The natural free will according to its perverted disposition and nature is strong and active only to do what is displeasing and contrary to God...

In spiritual and divine things the unregenerate person's intellect, heart, and will are utterly unable, by his natural powers, to understand, believe, accept, think, will, begin, effect, do, work, or concur in working anything.  They are entirely dead to what is good.  They are corrupt.  So in mankind's nature since the fall, before regeneration, there is not the least spark of spiritual power remaining or present.  No person can prepare himself for God's grace or accept the grace God offers.  A person is not capable of grace for and of himself.  He cannot apply or accommodate himself to it.  By his own powers he is not able to aid, do, work, or agree in working anything toward his conversion.  He cannot do this fully, halfway, or even in part--not the smallest or most trivial part.  he is sin's servant and the devil's captive, by whom he is moved.  Therefore, the natural free will according to its perverted disposition and nature is strong and active only to do what is displeasing and contrary to God.
~BOC, FSD, II, 7

The cause of our sin is our own will...

Our churches teach that although God creates and preserves nature, the cause of sin is located in the will of the wicked, that is, the devil and ungodly people.  Without God's help, this will turns itself away from God, as Christ says, "When he lies, he speaks out of his own character" (John 8:44).
~BOC, AC, XIX

The Holy Spirit lays hold of a person's will and works in him the new birth and conversion...

Dr. Luther has written that a person's will in his conversion is purely passive, that is, that it does nothing at all.  This is to be understood with respect to divine grace in the kindling of the new movements, that is, when God's Spirit, through the heard Word or the use of the holy Sacraments, lays hold of a person's will and works in him the new birth and conversion.  When the Holy Spirit has worked and accomplish this, and a person's will has been changed and renewed by His divine power and working alone, then the new will of that person is an instrument and organ of God the Holy Spirit.  So that person not only accepts grace, but he cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the works that follow.

~BOC, FE, II, 18

The old Adam counts God as his enemy...

Likewise, we believe, teach, and confess that the unregenerate will of mankind is not only turned away from God, but also has become God's enemy.  So it only has an inclination and desire for that which is evil and contrary to God, as it is written in Genesis 8:21, "The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."
~BOC, FE, II, 3

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

Human will is capable of nothing divinely good...

Second, God's Word testifies that the intellect, heart, and will of the natural, unregenerate person in divine things are not only turned entirely away from God, but also are turned and perverted against God to every evil.  Also, a person is not only weak, incapable, unfit, and dead to good, but is also sadly perverted, infected, and corrupted by original sin so that he is entirely evil, perverse, and hostile to God by his disposition and nature.  He is very strong, alive, and active in everything that is displeasing and contrary to God.
~BOC, FSD, II, 17

Without His grace, all our willing and running, our planting, sowing and watering--are all nothing...

Also Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."  It is God's will that His Word should be heard and that a person's ears should not be closed.  With this Word the Holy Spirit is present and opens hearts, so that people pay attention to it and are converted only through the Holy Spirit's grace and power, who alone does the work of converting a person.  For without His grace, and if He does not grant the increase, all our willing and running, our planting, sowing, and watering--are all nothing.  As Christ says, in John 15:5 "Apart from me you can do nothing."  With these brief words the Spirit denies free will its powers and ascribes everything to God's grace, in order that no one may boast before God.
~BOC, FE, II, 5-6

The understanding and reason of mankind are completely blind and without understanding of spiritual matters...

This is our teaching, faith, and confession on this subject:  in spiritual matters the understanding and reason of mankind are completely blind and by their own powers understand nothing, as it is written in  I Corthinians 2:14, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
~BOC, FE, II, 2

The natural person does not accept the things of God...

It [human will] has no power, without the Holy Spirit, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness. For the "natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God" (I Cor. 2:14). This righteousness is worked in the heart when the Holy Spirit is received through the Word.
~BOC, AC, XVIII, 1-3

We do not assign spiritual matters to free will...

Although we admit that free will has the freedom and power to perform the supreme works of the Law, we do not assign spiritual matters to free will. These are to truly fear God, believe God, be confident and hold that He care for us, hears us, and forgives us.  These are the true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot produce without the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, "The natural person [namely, a person using only natural strength] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:14).  People can determine this if they consider what their hearts believe about God's will, whether they are truly confident God cares for and hears them. Even the saints find keeping this faith difficult (which is not possible in believers). But, as we have said before, it begins when terrified hearts hear the Gospel and receive comfort.
~BOC, AP, XVIII, 73-74

We do not assign spiritual matters to free will...

Although we admit that free will has the freedom and power to perform the extreme works of the Law; we do not assign spiritual matters to free will. These are to truly fear God, believe God, be confident and hold that He cares for us, hears us, and forgives us. These are the true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot produce without the Holy Spirit....
~BOC, AP, XVIII, 73