We are in desperate need of heroes today. Allow me to share two with you-Alfred Adler and Martin Luther. If you want to understand the nature of God, read Luther. If you want to understand the nature of man, read Adler. If you want to understand them both, read Luther. Read them as if they were your heroes and your life will be changed.

Alfred Adler		Martin Luther

How the Mighty Have Fallen: An Essay on Free Will

I quietly instructed our German Shepherd, Fifi, to leave the room this morning. It is customary for my wife and I to walk early in the morning and Fifi gets quite excited when she knows it is almost time. Our routine this morning would be altered; I did not want her to sneak around and awake my wife. I watched her slither out of the darkened room as I was putting my sweats on only to watch her slither back in about the time I was finishing.

I couldn't help but thinking that we have about as much free will as Fifi exhibited. Our dog is directed by nothing other than her instinct, just as her superiors, humans, are. I can prove this to my satisfaction by something that happened to me a few months ago. I was driving down the freeway alone and made a conscious decision to drive in the right-hand lane. This is no easy chore for me; I am a firstborn and by birthright deserve to be the one doing the passing and especially making sure no one passes me.

So I'm feeling mature as I'm trying to learn new ways so that my wife might be more comfortable driving with me. A few minutes later I wake up and find myself in the extreme left-hand lane. I had no idea how I arrived there. If I didn't know better I would swear I had nothing to do with my being there, except that I was the only one in the car and as of yet I don't put too much stock in the X-Files. That demonstrated to me the power of our instinct. My instinct is to make sure I am not passed, and this instinct is not easily changed. Some might say it doesn't change.

I am a counselor. I am a Christian. I drive in the left-hand lane. Now that I am defined, allow me to define my audience. I am writing not only to anyone who will listen but especially to the Christian community. This community includes many laymen who do not understand the truth of either God's nature or our nature; and it includes many helpers who do not understand the truth about these two most important subjects. It is my prayer that Christ will open your eyes to behold wondrous things. We must keep in mind, though, what it takes to have our eyes opened. Helpers, leaders, and parents know how difficult it is to help people who already have their minds made up—and don't we all!

Luther states, "The world stubbornly insists upon being right. It refuses to believe a thing, but must have it before its very eyes and hold it in its hand, saying, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' Therefore Christ also lets them go. He does not want to force anyone or drag him in by the hair. But He gives His faithful advice to all who will let Him advise them, and He holds before us the dearest promises. If you want it, you have peace and quiet in your heart here, and hereafter whatever your heart desires forever." (Luther's Works, vol. , p. 17)#104 Of course, we know we cannot hold faith in our hand. Faith must be experienced in the redeemed soul. But do we really see and understand our tendency to want and need and have an instinct to hold faith in such a way that it makes sense to us? Can we even begin to understand how we limit and resist God's infusion and perfecting of faith by our instinct to subject faith to our reason, our will, and our works?

As Christian helpers, which all Christians are, our only focus and concern is for faith to increase and blossom forth in those to whom we are ministering, being fully aware that faith can only be perfected by suffering and works. Rather than helping others focus on either of these, we must teach people to look beyond suffering and works by faith to the promises of God. We must not encourage our charges to despise and resist the suffering or be impressed with the good things they do, or to be defeated by the stupid things we all do. No! We must faithfully direct others to a proper understanding of faith and that whatever we see, feel, hold, taste and touch is devilishly opposed to faith. Faith must destroy everything and give birth to everything. May God grant us an understanding heart.

It is my desire to be of help. This desire in itself causes me consternation because of my belief that many times the only way to help is to first hurt. Only a monster would take pleasure in hurting another person, but if we hurt someone we are trying to help as we present the truth, this is obviously a good hurt. I believe our society has become so spoiled and self-absorbed that one who sets forth any boundary or any truth with authority is going to be considered a hate-monger. Our society is a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum. No matter how lovingly firm and mechanically correct the "parent" intervenes in his life, the child will, at least for a time, deem the parent mean. The child will hate the parent and will feel rejected by the parent. This is the price we must pay to teach children they are not the center of the universe.

"The world is like a drunkard. If you lift him into the saddle on one side, he will fall off on the other side. One can't help him, no matter how one tries. He wants to be the devils," says Luther. If there is going to be any helping we are going have to be prepared to allow those we want to help to deeply hurt. What helper does not see that most people really do not want help? We must do what we can to lead them to a craving for help. Making life easy on them and giving them permission to cry in their beer is the least effective way to encourage people to seek true help.

I read in the paper this morning about a judge who sentenced a teacher to life imprisonment for the long-standing abuse of his pupil, even though a great many people were pleading with the court for leniency. The judge had the courage and insight to be even more disturbed that this man could so effectively hide his evil. We must take a lesson from this judge to courageously let the "drunkard fall off on the other side." It is time to stop feeling sorry and taking pity as our primary course.

If we are so impressed with our free will, and all people are, then on that basis we can honor the free will in others. When a person's behavior, which is the expression of the will, says this is who I am and what I believe, we must respectfully accept and honor this expression. Or do we have a tendency to ignore this because we believe our free will is stronger. We have the power and will to change him. Sounds arrogant to me. Yet we feel sorry for women who marry for this very reason. They think they can change their man, only to wake up in misery and torment later. While we can be empathetic, how dare we feel sorry for someone who got exactly what they wanted. The only effective way of helping this sufferer is to stand beside her in her suffering, having convinced her of her foolishness. Not being truthful with her and encouraging her to change her geography is not true help.

We must teach those we help how to improve, not just change. As long as we are arrogantly impressed our free will, reason, and good works, the most we can hope for is change, not improvement, and a continued trend in the decay of our society. We must come to a correct understanding of what it takes to genuinely improve, but we must first develop the courage and fortitude to watch a person improve. It is not a pretty sight. We must in unison lovingly say, "If you want to be a drunk, a quitter, an abuser, a controller, I respect your decision and will. I will be here for you if and when you are humbled and become open and ready for change."

It is astonishing how we can believe and not believe that we are our own worst enemies. Refusing to see and to believe what we are in light of the clear teaching of the Word of God is not only the reason we do not change, but far more importantly, the reason we experience so little of God and the peace He offers. We tenaciously hang onto our belief that our will is free, our reason is sound, our nature is at least generally healthy. In subscribing to these falsehoods, we resist improvement and God's grace—the only source of true improvement.

It is incumbent on each of us, as helpers (and we all are helping someone), to have a clear vision and focus of where we want to lead people and how. Otherwise we become miserable helpers and comforters, like Jobs friends, who spew forth their own wisdom freely in a most willful fashion. We become like the merciful man who chased the flies that were feasting on the sores of a beggar. The beggar became indignant, "What are you doing? Those flies were almost full and did not worry me so much; how the hungry flies will come in their place and will plague me far worse." Sure, the man of mercy got his ego stroked for his good deed, but the beggar was worse off. We must be careful not to leave those we help worse off. I will explain as briefly as I can how we can do this.

First, we must learn to humble ourselves to an authority. Please do not think that I think that I am that authority. As a Christian I am humbling myself to the teachings of Martin Luther, because I see in his writings the very truth of Scripture fully explained. I believe that the Church can only come together as It allows his writings to create a second reformation in Its midst. Nothing else is going to stop the shattering of Christ's church into more and more sects and sub-sects. I am sure this will explain why I will rely heavily on quoting Luther.

As a professional helper, I humble myself to the writings of Alfred Adler. I find him to be on target and mostly in line with what Scripture teaches about the nature of man. Because I read both Adler and Luther extensively, I have an opinion that Adler studied Luther and essentially used Luther as a basis for his theories. Whatever the case, it is clear anyone who leads needs a clear map. It is inexcusable for a helper not to have a sound, well thought out theory to follow. Following the latest notion and fad is harsh, gross incompetence, whether the fad is in theology or anthropology.

Before I explain the nature and inner workings of human nature, free will, the conscience, works, law and Gospel, and what a true free will is, allow me to first give a basic overview of what I believe Scripture, Luther, and Adler teach. Man is the creation of a Holy God. Because of Adam's sin, man is born with a sinful nature. This nature is sinful through and through, utterly selfish and self-centered, consumed with becoming god-like. Man retains some likeness to the image of God. For example, man is creative. But man uses this creativity to carve out for himself a rather godless existence. Because man is sinful and misuses God's gifts, man is under the wrath of God. God is angry with sinners who have not humbled themselves to receive the gift of grace by faith through the death of Christ.

Man senses this need to be judged and sets out to deal with it the best way he can, through FEAR. Close then to the very core of man is this nagging, haunting fear that he deserves punishment. This fear of punishment is turned around and experienced as a fear that he cannot be responsible for what life/God expects of him. Even this fear is not consciously dealt with because the human self is so proud that it cannot admit it is afraid to fail. It therefore makes all kinds of excuses to cover up its basic fear.

Enter Conscience. The conscience becomes little more than an excuse factory. The person would actually rather have and deal with a guilty conscience and whatever this might produce than courageously deal with its fear of failing. The person deeply doubts his ability to successfully accomplish the three life-tasks of work, marriage, and the betterment of society. Instead, the conscience looks around for something to do, something to make it look like the person wants to be successful, which again is only a screen for its fear. A preoccupation with works develops. He defines himself not by what he is but by what he does.

