Our Lutheran churches teach that man’s will has some liberty for the attainment of civil righteousness and for the choice of things subject to reason. However, it does not have the power, without the Holy Spirit, to attain the righteousness of God — that is, spiritual righteousness — because natural man does not perceive the gifts of the Spirit of God (1st Corinthians. 2:14); 3 but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Spirit is received through the Word.. . . Our Lutheran churches condemn those who teach that without the Holy Spirit, by the power of nature alone, we are able to love God above all things, and can also keep the commandments of God in so far as the substance of the acts is concerned. Although nature is able in some measure to perform the outward works for it can keep the hands from theft and murder, yet it cannot produce the inward motions, such as the fear of God, trust in God, chastity, patience, and so on.

Mankind has the free will in earthly matter, but not in spiritual matters. We are able to apply ourselves to temporal concerns, but not matters of divine revelation. Free will was lost in the fall into sin. Now our nature is totally deprived of even taking the first step to faith. The wages of sin is death [period]. We are like Jesus' friend Lazarus who died and was in the grave for four days prior to Jesus' coming. Lazarus’ dead body was totally helpless. Jesus spoke the words "Lazarus, come out!" Then Lazarus came out.

The apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV) Whenever one thinks or believers that he or she can and must do something to merit salvation then first one is in doubt, that leads to despair as one wonders did I do enough. This is especially troubling when one realizes that he has once again sinned.

The second consequence of thinking that must do his or her part is to deny Jesus of His saving work. In other words, it is to call Jesus a liar when he said: "It is finished!" Jesus was proclaiming the good news that the sin of all mankind had been paid in full by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,