Luther’s teaching: with the fall of
Adam, man was hopelessly corrupt; his
will unable to choose anything in the moral realm.
Biblical argument: The Bible stresses
both the human factor of the freedom
of the will, and the Divine factor of grace.
Deuteronomy
30:19
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I
have set
before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.
Choose life,
then, that you and your descendants may live. See also
Ecclesiastes 15:18; Matthew 23:37.
Church’s teaching: Adam’s gift was
basic humanity that defined essential
human nature; a material body and an immaterial soul;
essential
to the human person is its highest faculties, its
intellect (mind,
power of reasoning, seeking truth) and its will
(considering options,
making choices, seeking what is good); to destroy either
of these
powers, one would no longer have a human person but as
mere
animal.