Enter Will, so-called free. The will performs these works in a good enough way to generally appease the conscience. He impresses himself with all that he wills sending messages of arrogance to one and all. Even the person who wills the compulsion of hand-washing states how much better, how much cleaner he is than all the rest. The true goal of the very self with its accomplices is clearly stated, "I will exalt myself over any and all in a way that makes sense to me, that I have created." Thus the true and deepest intentions of the heart have manifested themselves and have arisen from a source much deeper than our will. The will only helps to carry out the plan of our very nature.

Enter Grace. God faithfully intervenes in our lives so as to convince us of our need for His Help. He allows us to come to the end of ourselves so that our very soul will become like a fist that falls open from lack of will and strength, into which He would place His Gift. Unfortunately we refuse and fight this Gift and instead blame God and hate God and are angry with God for allowing us to suffer, when He only allows the suffering, most of which is self-created and afflicted, with the intent that it would humble us and make us desirous of His grace and mercy. Suffering, then, is truly a good gift straight from the hand of a gracious Father.

God only does with us what any parent does with a child. What parent has not wanted the child to jump into the parent's arms from a counter or edge of the pool? Are we being cruel? Usually not. But from the child's perspective, that space looks may look like the Grand Canyon! Yet the parent is only playing an innocent game with the child.

Law and Gospel Destroy Free Will

While the actions of our will flow forth from our very nature, salvation actually begins with our actions. God, through His Law, condemns our actions. His Law seeks to show us our utter inability to keep the commandments of God. The Law is a Schoolmaster which takes us to Christ by defeating, humiliating, and crushing us. The Law lays us bare with all of our so-called good intentions. The Law crushes the spirit of self-righteousness in a man so as to prepare the man for Christ's entry.

Luther states, "Law and will are two implacable foes without the grace of God. What the law wants, the will never wants, unless it pretends to want it out of fear or love." (Luther's Works, vol. 31, p. 14) We tolerate laws as long as they leave us alone and unhindered. If you don't believe this, pick a law or regulation that you appreciate and agree with. I happen to agree that it is a good thing for the workplace to require punctuality. I am in wholehearted agreement with this until the rule flies in my face. When the rule rebukes me, my response would tend to be, "Excuse me. I have been on time for all these months and years and you are going to rebuke me for being late this one time?" Time does not permit us to discuss how laws need good interpreters. Laws are not an end in themselves.

In considering what God requires of us we must keep in mind that God is revealing to us what we should do and not want we actually can do. This must be kept in mind when dealing with any commandment. All Scripture is Christo-centric. It is taken for granted that anything God asks us to do is to be done through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. We must remember that it is Christ who "works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

The Law is appealing to our arrogance and quest for superiority. We use law and expectations to lord it over others. We all have our own private code, or "private logic" as Adler called it. We expect all others to measure up to this code and when they don't we feel superior, god-like. We love constraint and we love to constrain others. Luther is addressing the effects of constraint on youth when he describes how constraint may protect the youth from some evil, the evil of hatred and resentment within the youth goes up as the outward evil is curbed. Not surprisingly he describes how it is not unusual for those raised with the most constraint become all the more wicked when given the chance to reveal their true nature. Commandments will never improve human nature. (Luther's Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 268)

Thus it looks as if our will is good as long as fear forces it to be curbed. So many parents play the short game wanting their children to essentially pretend for a few years that they are good boys and girls. Then they are astonished when their children rebel. The same is true of a wife who marries an overbearing husband. It is my opinion that they do this because it provides them with some protection from the respsonibilites of life. They can hide behind their husband. But they soon grow weary of this constraint and want to break away. I believe this to be a fine process wherein one could learn about oneself and learn from their suffering unless the wife wants to focus blame on the husband. Why should the husband have to pay for what she wanted? It goes without saying that the shoe fits both feet.

We blindly believe that we can constrain the will. Truly giving up and letting go does not appeal to our Reason. Luther calls reason the Mother of the Devil. He also exalts the reason which is constrained by grace. We fail to understand that the "law, as taskmaster of the will, will not be overcome except by the 'child, who has been born to us.'" (LW, vol. 31, p. 14) Trying and pretending to follow law and commandments is useless. Law is only meant to prepare the way for Christ's entrance into our hearts by faith through the promise of eternal life.

"The law says, 'Do this,' and it is never done. Grace says, 'Believe in this,' and everything is already done." (LW, vol. 31, p. 41) It goes against our common sense to just believe. It sounds too easy and to be sure we can "believe" in such a way that it is easy. But when a person truly believes by faith in the promise of God against all odds, and in the face of all adversity, then that person truly dies to his very self. This kind of belief comes only from on High. Luther challenges us to find just one man to whose mind it occurred that the way to salvation and holiness was to simply "believe on Him who is both God and man, who died for men's sins, and was raised, and is set at the right hand of the Father!" (Modern Reformation, Vol. 7, Number 6, 1998, p. 15)

I am asking the Lord to help me be responsible in my eating habits. When I believe this is His gift to me and do not become preoccupied with this "work" then I find it is most easy to be faithful in this area. I simply believe this is a gift He will bestow and when another pound drops off I thank Him for that gift. On a grander scale it is like Peter staying on top of the water as long as his gaze was directed toward his Master. Again, Christ works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. All the other times Peter may have failed to walk on water and all the times I have failed in my attempt to be responsible in any particular area, we necessary failures and sufferings to prepare me for the day we would not be impressed with our own power and effort.

What helper does not encourage and drown those he helps with waves of advice as to what to do? Our Heavenly Helper does not do this. He first asks us to be and then to believe. He wants us to be sinners, having been convinced by His Law of our sinfulness, and then to simply believe that He has done all things. I love the example of a godly pastor who explained salvation by making me make a fist. He then tried to open my fist and place a pen into it. When this process was finished, he asked me what had I done to receive the pen. I thought I had done nothing. But actually I had done something. I had resisted. While this resistance is sin, it is also necessary for at least two reasons. For one, it tires us out. For another, it proves that God and His Christ get all the glory and credit and honor!

It is no "easy" chore for Christ to prepare us to simply believe. Nor is it a walk in the park as we help those who come to us to believe that there are opportunities all around them. Whatever the sufferer wants is right there at his right hand—he just cannot see it until his eyes begin to be opened and he sees life from a different perspective. When this happens, suddenly and magically opportunities present themselves. The person who couldn't find love finds love; the person who couldn't find a job stumbles onto a richly rewarding career; and the aimless finds many opportunities to be useful.

While the Law exposes and intensifies sin, the Gospel "deals with sin so as to remove it, and thus most beautifully follows the law. The law introduces us to sin an overwhelms us with the knowledge of it. It does this so that we may seek to be freed and to sigh after grace, for the Gospel also teaches and preaches two things, namely, the righteousness and the grace of God. Through righteousness it heals the corruption of nature. This is done by the true righteousness which is the faith of God, namely, faith in Christ, as Romans 3:21 says, 'But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.' The companion of this faith and righteousness is grace or mercy, the good will and favor of God, against wrath which is the partner of sin, so that he who believes in Christ has a merciful God. For we would not be completely happy in this good of righteousness, and we would not highly esteem God's gift, if that was all there was, and it did not gain for us the grace and favor of God…This grace truly produces peace of heart until finally a man is healed of his corruption and feels he has a gracious God." (LW, vol. 32, p. 227)

Faith takes hold of the promise and believes God is gracious and merciful. Faith does not take hold of reason, free will, or works, unless it is to destroy them and create them anew in true holiness. The Word of God is the focus and foundation of our faith. Everything other than the Word is against faith. Faith only knows that it pleases God, "not by reason 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." (Modern Reformation, p. 16)

The grace of God then is "given for the purpose of directing the will, lest it err even in loving God. To love God is at the same time to hate oneself and to know nothing but God." (LW, vol. 31, p. 11) Hating oneself, one's family, and all that is in the world, presents us with an interesting paradox, especially in this age of self-love, self-expression, and self-absorption. We hate ourselves in a way that would gladly see our wretchedness, run to Christ, and leave behind all for Him. We are to hate the flesh without believing flesh is inherently evil just because it is flesh. Some of these things are understood only by experience and must be believed until they are experienced.

We hate the Old Adam in us and in faith love the New Man within us. We are to hate our evil inclination and say, "I wish I were different—I would gladly be without my sin." To hate ourselves is to look forward in faith to our death when we will be completely delivered from this body of sin, this bag of worms as Luther calls it. We only love God's redeeming work through Christ. Our focus is not to be on this hate. We only desire to see our deep sinfulness and hate it so that we are reminded to flee to Christ's gracious arms of provision. To remain hopelessly transfixed on our sin would be to take God's name in vain. Our focus in on this Treasure which we have in these most uncomely vessels.

The Lord's Prayer itself reminds us of our deep sinfulness. Our Lord teaches us to pray thus: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." Whenever we pray this prayer we are confessing that our tendency is not to desire God's will and we must fervently pray that we would desire His Holy Will. So few are willing to crucify their will for God's. This is very humbling. In a word, though, humility is what Christianity is all about. I am sure it is most humbling when I suggest to a client that when they were mistreated in some way they deserved it and should be thankful for it. If we believe we are such great sinners and worthy of damnation and Hell, why should we not be most thankful and grateful that instead we are only called a name or receive a kick in the pants occasionally? Even death is a small price to pay for the things that will be revealed in eternity!

