One of the fundamentally differing premises between Catholicism and Protestantism, was the doctrine of the human will. Where Catholics argued that the will was weakened by original sin, but free to do good or evil, Protestants argued that the will was free only to choose between sins; free only to do evil.
Here’s a quotation from John Calvin’s “The Bondage and Liberation of the Will”:
“We say that man not only cannot do anything good but cannot even think it, so that he may learn to depend totally on God and, despairing of himself, to cast himself entirely upon him; and so that [man] may give the credit, if he has done anything good, to God and not to himself…by ourselves we are helpless”
The apostle Paul seemed to be saying something similar: “ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Rom. 7:18)
On the other hand, Roman Catholics, following a long patristic Tradition affirm the freedom of the will as necessary, citing people like Justin Martyr who wrote one of the first apologies on the Christian faith:
“We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble” (1st Apology, ch. 43)
This seems to fit with many statements made in the Scriptures such as the passage in Joshua where he tells the children of Israel: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14,15)
In his great work “The Bondage of the Will” Martin Luther points out that – pace (with peace to) Immanuel Kant – ought does not imply can. Just because God says we ought to do something does not mean we can do it. We ought to be perfect, but it isn’t. Unlike Justin Martyr and the Eastern Church Tradition of the Greeks, the Western Church agreed with St. Augustine that in Adam, all sinned. In this type of a scenario, God is not obliged to judge man ‘fairly’ in the sense that they are no longer on an equal playing field. God owes man nothing, and man owes a lot to God.
Thus for Protestants, the Law is God’s just judgment that we are sinners, we can’t excuse ourselves on the basis of Original Sin, anymore than we can accuse God of unfairness. Besides in a world where salvation was based on human choice, and thus the Law, man would be the worst of all slaves. Since Christ freed us from the Law by perfectly fulfilling it in our place, and offering us forgiveness for our lawlessness through his grace, we are free in the most fundamental way. Perhaps not free to choose good, but free from condemnation in Jesus.