This work, originally written in Latin by Luther, was a reaction to the treatise “On Free Will” by the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, in which Erasmus declares that man has the moral and spiritual capacity to choose between good and evil.
Free will is a term that has no place in Luther's theology: It is alien to his concept of justification, and it is also alien to his concept of sanctification.
The reader will find that Luther's emphasis is on God and on the cross of Christ, and not on man, so that it is absolutely clear at the beginning of the Reformation: We are saved by the grace of God, and only guided and moved by His Spirit can our will do the will of God.