"We say that God's entire will is done in the sense that He pardons all our good works, just as Augustine says, 'The commandments of God are fulfilled when those which are not done are forgiven.'" (LW, vol. 32, p.189) When we pray that God's will will be done instead of ours, we confess that even our good works need God's pardoning mercy. Again, this only highlights the grace of God. He gets the glory. He does everything and treats us as if we did it all-He give us not only Heaven, but peace here on earth. Grace is like a boss who lovingly says, "You are a wonderful employee. Thank you for letting me do what I paid you to do."

How we tend to remain impressed with our will and power even after we have begun to understand something of salvation. The old nature is always with us. We read all the things in the Scriptures which tell us to do something and we boldly march forward with all the resolve and pride, which we call humility seeing as how we are doing it from a most holy will—after all we have the command of Scripture, we can muster. We keep forgetting that "we can do nothing of the things commanded, and that at the same time we can do them all; the former being attributed to our own powers, the latter to the grace of God." (LW, vol. 33, p. 125) We must moment by moment be reminded that "God has consigned all men to unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all (Romans 11:32). Therefore, we are righteous because God is merciful, not because of man's exertion (Romans 9:16)." (LW, vol. 43, p. 113) Are you sure you want to give your will the credit of being free?

Are you sure you want to boast of your power to obey? Do you really believe your will can accomplish anything of the will of God. If this is in any way true, then all the glory cannot redound to Christ. Whatever you add to Christ destroys Him in your heart. Christ is our obedience as Paul states in Phil. 2:8, "He became obedient for us." "By that will we have all been sanctified (Heb. 10:10), through the obedience of this one man many are made righteous. (Romans 5:12-19). In the same manner all other references and examples from the Scriptures about law or works necessarily include Christ who is obedient to the Father in our stead." (LW, vol. 43, p. 119)

I understand all this can be confusing until you begin to experience these truths by faith. I loved and studied Scripture from the time I was 15 until I was 40 while barely learning the first principles of what it meant to walk by faith and leave the doing and willing to Christ. When I would read things like, "He who does not love remains in death," (I John 3:14) I would flex my will and go to work. I heard a lot of talk about grace, but never really understood it until I came into the Lutheran church and began to study Luther. If I was taught that statements like this one are made "according to the law, for when love is spoken of, a work of the law is intended. Moreover, the distinction must be made that the one kind of teaching is promise, the other, precept. A promise cannot be a precept, for precept demands merit of us, but promise does not demand our merit but that of another, namely, the merit of God's son. Faith alone apprehends Christ. Love follows faith and is taken hold of by precept and law." (LW, vol, 34, p. 319)

Depravity Mocks at Free Will

I have discussed grace first so as to not enable some one to become discouraged as they read this paper. I might have rather presented it last when you were quite discouraged and maybe quite angry with the truth of the Gospel. Now, though, we must go into some explanation about the various aspects of who and what we are. We begin with the very basis of our nature. We call this nature depraved. By this we simply mean we do not want nor can we will what God wants. I know this goes against the grain of common sense and common religion. God must be true and every man a liar who speaks apart from the Word of God. The very Word of God states: "There is none that does good, no, not one." I beseech you to practice believing the truth while begging God for deliverance from your reason and what makes sense. If you don't sincerely "try it on" how will you ever know? If you are unwilling to persevere and remain in confusion, how will you ever come to know much of anything. Understanding grace is the most difficult art there is. Do you really believe you can learn this most outstanding art, which comes straight from the mind of God, in a moment? It takes me longer to learn how to turn on a computer than most people are willing to spend understanding the mind of Christ. May God have mercy on us—especially those of us who think we have the answers.

I find it interesting that the theory of Alfred Adler is not more pervasive in the helping field. Many of his ideas are part of the helping culture, but it seems that few "officially" follow this giant. I don't subscribe to him because he is evangelical in any way. In fact, I find amazingly little in his writings that even hints at religion. I found some correspondence between him and a Lutheran minister. Overall, it is clear to me that Adler believed man is his own redeemer. But it is also clear to me why his position is not more widely touted. He sees the truth about our basic instincts and speaks it. He seems to be too honest, though he is kind, and he takes away all our excuses though he is not trying to make us hopeless.

Rudolf Dreikurs, a famous follower of Adler stated in his book -a book that could help save our families from social disaster—that "all the faults of children, all their frailties and petty vices are miscalculated efforts to get ahead of others. They are directed against both the parent and the social order. By eluding definite demands and tasks required of him, the child gains a kind of superiority over the parent." (The Challenge of Parenthood, p. 40) I know that Dreikurs or Adler, while alive, didn't believe in the depravity of man. But they certainly do not paint a pretty picture of human nature even as it comes out of the shoot. We by nature will scratch and claw to advance our own cause and destroy the cause of everyone else. This is true of us all, though we may see it more clearly in those who are less socially adjusted, in those who have rebelled against wearing all the masks one has to wear in order to get along smoothly in society.

Based on this, if we admit we have free will, and admit we make "efforts to get ahead of others," then we are admitting we are destroyers of social order—that great idol among us. If our children are like this, then do they outgrow it somewhere along the way? If so, when and where? Is not the person who gets angry when rebuked for the one time for being late destroying social order?

Lydia Sicher, another excellent follower of Adler, stated that "the longing of every neurotic person is for a frictionless paradise in which he could reign supreme." (The Collected Works of Lydia Sychir: An Adlerian Perspective, p. 11) It seems that Adlerians exalt themselves by assuming that there are some among us who are not neurotic. Solomon says that insanity is in all our hearts. We are all sick. So actually all of us want this "paradise" without suffering where we are king of the hill.

If Adler and his followers can see clearly the truth of our nature, why won't we, especially when we have far more Help and hope in Christ for deliverance! Why won't we be "bold sinners" as Luther liked to say? Let's be honest and say with Luther that "man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Indeed he himself wants to be God, and does not want God to be God. To love God above all things by nature is a fictitious term." (LW, vol. 31, p. 9) This is a bold statement and one that can only be made by a person who zealously wants God to be true though every man must be a liar. We are so impressed with our capacity to will love that we are blind to our true nature.

Adler believed that the insane person was doing nothing more than retreating into his self-made kingdom. If this is true, and I certainly believe it to be true, then why is it so difficult to believe that the "sane" are doing the same thing in a more subtle fashion? Are we not all kingdom builders? And if we are, then by necessity, are we not destroying the very Kingdom of Christ by our very nature, and proving our hypocrisy when we pray the Lord's prayer, "The Kingdom come?"

My own daughter playfully told me the other day that she would always resent me because I can make this certain clicking sound that Fift responds to. Fifi ignores her clicking but responds to mine in the midst of hers. Bethany is mature enough to put this in perspective and joke around about it, but doesn't it illustrate our depravity in a nutshell? God wants us to love others unconditionally, yet her nature is irritated when I can click better than she can. Do we really love God and want God to be God?

Fifi denies my lovely daughter's clicks, yet she continues to try to duplicate the response I get. In this way Luther's point is proved that "we strive for what is forbidden and always desire what is denied us." (LW, vol. 54, p. 31) I would agree that we have free will to chase after whatever is denied to us, otherwise I have to believe that our will is a servant of instinct, a slave to things that are mostly out of our awareness because our will puts them out of our awareness at the beckoning of our instinct. Our nature always wants something new. Who is there who is content with what they have? Who is there who lives within the boundaries God has established for them? My own daughter will not even leave the clicking to me.

I realize this nature is difficult for us to see and believe; it is a giant blind spot for all of us and can be seen only by faith with the grace of God as a backdrop. We are sold under sin and we follow sin's lusts and passions. The person who has not been made aware of his nature is virtually unaware of the potential great battle because anyone who "is not just neither fights nor cares to fight against the law of the members." (LW, vol. 32, p. 251) Most Christians, even, are not much trained in this warfare, thereby living most of their new life blind and groping after the same things the world does and being impressed by the same things the world is impressed with—reason, will, and works.

By our very nature we commit adultery against God, according to James chapter four. We are fornicators in spirit and yet want to exalt our so-called free will. Will is only the expression of our deepest self, not the deepest aspect of our self.

Even acts committed which seem noble may not be as noble as we would like to believe. Sicher has an interesting article about war heroes, demonstrating the real dynamic going on within them. Luther says that we cannot "apply the reasoning concerning the brave citizen who loves his country more than himself. No act is done according to nature that is not an act of concupiscence against God." (LW, vol. 31, p. 10) We are all lusting to be god-like. We all want to reign supreme even if it is only in the hearts and minds of others. Our will is more than happy to oblige us. Our will is more than happy to do whatever it takes for us to gain a cheap victory even though it may look virtuous. We all will to act expecting something in return.

