Luther denounces as folly and presumption.

Yet Luther maintains that the conflict is seeming rather than real.
Whatever may be true of the majestic God, it certainly cannot annul or
invalidate what He has made known of Himself in the Gospel. There are
and can be no contradictory wills in God. Despite appearances to the
contrary, therefore, Christians are firmly to believe that, in His
dealings with men, God, who saves so few and damns so many, is
nevertheless both truly merciful and just. And what we now believe we
shall see hereafter. When the veil will have been lifted and we shall
know God even as we are known by Him, then we shall see with our eyes no
other face of God than the most lovable one which our faith beheld in
Jesus. The light of glory will not correct but confirm, the truths of
the Bible, and reveal the fact that in all His ways God was always in
perfect harmony with Himself.

Indeed, according to Luther, the truth concerning the majestic God, in
whom we live and move and have our being, and without whom nothing can
be or occur, in a way serves both repentance and faith. It serves
repentance and the Law inasmuch as it humbles man, causing him to
despair of himself and of the powers of his own unregenerate will. It
serves faith inasmuch as it guarantees God's merciful promises in the
Gospel. For if God is supreme, as He truly is, then there can be nothing
more reliable than the covenant of grace to which He has pledged Himself
by an oath. And if God, as He truly does, controls all contingencies,
then there remains no room for any fear whether He will be able to
fulfil His glorious promises, also the promise that nothing shall pluck
us out of the hands of Christ.--Such, essentially was the teaching set
forth by Luther in _De Servo Arbitrio_ and in his other publications.

236. Object of Luther's "De Servo Arbitrio."

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