foreign to the subject; for it suggests some sort of
compulsion, and something that is against one's will, which is no
part of the view under debate. This will, whether it be God's or
man's does what it does, good or bad, under no compulsion, but
just as it wants or pleases, as if totally free. Yet the will of God,
which rules over our mutable will, is changeless and sure - as
Boetius sings, Immovable Thyself, Thou movement giv'st to all;
and our will, principally because of its corruption, can do no good
of itself. The reader's understanding, therefore, must supply what
the word itself fails to convey, from his knowledge of the intended
signification - the immutable will of God on the one hand, and the
impotence of our corrupt will on the other. Some have called it
necessity of immutability, but the phrase is both grammatically and
theologically defective.


(v) Of the importance of knowing that God necessitates all things

I would also point out, not only how true these things are (I shall
discuss that more fully from Scripture on a later page), but also
how godly, reverent and necessary it is to know them. For where
they are not known, there can be no faith, nor any worship of God.
To lack this knowledge is really to be ignorant of God - and
salvation is notoriously incompatible with such ignorance. For if
you hesitate to believe, or are too proud to acknowledge, that God
foreknows and wills all things, not contingently, but necessarily
and immutably, how can you believe, trust and rely on His
promises? When He makes promises, you ought to be out of doubt
that He knows, and can and will perform, what He promises;
otherwise, you will be accounting Him neither true nor faithful,
which is unbelief, and the height of irreverence, and a denial of the
most high God! And how can you be thus sure and certain, unless
you know that certainly, infallibly, immutably and necessarily, He
knows, wills and will perform what He promises? Not only should
we be sure that God wills, and will execute His will, necessarily
and immutably; we should glory in the fact, as Paul does in
Romans 3:4 - Let God be true, but every man a liar, and again, Not
that the word of God has failed [Romans 9:6], and in another
place, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the
Lord knoweth them that are His [IITim 2:19]. In Titus 1:2 he says:
Which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began...

If, then, we are taught and believe that we ought to be ignorant of
the necessary foreknowledge of God and the necessity of events,
Christian faith is utterly destroyed, and the promises of God and
the whole gospel fall to the ground completely; for the Christian's
chief and only comfort in every adversity lies in knowing that God
does not lie, but brings all things to pass immutably, and that His
will cannot be resisted, altered or impeded.


(ix) That a will which has no power without grace is not free

You describe the power of free-will as small, and wholly
ineffective apart from the grace of God. Agreed? Now then, I ask
you: If God's grace is wanting, if it is taken away from that small
power, what can it do? It is ineffective, you say, and can do
nothing good. So it will not do what God or His grace wills.
Why? Because we have now taken God's grace away from it, and
what the grace of God does not do is not good. Hence it follows
that free-will without God's grace is not free at all, but is the
permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn
itself to good. This being so, I give you full permission to enlarge
the power of free-will as much as you like; make it angelic, make
it divine, if you can! - but when you add this doleful postscript,
that it is ineffective apart from God's grace, straightway you rob it
of all its power. What is ineffective power but (in plain language)
no power? So to say that free-will exists and has power, albeit
ineffective power, is, in the Sophists' phrase, a contradiction in
terms. It is like saying 'free-will' is something which is not free -
as if you said that fire is cold and earth hot. Fire certainly has
power to heat; but if hell-fire (even) was cold and chilling instead
of burning and scorching, I would not call it fire, let alone hot
(unless you meant to refer to an imaginary fire, or a painted one).
Note, however, that if we meant by the power of free-will the
power which makes human beings fit subjects to be caught up by
the Spirit and touched by God's grace, as creatures made for
eternal life or eternal death, we should have a proper definition.
And I certainly acknowledge the existence of this power, this
fitness, or dispositional quality and passive aptitude (as the
Sophists call it), which, as everyone knows, is not given to plants
or animals. As the proverb says, God did not make heaven for
geese!

