The true scope of _De Servo Arbitrio_ is to prove that man is saved, not
by any ability or efforts of his own, but solely by grace. Luther says:
"We are not arguing the question what we can do when God works [moves
us], but what we can do ourselves, _viz_., whether, after being created
out of nothing, we can do or endeavor [to do] anything through that
general movement of omnipotence toward preparing ourselves for being a
new creation of His Spirit. This question should have been answered,
instead of turning aside to another." Luther continues: "We go on to
say: Man, before he is renewed to become a new creature of the kingdom
of the Spirit, does nothing, endeavors nothing, toward preparing himself
for renewal and the kingdom; and afterwards, when he has been created
anew, he does nothing, endeavors nothing, toward preserving himself in
that kingdom; but the Spirit alone does each of these things in us, both
creating us anew without our cooperation and preserving us when
recreated,--even as Jas. 1, 18 says: 'Of His own will begat He us by the
Word of Truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures,'
He is speaking here of the renewed creature." (E. v. a. 7, 317; St. L.
18, 1909; compare here and in the following quotations Vaughan's _Martin
Luther on the Bondage of the Will_, London, 1823.)
Man lacks also the ability to do what is good before God. Luther: "I
reply: The words of the Prophet [Ps. 14, 2: "The Lord looketh down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did
understand and seek God. They are all gone aside," etc.] include both
act and power; and it is the same thing to say, 'Man does not seek after
God,' as it would be to say, 'Man cannot seek after God.'" (E. 330; St.
L. 1923.) Again: "Since, therefore, men are flesh, as God Himself
testifies, they cannot but be carnally minded (_nihil sapere possunt
nisi carnem_); hence free will has power only to sin. And since they
grow worse even when the Spirit of God calls and teaches them, what
would they do if left to themselves, without the Spirit of God?" (E.
290; St. L. 1876.) "In brief, you will observe in Scripture that
wherever flesh is treated in opposition to the Spirit, you may
understand by flesh about everything that is contrary to the Spirit, as
in the passage [John 6, 63]: 'The flesh profiteth nothing.'" (E. 291; St.
L. 1877.) "Thus also Holy Scripture, by way of emphasis (_per
epitasin_), calls man 'flesh,' as though he were carnality itself,
because his mind is occupied with nothing but carnal things. _Quod nimio
ac nihil aliud sapit quam ea, quae carnis sunt_." (E. 302; St. L. 1890.)
According to Luther there is no such thing as a neutral willing in man.
He says: "It is a mere logical fiction to say that there is in man a
neutral and pure volition (_medium et purum velle_); nor can those prove
it who assert it. It was born of ignorance of things and servile regard
to words, as if something must straightway be such in substance as we
state it to be in words, which sort of figments are numberless among the
Sophists [Scholastic theologians]. The truth of the matter is stated by
Christ when He says [Luke 11, 23]: 'He that is not with Me is against
Me,' He does not say, 'He that is neither with Me nor against Me, but in
the middle,' For if God be in us, Satan is absent, and only the will for
good is present with us. If God be absent, Satan is present, and there
is no will in us but towards evil. Neither God nor Satan allows a mere
and pure volition in us; but, as you have rightly said, having lost our
liberty, we are compelled to serve sin; that is sin and wickedness we
will, sin and wickedness we speak, sin and wickedness we act." (E. 199;
St. L. 1768.)
In support of his denial of man's ability in spiritual matters Luther
quotes numerous Bible-passages, and thoroughly refutes as fallacies _a
debito ad posse_, etc., the arguments drawn by Erasmus from mandatory
and conditional passages of Scripture. His own arguments he summarizes
as follows: "For if we believe it to be true that God foreknows and
preordains everything, also, that He can neither be deceived nor
hindered in His foreknowledge and predestination furthermore that
nothing occurs without His will (a truth which reason itself is
compelled to concede), then, according to the testimony of the selfsame
reason, there can be no free will in man or angel or any creature.
Likewise, if we believe Satan to be the prince of the world, who is
perpetually plotting and fighting against the kingdom of Christ with all
his might, so that he does not release captive men unless he be driven
out by the divine power of the Spirit, it is again manifest that there
can be no such thing as free will. Again, if we believe original sin to
have so ruined us that, by striving against what is good, it makes most
troublesome work even for those who are led by the Spirit, then it is
clear that in man devoid of the Spirit nothing is left which can turn
itself to good, but only [what turns itself] to evil. Again, if the
Jews, following after righteousness with all their might rushed forth
into unrighteousness, and the Gentiles, who were following after
unrighteousness, have freely and unexpectingly attained to
righteousness, it is likewise manifest, even by very deed and
experience, that man without grace can will nothing but evil. In brief,
if we believe Christ to have redeemed man by His blood, then we are
compelled to confess that the whole man was lost; else we shall make
Christ either superfluous, or the Redeemer only of the vilest part [of
man] which is blasphemous and sacrilegious." (E. 366; St. L. 1969.)