Free Choice?

But in this sense and respect—as “freedom” means the free power and capability to select the good and reject the evil, which existed in Adam—Dr. Luther (Assert. Art, art. 36) declared very correctly: “Free choice is a name without a reality or a reality about a name only.” Indeed, after the fall, man still understands with his mind, selects freely with his will, and acts with his heart. But because of the fall of the first parents and the following corruption of [human] nature, it happened that the mind errs in judging and the will in choosing; or if the mind at times judges correctly, yet the will divorces itself, so to speak, from it and joins itself to sinful dispositions and follows their lead. For in the mind the true and complete knowledge of God ceases; in the will and heart, the true fear and love of God, trust in God, the sincere intend and eagerness to obey God cease. But in their place in the mind came ignorance, blindness, doubts; and in the will and heart came stubbornness against God and corrupt inclinations of every kind.

Gerhard, Johann Theological Commonplaces XII-XIV: On Sin and Free Choice 230