Based on Matt 7:17-18, Luther states clearly that "man, being a bad tree, can only will and do evil. It is false to state that man's inclination is free to choose between either of two opposites. Indeed, the inclination is not free, but captive. This is said in opposition to common opinion. It is false to state that the will can by nature conform to correct precept. As a matter of fact, without the grace of God the will produces an act that is perverse and evil. It does not, however, follow that the will is by nature evil, that is, essentially evil, as the Manichaeans maintain." (LW, vol. 31, p. 9)

Our will then is the fruit and not the root of our nature. Our most basic inclination is pure evil, evil being not wanting what God wants. From our evil inclination spring forth evil thoughts; from our evil thoughts spring forth an evil will; from an evil will spring forth evil works; and from our evil works spring forth the need to conceal the true intentions of works we want to call good. We therefore continue to impress ourselves with our good intentions.

Dreikurs says that "we admit to ourselves only those intentions which conform with social prescriptions. Actions which serve socially unacceptable intentions seem to arise against our will, almost as compulsions, without apparent rhyme or reason. Since they are anti-social, we cannot accept responsibility for them if we want to maintain our good intentions. Consequently, excuses are sought to explain such perplexing actions, impulses, or emotions." (Dreikurs, p. 42)

God is trying to convince us of our sin, while we are preoccupied with making excuses, just as the members of the First Church, Adam and Eve, did. God is trying to condemn the actions of our will with His Law; change our faulty thinking with the truth of His Gospel through faith; and change our very nature to conform to the new nature he gave us when we were converted to His Kingdom. The more we allow God to continue to change this nature to conform with the New Man, the more our actions will flow from a truly good Fountain.

As we recognize our sinfulness, we become more and more transformed back into the image of God. Our memory more and more exalts the power of God; our mind more and more exalts the wisdom of God; and our will more and more exalts the justice of God instead of our own justice. In the meantime, we are humbled that our memory, will, and mind, the marks of God's image, "are most depraved and most seriously weakened." (LW, vol. 1, p. 61) We submit ourselves to His Wisdom and Power and seek only His Glory. We allow ourselves to be crucified with Christ instead of exalting our Will, Reason, and Works over and above the Righteousness of God.

We acknowledge that "in those matters that pertain to God and are above us no human being has free will; he is indeed like clay in the hand of the potter, in a state of merely passive potentiality, not active potentiality." (LW, vol. 1, p. 85) The only potentiality we have is what God can do with us and to us and not what we can do. We glory that God loves us so much that despite our deep depravity God continues to act upon us.

We are neither insulted nor offended that "original sin means that human nature has completely fallen; that the intellect has become darkened, so that we no longer know God and His will and no longer perceive the works of God; furthermore, that the will is extraordinarily depraved, so that we do not trust the mercy of God and do not fear God but are unconcerned, disregard the Word and will of God, and follow the desire and the impulses of the flesh; likewise, that our conscience is no longer quiet but, when it thinks of God's judgment, despairs and adopts illicit defenses and remedies. These sins have taken such deep root in our being that in this life they cannot be entirely eradicated." (LW, vol. 1, p. 114)

We must admit that we are afraid to deal forthrightly with our depravity. Our will works actively against this so as to protect the very dethronement of the self. While we fear our inability to accept responsibility for the tasks God has asked us to do in this life, we have an even greater fear of his wrath. We fear His wrath because we know on the deepest level of ourselves that we are bad to the core and deserve punishment. "Plainly wrath is a greater evil for us than corruption, for we hate punishment more than guilt." (LW, vol. 32, p. 224) We gladly deal with guilt and its fruit, such as ulcers, because we do not dare deal with God's wrath, even though God is and wants to be kindly disposed to us. This Kindness must be bestowed according to His Will, not ours. This explains why there is so little improvement and so much change within ourselves. We want to do it our own way. We will not submit to God's humiliation.

Adler himself says " we cure the neurotic by freeing him from a false, self-created causality and adapting him to real life." (Superiority and Social Interest, p. 122) While I respect Adler's wisdom, he cannot cure anything. He may be smart enough to get a person to change, but only God CURES sin and its effects. Only God frees; only God's grace is the antidote for our self-affliction; and only God can explain what real life is. Only God can change our "mistaken interpretations" as he compels us to go humbly before His Word and have our minds transformed (Romans 12:1-2) Only God grants the courage to fearlessly assume every each and every one of our beliefs is wrong that has not been vigorously proved and tried by the Spirit through the Word.

We are all spoiled. We don't need for another to spoil and pamper us. We do that quite well, thank you. We live for and will nothing but pleasure, yet want to appear holy and good. In our own way we stride around raping each other of power and praise and beating all around us until they are black and blue with our will. Adler states that "the feeling of pleasure is founded in a feeling of power, that of displeasure in a feeling of powerlessness. So far we have considered the guiding force and final purpose of the neuroses [sin] to be a desire for enhancement of the self-esteem which always asserts itself with special strength. This is merely a striving which is deeply founded in human nature in general. The expression and the deepening of this guiding thought, which could also be described as will to power, teaches us that a particular compensatory force is involved which attempts to put an end to the general human inner insecurity. Every neurotic character trait reveals through its direction that it is permeated by the striving for power which tries to make the trait an infallible means for excluding permanent humiliation from the patient's experiences." (The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, p. 111)

Bottom line: We want power, no displeasure, absolute praise and justification, and to stay as far away from anything that wants to humble our arrogant spirit as possible. By nature, we will not follow our Lord Jesus Christ and His example of humiliation. According to Philippians chapter two, He humbled Himself not only to death but to the most humiliating form of death, crucifixion! Yet we want to be blindly pious, avoid humiliation and shame, and "act so that in the end I will be master of the situation." (Superiority and Social Interest, p. 112)

On the contrary, Christ says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." "For that is the highest thing that men want to have joy and happiness and to be without trouble. Now Christ turns the page and says exactly the opposite; He calls 'blessed' those who sorrow and mourn. Thus throughout, all these statements are aimed and directed against the world's way of thinking, the way it would like to have things. It does not want to endure hunger, trouble, dishonor, unpopularity, injustice, and violence; and it calls 'blessed' those who can avoid these things." (LW, vol. 42, p. 17) We desire to be our own Captain and navigate ourselves around anything unpleasant until we navigate ourselves to our "frictionless paradise" where we reign supreme.

Conscience Screams at Free Will

Our conscience stands in constant rebuke of our will. Even if we have free will, we certainly pay for it through the pound of flesh the conscience requires of us daily. Our conscience counteracts our conscious mind, which is primarily an excuse factory. Our conscious mind comes up with the excuses and alibis for our behavior, and we must admit that some of these are pretty sharp and rather convincing. Study the Fall in Genesis Three and see for yourself how Adam and Eve piously blamed God and each other for their sin. It is astounding to me that man was immediately an expert in creating and maintaining excuses!

We do pay for these excuses though. While after time we may be able to sear our conscience, we never get completely rid of it, and we can still feel the scar where the fresh skin of conscience once protected our soul. But when we live in rebellion against the Word, we live in jeopardy of our conscience condemning us every moment. Where faith is not active through simply believing in The Promise, the conscience is alarmed at even the rustling of a leaf, as Luther often made mention.

Yes, our conscience screams out against all that we will in our so-thought innocence. It screams out, "You are naked, you are naked," no matter how many layers of clothing we cover it with. As God asked Adam, "Who told you you were naked?" we would be wise to not be like Adam and deny our sin and rebellion, but to readily admit, "I have sinned, I have sinned, Oh Father, be merciful for I have sinned!" Instead we cover, run, and hide from His presence, while we sit and stew as to how we can blame our Creator for our sin.. Imagine that, the clay calling the potter into judgment.

But because we refuse to be sorry for our sins and be willing to be condemned so that God can be true, right, and just, we continue on our arrogant way. Dreikurs states: "The child learns by experience the value of good excuses. Whatever he does wrong will find less criticism and retaliation on the part of the parents if he can find plausible excuse. Parents are receptive to good excuses because they themselves, in their own conduct, rely on them. Nothing upsets them as much as an open admission of bad intentions on the part of the child. This is a defiance which they cannot tolerate. But as long as the child seeks an excuse he demonstrates at least his good will… As a rule, the excuses are made up for the benefit of the parents; but as the child grows and his conscience develops further, he seeks excuses for himself, to quiet his own conscience." (P. 42-43)

Our minds are so blackened by sin that we are seldom as honest as Dreikurs, a man who, so far as I can tell, knew little of living a life of faith in Jesus Christ. Through much experience an unbeliever sees the hypocrisy of parents. I am well aware that we seldom consciously tell our kids to at the same time lie and tell the truth. But we are still responsible even for that which we are unaware, especially when it has been brought to our attention, and especially when it has been brought to our attention by "Tyre and Sidon."

"Adam, why did you sin." "The woman… the woman," responds Adam. "Cursed are you Adam for your sin and treacherous dishonesty. How dare you take My name in vain by sinning and them even more so by running from Me and doubting My mercy!" This is the response of our Heavenly Father. Let's compare this to the response of earthly fathers. "Son, why did you not do your homework?" "I forgot Daddy." "Well, you need to learn to be responsible, Son. It's important that you go to school prepared. You want to learn don't you. You don't want your teacher calling here all the time, do you? I really don't care to be bothered with this when you just need to learn to be obedient and responsible. But I'll let it go this time if you promise you will start doing your homework. Will you promise?" "Yes, Daddy, I promise. I'm sorry."