It is a settled truth, then, even on the basis of your own testimony,
that we do everything of necessity, and nothing by free-will; for the
power of free-will is nil, and it does no good, nor can do, without
grace. It follows, therefore, that free-will is obviously a term
applicable only to Divine Majesty; for only He can do, and does
(as the Psalmist sings) whatever he wills in heaven and earth
[Psalms 135:6]. If free-will is ascribed to men, it is ascribed with
no more propriety than divinity itself would be - and no blasphemy
could exceed that! So it befits theologians to refrain from using
the term when they want to speak of human ability, and to leave it
to be applied to God only. They would do well also to take the
term out of men's mouths and speech, and to claim it for their God,
as if it were His own holy and awful Name. If they must at all
hazards assign some power to men, let them teach that it be
denoted by some other term than free-will; especially since we
know from our own observation that the mass of men are sadly
deceived and misled by this phrase. The meaning which it conveys
to their minds is far removed from anything that theologians
believe and discuss. The term free-will is too grandiose and
comprehensive and fulsome. People think it means what the
natural force of the phrase would require, namely, a power of
freely turning in any direction, yielding to none and subject to
none. If they knew that this was not so, and that the term signifies
only a tiny spark of power, and that utterly ineffective in itself,
since it is the devil's prisoner and slave, it would be a wonder if
they did not stone us as mockers and deceivers, who say one thing
and mean another - indeed, who have not yet decided what we do
mean!

Since, therefore, we have lost the meaning and the real reference
of this glorious term, or, rather, have never grasped them (as was
claimed by the Pelagians, who themselves mistook the phrase) why
do we cling so tenaciously to an empty word, and endanger and
delude faithful people in consequence? There is no more wisdom
in so doing then there is in the modern foible of kings and
potentates, who retain, or lay claim to, empty titles of kingdoms
and countries, and flaunt them, while all the time they are really
paupers, and anything but the possessors of those kingdoms and
countries. We can tolerate their antics, for they fool nobody, but
just feed themselves up - unprofitably enough - on their own
vainglory. But this false idea of free-will is a real threat to
salvation, and a delusion fraught with the most perilous
consequences.

If we do not want to drop this term altogether - which would really
be the safest and most Christian thing to do - we may still in good
faith teach people to use it to credit man with free-will in respect,
not of what is above him, but of what is below him. That is to say,
man should realize that in regard to his money and possessions he
has a right to use them, to do or to leave undone, according to his
own free-will - though that very free-will is overruled by the free-
will of God alone, according to His own pleasure. However, with
regard to God, and in all that bears on salvation or damnation, he
has no free-will, but is a captive, prisoner and bondslave, either to
the will of God, or to the will of Satan.


(x) Of God preached and not preached, and of His revealed and
secret will.

As to why some are touched by the law and others not, so that
some receive and others scorn the offer of grace, that is another
question, which Ezekiel does not here discuss. He speaks of the
published offer of God's mercy, not of the dreadful hidden will of
God, Who, according to His own counsel, ordains such persons as
He wills to receive and partake of the mercy preached and offered.
This will is not to be inquired into, but to be reverently adored, as
by far the most awesome secret of the Divine Majesty. He has
kept it to Himself and forbidden us to know it; and it is much more
worthy of reverence than an infinite number of Corycian caverns!

Now, God in His own nature and majesty is to be left alone; in this
regard, we have nothing to do with Him, nor does He wish us to
deal with Him. We have to do with Him as clothed and displayed
in His Word, by which He presents Himself to us. That is His
glory and beauty, in which the Psalmist proclaims Him to be
clothed [Ps. 21:5]. I say that the righteous God does not deplore
the death of His people which He Himself works in them, but He
deplores the death which He finds in His people and desires to
remove from them. God preached works to the end that sin and
death may be taken away, and we may be saved. He sent His word
and healed them [Ps. 107:20]. But God hidden in Majesty neither
deplores nor takes away death, but works life, and death, and all in
all; nor has He set bounds to Himself by His Word, but has kept
Himself free over all things.

