The work of the old Adam...

In short, the old Adam encourages us to have all kinds of evil lusts, which cling to us by nature and to which we are moved by the society, the example, and what we hear and see of other people. They often wound and inflame even an innocent heart.
~BOC, LC, III, 102

Standing one day and falling the next is the nature of our life...

Although we have received forgiveness and a good conscience and are entirely acquitted, yet our life is of such a nature that we stand today, and tomorrow we fall.  Therefore, even though we are godly now and stand before God with a good conscience, we must pray again that He would not allow us to fall again and yield to trials and temptations.
~BOC, LC, III, 100

Our need for the comfort of the Gospel...

...the purpose of this prayer is that we may recognize and receive such forgiveness.  The flesh in which we daily live is of such a nature that it neither trusts nor believes God.  It is ever active in evil lusts and devices, so that we sin daily in word and deed, by what we do and fail to do.  By this the conscience is thrown into unrest, so that it is afraid of God's wrath and displeasure.  So it loses the comfort and confidence derived from the Gospel.  Therefore, it is always necessary that we run here and receive consolation to comfort the conscience again.
~BOC, LC, III, 88-89

The devil's will and purpose and all our enemies shall and must fail...

We have this comfort and confidence: the devil's will and purpose and all our enemies shall and must fail and come to nothing, no matter how proud, secure, and powerful they know themselves to be.  For if their will were not broken and hindered, God's kingdom could not remain on earth nor His name be hallowed.
~BOC, LC, III, 70

The devil chafes and rages as a fierce enemy against us with all his power and might...

No one can believe how the devil opposes and resists these prayers.  He cannot allow anyone to teach or to believe rightly.  It hurts him beyond measure to have his lies and abominations exposed, which have been honored under the most fancy, sham uses of the divine name.  It hurts him when he himself is disgraced, is driven out of the heart, and has to let a breach be made in his kingdom.  Therefore, he chafes and rages as a fierce enemy with all his power and might.  He marshals all his subjects and, in addition, enlists the world and our own flesh as his allies.  For our flesh is in itself lazy and inclined to evil, even though we have accepted and believe God's Word.  The world, however, is perverse and wicked.  So he provokes the world against us, fans and stirs the fire, so that he may hinder and drive us back, cause us to fall, and again bring us under his power.  Such is all his will, and mind, and thought.  He strives for this day and night and never rests a moment.  He uses all arts, wiles, ways, and means that he can invent.

~BOC, LC, III, 62-64

The eternal inestimable treasure in God's kingdom come to us...

From this you can see that we do not pray here for a crust of bread or a temporal, perishable good.  Instead, we pray for an eternal inestimable treasure and everything that God Himself possesses.  This is far too great for any human heart to think about desiring, if God had not Himself commanded us to pray for the same.  But because He is God, He also claims the honor of giving much more and more abundantly than anyone can understand.  He is like an eternal, unfailing fountain.  The more it pours forth and overflows, the more it continues to give.
~BOC, LC, III, 55-56

God arranges the words and form of our prayers, places them on our lips...

...God expects us and He Himself arranges the words and form of prayer for us.  He places them on our lips for how and what we should pray, so that we may see how heartily He pities us in our distress, and we may never doubt that such prayer is pleasing to Him and shall certainly be answered.
~BOC, LC, III, 22

God commands us to pray because He desires that we call upon Him...

Indeed, the human heart is by nature so hopeless that it always flees from God and imagines that He does not wish or desire our prayer, because we are sinners and have earned nothing but wrath.  Against such thoughts, we should always remember this commandment and turn to God, so that we may not stir up His anger more by such disobedience.  For by this commandment God lets us plainly understand that He will not cast us away from Him or chase us away.  This is true even though we are sinners.  But instead He draws us to Himself, so that we might humble ourselves before Him, bewail this misery and plight of ours and pray for grace and help.
~BOC, LC, III, 10-11

Even just studying the Creed will give us a lifetime of learning...

Let this be enough about the Creed to lay a foundation for the simple, so that they may not be burdened.  Then, if they understand the substance of it, they themselves may afterward drive to gain more, refer to these parts whatever they learn in the Scriptures, and may ever grow and increase in richer understanding.  For as long as we live here, we shall daily have enough to preach and to learn this.
~BOC, LC, II, 70

The Holy Spirit reveals the treasure of Christ...

Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe in Him, and have Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel.  The work of redemption is done and accomplished.  Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, and so on.  But if the work remained concealed so that no one knew about it, then it would be useless and lost.  So that this treasure might not stay buried, but be received and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed.  In the Word He has the Holy Spirit bring this treasure home and make it our own.  Therefore, sanctifying is just bringing us to Christ so we receive this good, which we could not get ourselves.
~BOC, LC, III, 38-39

Christ connects the promise of the forgiveness of sins to good works...