You can only imagine what the conversation would sound like if the child honestly expressed the real reason. "Daddy, I have no intention of doing that homework because the teacher pisses me off everyday because she seldom gives me my own way; then when I come home Mom pisses me off be nagging me all the time about it. And right now you are pissing me off by confronting me with something that I have absolutely no intention of doing."

But because the child's guilt propels him to do something, he is borne along under the illusion that of his own free will he does his homework, at least sporadically. Even if he was to do it daily forever, as long as the resentment is there it is going to come out through some avenue. But the child looks around for something to do so as to ease his conscience, proving that "man's understanding cannot get beyond this external piety of works, and cannot comprehend the righteousness of faith. It is not possible for man in times of temptation and distress, when his conscience smites him, to cease from groping around for works on which to stand and rest. Then we seek and enumerate the many deeds, which we would like to do, or have done, and because we find none, the heart begins to doubt and despair." (Luther's Sermons, vol. 5, p. 220)

Instead of despairing, we could turn to believe that Christian freedom is a "freedom of conscience which liberates the conscience from works. Not that no works are done, but no faith is put in them. For conscience is not the power to do works, but to judge them. The proper work of conscience is to accuse or excuse, to make guilty or guiltless, uncertain or certain. Its purpose is not to do, but to pass judgment on what has been done and what should be done, and this judgment makes us stand accused or saved in God's sight. Christ freed this conscience from works through the Gospel and teaches this conscience not to trust in works, but to rely only on his mercy." (LW, vol. 44, p. 298)

The child could, instead, be taught and shown that it is appropriate to examine and confess his deepest intentions, the real reason he did what he did, acknowledge what should have been done, and fulfill his social obligation in faith. The child learns forgiveness; that actions of the will are not an end in themselves; and that Christ is merciful Who will correct the will and forgive the work. The child's conscience learns peace and stops screaming.

The conscience then becomes a still, small voice that quietly works with a transformed Reason, gently standing in judgment on our works. There are no expectations, no shoulds, no judgments of a condemning nature, and no assumptions. There is only a walk of faith fully founded on the Word. We fear no punishment from a merciful God; our minds and hearts are open to the gentle rebuke of the Spirit and the Word; and we live a life of repentance in the fear of God. We are simply aware that when faith in the promise is not the backdrop of what we do, we are not walking by faith. The canvas is our faith upon which we paint our life with our works. Without the canvas, all the talent and gifts in the whole world would be lost. The canvas is subtle and easily lost in the foreground of the work.

For our conscience not to scream out we must zealously allow the Word to "dwell in us richly." That means we must understand It if It is going to transform our minds and nature and have that transformation worked out in our will and conscience. Again I say, we cannot underestimate the number of flaws we have in our minds. As long as these flaws are there, the conscience is going to act in accordance with them and condemn us. Our conscience follows our mind. The mind must be transformed by the Word. This is a process that just barely begins during this life.

We all have our own "private logic" as Adler calls it. Paul calls it being "conformed to the world." We must not underestimate how "conformed" to this world system and its philosophy we are. So many Christians think they have it all together, when actually they have hardly begun to understand faith aright. If I believe that my house must always be clean, and I live in accordance with that belief, then my conscience may be mostly quiet and not scream at me. But while I am working to keep my conscience quiet, I have ceased walking by faith because I have made my house being clean an end in itself. I am doing it for me and my self-created way to peace. Even if I do succeed in maintaining a low degree of anxiety, I certainly have not experienced the freedom of Christ. I am only "free" as long as my house is clean. My conscience has only "made" me keep a prison clean. Because the human spirit was created to be free and because the very self "knows" this, and because this knowledge is going to bubble up and manifest itself in the mind, then the conscience is going to scream. It will scream just like a child's bladder screams when the child wets the bed. A wise parent will investigate what the bladder is saying, while a wise human will investigate, honestly, the "screams" of conscience.

Works Prove the Bondage of the Will

As I have said, what we do is an expression of who we are; our will is only the vehicle for self-expression. If I am quiet by nature my works and ways demonstrate the need I have for quietness while my will serves to meet my deepest needs. If I have a need to please my wife when we go shopping for clothing, the choices I make are based on her like and dislike. My "work" of picking a certain tie has nothing to do with my free will, but with my need to have my wife pleased with me. In like manner, my will is also bound, and it is proved that it is bound, by my "work" of telling her a particular dress looks nice on her when I do not really believe this. I am only giving her what she wants because of my fear of displeasure. My nature may be free to seek its own advantage, but my will is bound by my nature and this binding is demonstrated by my works.

Without faith it is impossible to understand this bondage. Luther's insight is astounding: "Those work-saints cannot get rid of the perverse notion concerning works unless faith, its destroyer, comes and rules in their hearts. Nature of itself cannot drive it out or even recognize it, but rather regards it as a mark of the most holy will." (LW, vol. 31, p. 363) We do with God what the people we try to help do with us. They come with their problems and misery, condemning virtually everyone around them, and seeking to prove their innocence and good intentions. We clearly see their mistake and what they could do to improve their situation. Even when a relationship has been established, it is difficult for them to hear of their mistakes and inclinations.

Because we stand before them as representatives of society encouraging them to come and be more and more a part of us, we essentially are representatives of the law. We stand before them as loving Warners of what will happen to them if they persist in their destructive course. "Only the law shows these virtues to be evil—not to be sure, in themselves, for they are the gifts of God, but because of that deeply hidden root of sin which is the cause of men being pleased with, relying, and glorying in these things which are not felt to be evil. This is always the innermost evil of sin, for trust, pleasure, and glorying must be in God alone, as Jer. 9:23 says: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.' Yet as I said, all these fall under wrath and the curse, nor do they profit anyone, nor indeed, prepare a 'congruence to grace,' but rather fatten the heart so that it neither desires nor senses the necessity of grace, as Psalm 119:70 says: 'Their heart is gross like fat." (LW, vol. 32, p. 226)

Thus our will "accomplishes" our works for the very pleasure and glory of our very selves. We go along assuming our way and work is virtuous. But once in awhile we see our improper motivation and do some act of penance, then assume the slate is clean. I wonder if we can occasionally see our darker side, why not assume it is always well and in proper working order? Why, when men who apparently do not have faith, such as the Adlerians I have quoted, can see that even parents "raise children for their own selfish purposes," and yet we impress ourselves with all that we do for our children. We refuse to make God true and ourselves liars. We think our works of "love" prove our good will for our children when all our works prove is our need to be sovereign, the center, and pleased.

It is as if our works are the first defense for the self. Once works are discredited then our free, holy will has to fall. Once our will has fallen, then our good intentions have to fall. Once our good intentions have fallen, our very being is laid open and bare of all "pious" trappings and must admit the punishment it deserves, and face the wrath of a holy God. "So great is this wrath that there is nothing profitable in those things which seem good as, for instance, arts, talents, prudence, courage, chastity, and whatever natural, moral and impressive goods there are. The common sense of all men can detect nothing wrong with these things, so that even today our theologians number them among the good, attributing nothing evil to them, for although they do not merit the kingdom of heaven when they are present apart from grace, still, on the other hand, neither do they merit hell nor punishment. They teach that the law has been fulfilled by them, but not the Gospel… It must be added that God himself does not deny that these virtues are good-for this cannot in fact be denied—but He rewards and bedecks them with temporal benefits, such as power, wealth, glory, fame, dignity, honor, enjoyment, and the like. Thus a covering—not merely of its own beauty, but of divine recompense—is added to this natural blindness which does not know the true good; thus it confidently and stubbornly maintains that it is good." (LW, vol. 32, p. 225)

Heaven help the person who suggests these works are self-serving. If the only way we can reach and help others for Christ is to help them see their sin so that a need is created within them to run to Christ for help and grace, how can we not be quite occupied with revealing these things? Luther continues his thought from the last paragraph by adding, "This is the chief reason for the prophetic task, this is why all the prophets were killed, for they reviled these works and insisted on those which are more genuinely good. For prophecy was nothing else than the burnishing, activation—if I may speak thus—and application of the law."

If this is true how can we help those we seek to help be content to the point of being smug in their self-righteousness? And how can we move them beyond this point without persistently pointing out the truth of their nature. Thus, if Helpers are to give Godly help, the focus must be on condemning works and exalting faith. If we were acutely aware that our works only reveal the bondage of our will, how can we possibly tell those whom we help things like, "How do you put up with this or that?" "How can you live with such dishonor and disrespect." "How, how, how; why, why, why; and do something about it of your own free will. Actualize yourself. You show 'em."

Unfortunately we teach those we think we are helping this prayer instead of the true meaning of the Lord's prayer: "Lord God, behold this good work which I have done through the help of Thy grace. There is in it neither fault nor any sin, nor does it need Thy forgiving mercy. I do not ask for this, as I want Thee to judge it with Thy strictest and truest judgments. In it, my work, I can glory before Thee, because Thou canst not condemn it without denying Thyself. The need of mercy which, as Thy petition teaches, forgives the trespass in this deed is canceled, for there is here only the justice which crowns it." (LW, vol. 43, p. 190)

As comforting helpers, we have the opportunity to lead people to a proper understanding of works and God. We must be on guard against allowing works to exalt free will, but rather teach that "any work that is not done solely for the purpose of keeping the body under control or serving one's neighbor, as long as he asks nothing contrary to God, is not good or Christian." Luther continues by explaining that he was greatly afraid that "few or no colleges, monasteries, altars, and offices of the church are really Christian in our day. I fear, I say, that in all these we seek only our profit, thinking that through them our sins are purged away and that we find salvation [or sanctification] in them. In this way Christian liberty perishes altogether. This is a consequence of our ignorance of Christian faith and liberty." (LW, vol. 31, p. 370) We must guard against encouraging people to take a "do it myself" attitude toward life.