The Diatribe is deceived by its own ignorance in that it makes no
distinction between God preached and God hidden, that is,
between the Word of God and God Himself. God does many
things which He does not show in His word, and He wills many
things which he does not in His Word show us that He wills. Thus,
He does not will the death of a sinner - that is, in His Word; but He
wills it by His inscrutable will. At present, however, we must keep
in view His Word and leave alone His inscrutable will; for it is by
His Word, and not by His inscrutable will, that we must be guided.
In any case, who can direct himself according to a will that is
inscrutable and incomprehensible? It is enough simply to know
that there is in God an inscrutable will; what, why, and within what
limits It wills, it is wholly unlawful to inquire, or wish to know, or
be concerned about, or touch upon; we may only fear and adore!

So it is right to say: If God does not desire our death, it must be
laid to the charge of our own will if we perish; this, I repeat, is
right if you spoke of God preached. For He desires that all men
should be saved, in that He comes to all by the word of salvation,
and the fault is in the will which does not receive Him; as He says
in Matt. 23:37 How often would I have gathered thy children
together, and thou wouldst not! But why the Majesty does not
remove or change this fault of will in every man (for it is not in the
power of man to do it), or why He lays this fault to the charge of
the will, when man cannot avoid it, it is not lawful to ask; and
though you should ask much, you would never find out; as Paul
says in Romans 11: Who art thou that repliest against God?
[Romans 9:20].


(vi) Of the hardening of Pharaoh

... This is why Moses generally repeats after each plague: And the
heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he would not let the people
go; as the Lord had spoken [Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:15; 9:12]. What
was the point of: As the Lord had spoken, but that the Lord might
appear true, as having foretold that Pharaoh should be hardened?
Had there been in Pharaoh any power to turn, or freedom of will
that might have gone either way, God could not with such certainty
have foretold his hardening. But as it is, He who neither deceives
nor is deceived guarantees it; which means that it is completely
certain, and necessary, that Pharaoh's hardening will come to pass.
And it would not be so, were not that hardening wholly beyond the
strength of man, and in the power of God alone, in the manner that
I spoke of above: that is, God was certain that He would not
suspend the ordinary operation of omnipotence in Pharaoh, or on
Pharaoh's account - indeed, He could not omit it; and He was
equally certain that the will of Pharaoh, being naturally evil and
perverse, could not consent to the word and work of God which
opposed it; hence, while by the omnipotence of God the energy of
willing was preserved to Pharaoh within, and the word and work
that opposed him was set before him without, nothing could
happen in Pharaoh but the offending and hardening of his heart. If
God had suspended the action of His omnipotence in Pharaoh
when He set before him the word of Moses which opposed him,
and if the will of Pharaoh might be supposed to have acted alone
by its own power, then there could perhaps have been a place for
debating which way it had power to turn. But as it is, since he is
impelled and made to act by his own willing, no violence is done
to his will; for it is not under unwilling constraint, but by an
operation of God consonant with its nature it is impelled to will
naturally, according to what it is (that is, evil). Therefore, it could
not but turn upon one word, and thus become hardened. Thus we
see that this passage makes most forcibly against free-will on this
account that God, who promises, cannot lie; and, if He cannot lie,
then Pharaoh cannot but be hardened.


(xviii) Of the comfort of knowing that salvation does not depend
on free-will

I frankly confess that, for myself, even if it could be, I should not
want free-will to be given to me, nor anything to be left in my own
hands to enable me to endeavor after salvation; not merely because
in face of so many dangers, and adversities, and assaults of devils,
I could not stand my ground and hold fast my free-will (for one
devil is stronger than all men, and on these terms no man could be
saved); but because, even were there no dangers, adversities, or
devils, I should still be forced to labor with no guarantee of
success, and to beat my fists at the air. If I lived and worked to all
eternity, my conscience would never reach comfortable certainty
as to how much it must do to satisfy God. Whatever work I had
done, there would still be a nagging doubt as to whether it pleases
God, or whether He required something more. The experience of
all who seek righteousness by works proves that; and I learned it
well enough myself over a period of many years, to my own great
hurt. But now that God has taken my salvation out the control of
my own will , and put it under the control of His, and promised to
save me, not according to my working or running, but according to
His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He
is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and
powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck
me from Him. No one, He says, shall pluck them out of my hand,
because my father which gave them me is greater than all [John
10:28-29]. Thus it is that, if not all, yet some, indeed many, are
saved; whereas, by the power of free-will none at all could be
saved, but every one of us would perish.

Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God,
not by reason of the merit of my works, but by reason of His
merciful favor promised to me; so that, if I work too little, or
badly, He does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion
pardons me and makes me better. This is the glorying of all the
saints in their God.


(xix) Of faith in the justice of God in His dealings with men

You may be worried that it is hard to defend the mercy and equity
of God in damning the undeserving, that is, ungodly persons, who,
being born in ungodliness, can by no means avoid being ungodly,
and staying so, and being damned, but are compelled by natural
necessity to sin and perish; as Paul says: We were all the children
of wrath, even as others [Eph. 2:3], created such by God Himself
from a seed that had been corrupted by the sin of one man, Adam.
But here God must be reverenced and held in awe, as being most
merciful to those whom He justifies and saves in their own utter
unworthiness; and we must show some measure of deference to
His Divine wisdom by believing Him just when to us He seems
unjust. If His justice were such as could be adjudged just by
human reckoning, it clearly would not be Divine; it would in no
way differ from human justice. But inasmuch as He is the one true
God, wholly incomprehensible and inaccessible to man's
understanding, it is reasonable, indeed inevitable, that His justice
also should be incomprehensible; as Paul cries, saying: O the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
[Romans 11:33]. They would not, however, be unsearchable if we
could at every point grasp the grounds on which they are just.
What is man compared with God? How much can our power
achieve compared with His power? What is our strength compared
with His strength? What is our knowledge compared with His
wisdom? What is our substance compared with His substance? In
a word, what is all that we are compared with all that He is? If,
now, even nature teaches to acknowledge that human power,
strength, wisdom, knowledge and substance, and all that is ours, is
nothing compared with the Divine power, strength, wisdom,
knowledge and substance, what perversity is it on our part to worry
at the justice and the judgment of the only God, and to arrogate so
much to our own judgment as to presume to comprehend, judge
and evaluate God's judgment!

... I shall here end this book, ready though I am to pursue the
matter further, if need be; but I think that abundant satisfaction has
here been afforded for the godly man who is willing to yield to
truth without stubborn resistance. For if we believe it to be it to be
true that God foreknows and foreordains all things; that He cannot
be deceived or obstructed in His foreknowledge and
predestination; and that nothing happens but at His will (which
reason itself is compelled to grant); then, on reason's own
testimony, there can be no free-will in man, or angel, or in any
creature.

So, if we believe that Satan is the prince of this world, ever
ensnaring and opposing the kingdom of Christ with all his strength,
and that he does not let his prisoners go unless he is driven out by
the power of the Divine Spirit, it is again apparent that there can be
no free-will.

So, if we believe that original sin has ruined us to such an extent
that even in the godly, who are led by the Spirit, it causes
abundance of trouble by striving against good, it is clear that in a
man who lacks the Spirit nothing is left that can turn itself to good,
but only to evil.

Again, if the Jews, who followed after righteousness with all their
powers, fell into unrighteousness instead, while the Gentiles, who
followed after unrighteousness, attained to an un-hoped-for
righteousness, by God's free gift, it is equally apparent from their
very works and experience that man without grace can will nothing
but evil.

And, finally, if we believe that Christ redeemed men by His blood,
we are forced to confess that all of man was lost; otherwise, we
make Christ either wholly superfluous, or else the redeemer of the
least valuable part of man only; which is blasphemy, and sacrilege.

Martin Luther, The Bondage of The Will, 1525