Christ often connects the promise of the forgiveness of sins to good works, yet not because He means that good works are an atoning sacrifice (for they follow reconciliation).  Christ makes this connection for two reasons.  One is because good fruit must necessarily follow.  He reminds us that if good fruit does not follow, the repentance is hypocritical and fake.  The other reason is that we have need of outward signs of so great a promise.  A conscience full of fear has need of much consolation. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs that continually remind, cheer, and encourage despairing minds to believe more firmly that their sins are forgiven.  So the same promise is written and portrayed in good works, in order that these works may remind us to believe more firmly. Those who produce no good works do not encourage themselves to believe, but despise these promises. On the other hand, the godly embrace them and rejoice that they have the signs and testimonies of so great a promise.  So they exercise themselves in these signs and testimonies.  Therefore, just as the Lord's Supper does not justify us by the outward act (ex opere operato) without faith, so alms do not justify us by the outward acts (ex opere operato) without faith.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 155-156

Works can never make a conscience peaceful...

The promise should always be in sight.  Because of His promise.  God wishes to be gracious and to justify for Christ's sake, not because of the Law or our works.  In this promise timid consciences should seek reconciliation and justification.  By this promise they should sustain themselves and be confident that they have a gracious God for Christ's sake, because of His promise. So works can never make a conscience peaceful.  Only the promise can.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 59

Faith is conceived in the terrors of conscience...

In fact, we also say this:  Our love for God, even though it is small, cannot possibly be separated from faith.  For we come to the Father through Christ.  When the forgiveness of sins has been received, then we are truly certain that we have a God, that is, that God care for us.  We call upon Him, we give Him thanks, we fear Him, we love Him as 1 John 4:19 teaches, "We loved because He first loved us."  In other words, we love Him because He gave His Son for us and forgave us our sins.  In this way John shows that faith comes first and love follows.  Likewise, the faith of which we speak exists in repentance. I mean that faith is conceived in the terrors of conscience, which feels God's wrath against our sins and seeks forgiveness of sins, seeks to be freed from sin. In such terrors and other troubles, this faith ought to grow and be strengthened.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 20-21

Reason never satisfies the Law...

Yet the adversaries do not give up on Christ completely.  They require a knowledge of the history about Christ.  They credit Him by writing that from His merit a way of life is given to us or, as they say, "first grace" (prima gratia).  They understand this as a habit, inclining us to love God more readily.  Yet, what they credit to this habit is of little importance.  For they imagine that the human will's acts are the same before and after this habit.  They imagine that the will can love God; but, nevertheless, this habits stimulates it to love more cheerfully.  They tell us, "First, merit this habit by your earlier merits."  Then they tell us we should merit an increase of this habit and life eternal by the works of the Law.  In this way they bury Christ, so that people may not benefit from Him as a Mediator and believe that they freely receive forgiveness of sins and reconciliation for His sake.  They let people dream that by their own fulfillment of the Law, they merit forgiveness of sins, that by their own fulfillment of the Law, they are counted righteous before God.  However, the Law is never satisfied since reason does nothing except certain civil works.  In the meantime, a person neither fears God nor truly believes that God cares.  Although they speak about this habit, God's love cannot exist in a person without the righteousness of faith, nor can His love be understood.
~BOC, AP, IV (II), 17-18

The consolation in God's power made apparent in our weakness...

Job is excused though he was not troubled by past evil deeds.  Therefore, troubles are not always punishments or signs of wrath.  Indeed, terrified consciences should be taught that there are more important purposes for afflictions, so that they do not think God is rejecting them when they see nothing but God's punishment and anger in troubles.  The other more important purposes are to be considered, that is, that God is doing His strange work so that He may be able to do His own work, as Isaiah 28 teaches in a long speech.  When the disciples asked about the blind man who sinned, Christ replied that the cause of his blindness is not sin, but that "the works of God might be displayed in him" (John 9:2-3).  In Jeremiah it is said, "If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it..." (49:12).  So the prophets, John the Baptist, and other saints were killed.  Therefore, troubles are not always punishments for certain past deeds, but they are God's works, intended for our benefit, and that God's power might be made more apparent in our weakness.
~BOC, AP, XII (VI), 61-62

Absolution is the very voice of the Gospel...

It is well known that we have made clear and praised the benefit of Absolution and the Power of the Keys.  Many troubled consciences have derived comfort from our teaching.  They have been comforted after they heard that it is God's command, no, rather the very voice of the Gospel, that we should believe the Absolution and regard it as certain that the forgiveness of sins is freely granted to us for Christ's sake.  We should believe that through this faith we are truly reconciled to God.  This belief has encouraged many godly minds and,  in the beginning, brought Luther the highest praise from all good people.  This believe shows consciences sure and firm comfort.  Previously, the entire power of Absolution had been kept under warps by teachings about works.
~BOC, AP, XI, 59

The Holy Spirit fights our flesh and produces new spiritual motives...

The flesh distrusts God, trusts in present things, seeks human aid in trouble, even contrary to God's will.  It flees from suffering, which it ought to bear because of God's commands.  It doubts God's mercy and so on.  The Holy Spirit in our hearts fights against such tendencies in order to suppress and kill them and to produce new spiritual motives.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 49-50