We must slay the Dragon of free will first by throwing Gospelwater on his fiery breath. We have a blessed opportunity to teach what justification truly is. It is nothing less that a "healing for sin which slays the whole world eternally and brings it to destruction with its infinite evils. For this reason that divine work of justification is too great to allow any reckoning or consideration of our work or activity to hold here. We must simply at this point say with Paul that we are nothing at all, just as we have been created out of nothing. Indeed, those who look at the appearance of our work or want to be something will never understand the greatness of this divine work."

Rather than being bound to prove our own glory and relevance by our will-works, we must praise and confess with David in Psalm 3:3: "Thou, O Lord, art my glory." This means that "You are my good work without sin. Thus clearly enough, we make gods for ourselves just as is said in Exodus 32:23, 'Make us gods.' Properly speaking, this refers to good works, and it is in these that false saints glory. Isaiah 2:8 agrees with this: 'They bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.' Now the saints of God are shamed of their works before him and glory in Him alone, as Paul says in I Cor. 10:31, 'Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.'" (LW, vol. 32, p. 181)

The Will Proves Itself to be a Hypocrite

It's time to slay the Dragon Free Will with its own bad breath. Picture with me if you will a child who is throwing a temper tantrum. It looks as if he (or she) is displaying his willful displeasure, or self-will run riotous, because he has been told to go to bed, which he obviously does not want to do. How do we explain the fact that some nights he does go straight to bed, though it may not seem like this to the parents? Or what do we say if we bribe him with something in the midst of his act? Is he actually displaying free will in his decision not to go to bed, or is he proving this has nothing to do with going to bed, but rather a contest of wills between him and the parents? I do not see free choice here. I see a brat who has not yet learned to conceal and mask his stupidity. He is driven to this fit by his quest for power, yet he would truly believe, as would some parents, that the issue was the directive to run to bed.

The will is only free to follow desire. "Will, whether divine or human, does what it does, be it good or evil, not by any compulsion, but by mere willingness or desire, as it were, totally free." (The Bondage of the Will, p. 41) The will only says it is driven, when it actually freely follows nature. Everything we do flows freely from the desire of our deepest self. If a person is habitually late, it is their desire to be late, no matter how much they protest it isn't. When a person has a psychological compulsion it is because he desires to have such a "compulsion" no matter how much he consciously denies it. Whether it is being late, creating a compulsion, or having a phobia, the person uses these creations to their own advantage. Their mouth may say one thing but their actions prove quite another. That's being hypocritical.

We must be careful when we include Divine Will in this discussion not to attribute evil to God. Man and the Devil are the only sinners here because they are the only ones who will evil because of their evil nature. Those who want free will to stand should also take full credit for their sin, even the little bit of sin they see. Instead, we are blind to the fact that the "will is always averse to, and the hands inclined toward, the law of the Lord without the grace of God." (LW, vol. 31, p. 9) Talk about a split personality. The will is going one way and the hands are going another! It's a wonder we feel as whole as we do in light of this double direction course we undertake.

Any time the will is inclined toward the law it is so inclined for its own advantage, wanting this advantage over against grace. "Grace as a mediator is necessary to reconcile the law with the will." (LW, vol. 31, p. 9) I see law and will to be two mighty Sumo wrestlers. They may seem to be acting on their own interest and for their own concern, but things are not what they seem. Just as an honorable wrestler wrestles for the honor of his country, so will wrestles for the honor of the very Being of man; while law wrestles for the very honor of God. Only grace makes co-existence possible.

Without grace we believe our will is pursuing that which is good. If we believe the will to be free to follow the good, why do we not follow sound health practices, for instance, or any of the many shoulds we daily face? While addressing those who believed "that free choice is a power of the human will by which a man can apply himself to the good," Luther asks the question, "Or do you think it is not good to apply oneself to the things that pertain to eternal salvation?" (LW, vol. 33, p. 112) As Christians, if we believe our basic will is free and we believe eternal matters are important, why then do we spend so little time pursuing them either in the flesh or in the spirit? Why are we so filled with anxiety and a preoccupation with the least important things in life?

Luther states that "a good law will of necessity be bad for the natural will." (LW, vol. 31, p. 9) This explains again tension that is created anytime the human spirit is bound in any way. Even when the will is not under compulsion it is in bondage. "As proof of this thesis it must be noted…that contrary actions of the will are willing and being unwilling…whereas contradictory actions are willing and not willing, also being unwilling and not willing; that is, at one time, at another, however, it neither wills nor does not will, but remains indecisive and without action." (LW, vol. 31, p. 58)

The fact that I am indecisive when I am not under outward duress proves I do not have free will, otherwise I could and would easily decide which movie I wanted to see, or which restaurant I wanted to take my wife to. Or a woman who is free to choose any man and instead chooses two men has not made a choice, or has actually made a choice for none. She has done nothing but prove she does not have free will or choice.

If I decide to will to do nothing then my mind should be at peace, but often it isn't. There is a conflict within me that proves my will is not free. The fact is my anxiety and my indecision is springing from fear, so the only freedom I have is a freedom to follow my fear, and make it look like I'm not standing still—I cover up my fear.

If my "will is free not to choose what it wills, it follow that it would also be free to be on its guard against every future sin… But if the will is free, it can prevent itself from being led to another sin. To put it another way the will cannot avoid the attraction, it is not free." (LW, vol. 31, p. 58) Whatever attracts me proves I'm not free, no matter how I fight to prove I am indeed free. The woman who chooses two men is attacked by the absence of commitment because she is afraid she will fail—she is hedging her bets.

If I have free will and would freely will my marriage to be strong and peaceful, why then do I not avoid the attraction of an argument in order to make my marriage stronger? Is a peaceful marriage not a good work? If I ever had access to free will, why would I not use it to strengthen my marriage? Be kinder to my children? Create more peace and goodwill everywhere.

It is amazing how hypocritical we are by our very nature. We say we want to be happy and work so hard at achieving the things that we think will make us happy. But that is what we say. What we actually will is something quite different. For this reason Luther states, "Thoughts must be distinguished. Thoughts of the intellect do not make one sad, but considerations of the will do. They cause us to be vexed or pleased about something." (LW, vol. 54, p. 83) We actually will our unhappiness.

I can be thinking about God or a friend or a truth and be at peace in my mind. But as soon as I think about what I have or have not done in response to any of the above I can immediately grow sad and despondent. Or I might recall what God or some friend as done or not done to me and be hurt and angry. In this way we see that will flows from thought and emotions flow from will. Emotions therefore should serve as a guide to who we are and what we are willing and not as the master of our journey.

It has been said that nothing is in the power of the will more than the will itself. If the will is so free and powerful why then can it not change itself? Instead of giving "itself another bent," quips Luther, "the more it is resisted, the more it is irritated to crave; as is manifest from its indignation." (LW, vol. 44, p. 73) How can something be free and in bondage to appetite at the same time? Why, if I told you not to think of a pink elephant, would you think of a pink elephant? Why cannot this hypocritical will resist doing what it does not want to do?

Luther gives a splendid example of this regarding the first time he served communion as a priest. He states that he was "so terrified of the words of institution that I thought of running away from the altar and said to my prior, 'Reverend Father, I'm afraid I must leave the altar.' He shouted to me, 'Go ahead, faster, faster'" (LW, vol. 54, p. 156) If Luther's will truly wanted to run away, why did he not run away? Why did he stay when his superior gave him explicit permission to leave? Why are we such hypocrites?

We act, as Luther did, as if we have no control when having no control is to our advantage. How fickle we are until we see there is no advantage to the self. We are nothing but slaves to our minds. Luther reasoned that he did not want to be there because he was afraid. Instead of being honest about his fear, he appeals to the will to help cover or dilute this fear by saying, "I must run away." So it is proved that will is the servant of reason, which is the servant of our evil nature. "If there were no reason, the will would be like that of cattle." (LW, vol. 43, p. 144) We would genuinely only follow our instincts without giving any thought whatsoever to our future. If we return to our tantrum-throwing child, he reasons that the world revolves around himself and wills accordingly. Unfortunately, reason misses grace.

If the will is free and if we can put any stock at all in all our complaining, then why is it obviously true that "if the sickness of all men could be exchanged… every man would want his own sickness again, and no man would be willing to exchange it?" (LW, vol. 54, p. 155) I do not believe this is true only because we are familiar with our sickness or insanity, but because we have created it and it serves our fictional final goal of superiority. We are proud of our creation. Let's stop being hypocrites and act like we are proud, rather than hiding and blaming.

The Apostle Paul says that we are, according to the flesh, captive to our old nature. Paul is describing a raging warfare which takes place between the Old and New natures. Luther asks, "Who does not forever experience the raging thoughts and impulse of anger and of evil desire—and this no matter how unwilling and reluctant one may be? Its fury is untamed—no, on the contrary (and this will astonish you), it does not thus rage in the ungodly, because they do not sustain its onslaught. They yield and obey it, and so never experience how much labor and how much trouble it is to resist and control it. This -onslaught requires strenuous warfare, and so Christ is called 'the Lord of hosts' and 'the King mighty in battle' (Psalm 24:8), for it is through His gift that these attacks are not only sustained, but overcome. You therefore see the magnitude of the gift and grace of God which prevents such great evil from damning the godly. The evil thoughts of the godly are stronger than those of the ungodly, and yet they do not pollute and damn, while they do pollute and damn the others. Why is this? Isn't it the same sin in both? It is indeed the same sin, but the godly have an antidote, while the others have none." (LW, vol. 32, p. 252)

We have the "antidote" that slays the hypocritical monster Free Will and all that this monster defends, such as our evil mind, bad intentions, and evil nature. We have the courage by faith to understand that "the human will is, at it were, a beast between the two… God and Satan." (LW, vol. 46, p. 74) We can face the fact that "it is truly no freedom to be captive of the Devil, and, especially because they are so wholly captive that they must live according to his will, this dear free will must of a certainty be the Devil's will; for according to that will they must live as his captives. This is clearly Paul's teaching, and Christ Himself agrees with it when He says, Luke 11:21-22, 'When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him,' etc. Here Christ Himself bears witness that the Devil possesses his own in peace, if one stronger does not assail him." (LW, vol. 43, p. 89)

Upon the authority of Christ Himself, we cannot wiggle out from between God and Satan and put ourselves into some spiritual de-militarized zone. Luther states that it is a "mere dialectical fiction that there is in man a neutral and unqualified willing, nor can those who assert it prove it… The truth of the matter is rather as Christ says: 'He who is not with me is against me (Luke 11:23). He does not say: 'He who is not with me is not against me either, but neutral.' For is God is in us, Satan is absent, and only a good will is present; if God is absent, Satan is present, and only an evil will is in us. Neither God nor Satan permits sheer unqualified willing in us." (LW, vol. 33, p. 115)

While the power of our salvation is in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of our will is in the "blood" of our flesh—our nature. Luther comments that "this expression 'free will' was very odious to the fathers, although they conceded, as we do too, that God gave man a free will. But the question here is whether this freedom is in our power. One ought properly call it a changeable, mutable will because God works in us and we are passive, like a potter, from the same material He can make a vessel either for honor or dishonor (Romans 9:21). Accordingly, our free will is passive, not active, because it doesn't lie in our power." ( LW, vol. 54, p. 260)

We have a very difficult, yes impossible, time understanding that God has set boundaries around us as to our life span, finances, gifts and talents, intelligence and wisdom. We can do nothing to add one inch or ounce to our stature. While some may use this as an excuse to lay back or go forward with even greater zeal, those who walk by faith do nothing but thank Him for all He has given and seek only to be faithful in their station of life. The person who walks by faith is not impressed with who has the power or who gets the credit, unless the Who is God.

Some may say that we still have free will but that it is "ineffective." This is nothing more than a vain attempt to hold onto false doctrine and be stupidly rebellious. Luther mentions that to say that the will is free but ineffective is like maintaining that fire is cold. (Bondage, p. 76.) It is indeed ineffective in the sense that Paul speaks of in Romans 7:18: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it." "Paul himself explains how in sin the spiritual man does not do evil, but rather wills the good, and yet cannot accomplish this volition on account of the sin dwelling in his flesh. Nevertheless, the fact that it is not accomplished does not mean that this volition amounts to nothing; just as on the other hand, the evil which dwells in the flesh is 'nothing' even though 'I' do not do it, but rather sin itself. I assert that evil happens, and does not happen." (LW, vol. 32, p. 249)

It is clear we should not use this term "free will." But as Luther wisely states: "If we are unwilling to let this term go altogether—though that would be the safest and most God-fearing thing to do—let us at least teach men to use it honestly, so that free choice is allowed to man only with respect to what is beneath him and not what is above him. This is to say, a man should know that with regard to his faculties and possessions he has the right to use, to do, or to leave undone, according to his own free choice, though even this is controlled by the free choice of God alone, Who acts in whatever way he pleases. On the other hand in relation to God, or in matters pertaining to salvation or damnation, a man has no free choice, but is a captive, subject and slave of the will of God or the will of Satan." (LW, vol. 33, p. 70)

We must fall on our faces before God and beg him to reveal our true nature and intentions to us so that we can be honest in His sight instead of hypocritical. Then we would tend to stop being impressed with our will and freedom to decide and leave all things to Him by faith. We would prayerfully make decisions knowing he could override them anytime He choose without having to explain to us why. We have all had things that happened to us that went directly against what we willed or would have willed, and we generally come to see the His way was far better. Even the most pagan sees that "life" often works out for the best many times.

May God give us the insight, honesty, and courage to truly pray "Thy will be done." When we pray this we are agreeing that our will is always opposed to His. On this petition Luther responds: "What a hard rebuff this petition is to our fleeting and wretched life, marking it as nothing but disobedience to the divine will and thus a sure stage of eternal damnation. It asserts that our life is preserved only by our admission of this, by our lament over it, and by our fervent plea for it. He who reflects deeply on this and the other petitions can truly have but little love for this life." (LW, vol. 42, p. 43)

The bottom line is we are quite eager for the drunk we are helping to "hit bottom," but we don't want to. After all, we aren't neurotic or sick like them. It really seems like we need the drunks and those who "need to hit rock bottom" to ease our conscience and reinforce our impression with our will which isn't as weak as theirs. In our arrogant hypocrisy we lose sight of the fact that God cannot "stand" the confidence we have in ourselves—this confidence keeps His hand far from us, as James says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

In our blindness "we seek to divide the governing between God and ourselves. Reluctantly we concede that He made us, but to ourselves we arrogate the care over ourselves. We act as if after God made us, He departed at once and left the governing of ourselves in our own hands… Who can boast of having had a part in his formation in the womb (Psalm 139)? Who gave to our mothers the concern to suckle, fondly, and love us, and to perform all the duties of motherhood before we were even conscious of our life?" (LW, vol. 42, p. 143)

Faith Makes the Will Free

Faith is free and freedom is free, but the death and dying of our will comes at a tremendous price to us. The price is suffering as even Christ, our obedience, learned obedience by suffering. Faith is made perfect by suffering. Allowing the Spirit, through the Word, to change our beliefs in order to make them conform to God's mine produces much suffering in itself. The human mind loves and wills to have a fix, a most certain point, from which to launch its quest for godness.

Even under the mighty hand of God the human will gives up to God slowly and with much screaming. As the Spirit of Christ begins to influence our minds, we realize more and more that "faith is pure prayer. It continually looks for divine grace, and if it looks for it, it also desires it with all the heart. And this desire is really the true prayer, that Christ teaches and God requires, which also obtains and accomplishes all things. And because it does not trust or seeks comfort in self, its works or worthiness, but builds upon God's pure grace, therefore whatever he believes, desires, hopes and prays, also comes to pass." (Sermons, vol. 5, p. 70)

This description reveals how far short we fall from truly allowing the light of our faith to shine through to the world. By our very nature we love the plaudits and praise of men, and our very self is in the first seat, front row, clapping up a storm. But as Christ increases by faith and we decrease through suffering, we gladly come to agree that to have the term free will attributed to us is "the greatest possible sacrilege"… because "He alone can do and does whatever He pleases in Heaven and earth." We shrink from this term because we agree it is "too imposing, too wide and full, and the people thinking it signifies—as the force and nature of the term requires—a power that can turn itself freely in either direction, without being under anyone'' influence or control." (LW, vol. 33, p. 69)

The first, greatest, and best act faith does is to destroy our will so that we can begin to enjoy and joyously serve the Divine Will. From this process comes love and joy in Christ, and from "love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves one's neighbor willingly and takes no account of gratitude or ingratitude, of praise or blame, of gain or loss. For a man does not serve that he may may put men under obligations. He does not distinguish between friends and enemies or anticipate their thankfulness or unthankfulness, but he most freely and most willingly spends himself and all that he has, whether he wastes all on the thankless or whether he gains a reward." (LW, vol. 31, p. 367)

Now we begin to understand what it means to have a will that has been annexed by the will of Christ. We are beginning to "learn and know a will which is superior to ours and which is opposed to our own. We will never feel uncertain when we find this one will, knowing that in him these wills are not in conflict with one another, when he accustoms himself to follow the superior will rather than his own. He who has and obeys his own will surely acts contrary to God's will. But as it happens, there is nothing so dear to man and so hard to surrender as his own will. Many people perform fine and good works, but they completely follow their own will and inclinations, assuming all the time that all is well and that they are not doing wrong. They are of the opinion that their will is good and true and that they do not in the least need the petition, 'Thy will be done.' They are also without any fear of God." (LW, vol. 42, p. 44)

What a blessing to be able to learn a "superior will." This is what we want for our children, though often for the wrong reasons. I know it is crucial for my children to learn to submit to my will if they are going to be able to go out into society and be useful. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be useful and benefit His Kingdom, but without Christ "we can do nothing." Without the Vine called "Superior Will," we are only silly little branches running around looking for something to hook on to.

We know our will is free in faith when we experientially understand that as a Christian we can sin and make a mistake as if we really didn't sin and make a mistake. The focus is not on the behavior, but on the grace and mercy of Christ. We easily forgive ourselves and others because of His merit. When we sin we realize it really was not us sinning but sin sinning in us. To this Luther speaks when he says "your hand strikes me, but you do not strike me? It is really so, for it does it against my will, and it is in terms of this latter that I am evaluated. Nevertheless, I truly do it, for a part of me does it; but now I am not evaluated in terms of it. When my hand does evil, it is imputed to me unless my soul is innocent; but the reason for this is not that the hand does not do evil, but because it is not imputed—and it is not imputed because of the innocent soul." (LW, vol. 32, p. 249)

What peace this brings to be aware of this truth and humbly ask God to live in accordance with this truth! There is now no condemnation… to those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Some may think this way of thinking breeds arrogance and sinfulness. It doesn't if the focus is on Christ. If our intent is to use truth to our own advantage, then truth adds to our condemnation. Faith simply learns to flee to Christ and His mercy. It's like a midget fleeing to a giant. If the midget thinks he is responsible for scaring the bullies away, he is headed for a fall as his cockiness will irritate them all the more and they will be sure to take revenge on him; but if he acknowledges this all comes from his giant friend, his humility will tend to defer their wrath.

Faith cheerfully breaks our will because in "the breaking of our will God's will is done; for He wants to see our will hindered and broken. Therefore, if someone wants to reproach you or make a fool of you, do not oppose him, but say yes to him, deeming it right before God to do so, which, as a matter of fact, it is… 'Thy will be done.'" (LW, vol. 42, p. 45) If this is not our attitude we see how little faith we have and how little God has broken our will. Meditate on these things, I beg you.

If these things are true, if this is how we walk by faith, why are we so quick to teach those we help to retaliate. When a man is complaining about his wife and work; when a wife is complaining about her husband and the children and her job; when the children are complaining about what's before them on the dinner plate; and when our friends call us to complain, why do we not preach the truth to them. I am not saying this is the only truth, but to begin working to have the attitude Christ had is no small part to the solution of any problem and complaint. Why do we not teach those we help, "If you confess you are a sinner and deserve Hell, why do you not willing and joyfully suffer thus and so?"

Faith frees the will so such a degree that it will not be brought back into bondage to no one and no thing other that the Divine Will. Faith stands firm in freedom to such a degree that even if "the Devil should say, 'Do not drink,' you should reply to him, 'On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount!" (LW, vol. 54, p. 203) This teaches us to trust Christ only and not to be impressed with our will and works. We are truly sinner and saint!

Sin captures the will and faith frees the will. Faith even frees the will to look forward to death, to that great giving up which we hate as much as a child hates to give it up and go to bed. We hate to be stopped. We love the experience life affords us to be in motion. The Psalmist says that evil men don't live out half their days. He means that they don't live nearly long enough to accomplish and see to fruition all their desires, plans, and schemes. But the grand scheme of faith is to die, to be released from this system of sin and death and go to be free in every aspect with Christ. We look forward to even death even though "death has proved its free will over all men, which it could not do if sin (which is death's right and might) had not first captured man." (LW, vol. 43, p. 90)

We know our will has been broken and set free in Christ when we gladly do the things He has commanded. We do not take on this responsibility in and of ourselves. We simply obey as if we were not obeying. We are not aware of even doing His commandments as our focus is on the gaze of our Heavenly Brother. We agreeably recognize that anything He asks us to do is being asked with the understanding that this will be done in faith, so that actually He is doing it through us. We seek and take no credit, but He graciously speaks as if to give us credit.

A will set free by faith and gladly in harmony with His superior will, will joyfully think this way: "Although I am an unworthy and condemned man, my God has given me in Christ all the riches of righteousness and salvation without any merit on my part, out of pure, free mercy, so that from now on I need nothing except faith which believes that this is true. Why should I not therefore freely, joyfully, with all my heart, and with an eager will do all things which I know are pleasing and acceptable to such a Father who has overwhelmed me with his inestimable riches? I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ." (LW, vol. 31, p. 367)

Conclusion

The end, beginning, and substance of the matter is faith, which must destroy the tree, the fruit, and the root of our nature. Faith only is the substance of the glory of God, or things not seen, and faith cannot cohabitate with works, will, an evil conscience, or an evil nature. All that we feel, see, experience, touch, taste, and smell is opposed to faith and seeks to destroy this faith wherein we boldly stand approved before God.

Unfortunately, it is so easy to assume so many things are true of us and our walk with our Lord when in actuality we have grown cold, lukewarm, indifferent, and smug. Faith is something that must remain active and in constant motion to remain relevant. Faith must be constantly exercised via suffering, conflict, pain, confusion, and warfare. We must not be ignorant of the Devil's chief devise against us—a cold heart created by his leading us to set our affections on things we see instead of things we do not see.

I am well aware that I have used Luther extensively, maybe to the point that you are nauseous. I cannot apologize for this. Like they say, "When you've found the best, why mess with the rest?" While I gain something from any and all who speak to the truth concerning Scripture, Scripture cannot be expounded more clearly, accurately, and with the proper heart attitude, as Luther speaks to Scripture. I deeply humble myself to his writings: For I know he writes of the Word and the Word Incarnate.

I leave you with three quotes from Luther's Sermons, which I trust you will prayerfully consider so as to challenge you to consider your ways, your true heart and intentions, and the ways and intentions of those you lovingly seek to help. God bless you and your work. To God be the glory.

"A person can easily be pious, but not a Christian. A Christian knows nothing to say about his piety, for he finds in himself nothing good or pious. If he is to be pious, he must look for a different piety, a piety of some one else. To this end Christ is presented to us as an inexhaustible fountain, who at all times overflows with pure goodness and grace. And for such goodness and kindness he accepts nothing, except that the good people, who acknowledge such kindness and grace, thank him for it, praise and love him, although others despise him for it. If you look at what you do, you have already lost the Christian name. It is indeed true that we are to do good works, help, advise and give to others; but no one is called a Christian by reason of that, nor is he on that account a Christian. From this you understand what kind of people Christians are, and what their kingdom is, namely, that they are a multitude that cling to Christ, and have one Spirit and the same gifts with him. And through this all Christians are equal, and no one has any more of Christ than another. St. Peter is no more than the thief on the cross. Therefore we are all alike through faith in Christ." (Sermons, vol. 5, p. 332)

"By the 'hidden things of darkness' and the 'counsels of the heart' (I Cor. 4:5) Paul refers to the two powers commonly but not very intelligibly termed 'will' and 'reason.' Man possesses in his inmost being two capacities: He loves, delights, desires, wills; and he understands, perceives judges, decides. I shall term these capacities 'motive' and 'thought.' The motives and desires of man are deep and deceitful beyond recognition; no saint, even, can wholly comprehend them. Many pious individuals perform great works from a selfish motive or desire. They seek their own interests, yet never with assurance. They serve God not purely for love of him, but for the sake of personal honor or profit; of gaining heaven and escaping the tortures of hell. One cannot realize the falseness of his motives until God permits him to endure many severe temptations. So Paul calls such motives 'hidden things of darkness,' a most appropriate name. Not only are they concealed, but in darkness, in the inmost heart, where they are unperceived by the individual himself and known to God alone. Remembering this deplorable secret motive of the heart, we should be induced to submit ourselves one to another and not to contrast any particular work or station with others. Now, according to our secret motives so are our thoughts—good or evil. Our motives and desires control our aims, decisions and reasonings. These latter Paul terms 'counsels of the heart'—the thought we arrive at in consequence of our secret motives and desires. We call intent or motive of the heart the 'hidden things of darkness'—desire, while the 'counsels' and imaginations are the heart's expression. The secret workings of darkness are not to be overcome in any way but by despair of our own works, and strong faith in the pure grace of God. Nothing is more conducive to this end than sufferings severe and many, and all manner of misfortunes. Under such influences man may learn, to some extent, to know himself; otherwise all is lost." (Sermons, vol. 6, p. 91)

"To fear God is to look upon our own devices as pure ungodliness in the light of his manifest grace. These being ungodly, we are to fear God and forsake them, and thereafter guard against them. To trust in God is to have perfect confidence that he will be gracious to us, filling us with grace and goodness. The individual yields to God when he gives himself wholly to God, attempting nothing of himself but permitting the Lord to work in and to rule him; when his whole concern and fear, his continual prayer and desire, are for God to withhold him from following his own works and ways, which he now recognizes as ungodly and deserving of wrath, and to rule over and work in him through grace. Observe, they are pious and filled with grace, who do not walk by reason, do not trust in human nature, but rely only on the grace of God, ever fearful lest they fall from grace into dependence on their own reason, their self-conceit, good intentions and self-devised works. God says: Let me work, perform not thine own works. Let me help thee in thy need. For everything, look to me. Let me alone direct thy life. Then wilt thou be able to know me and my grace; to love and praise me; this is the true road to salvation." (Sermons, vol. 6, p. 126)