If we rely upon ourselves, we are left to ourselves, and limited by a sinful motivation of our own nature; therefore, we shall never know how, we shall never wish and be able to save our souls.

If a plant tried to find life energy within itself, and thus started to fold its leaves towards itself, it would quickly wither away. Its only hope is to keep its leaves constantly open toward the sun. It's the same with us. Our only hope is to look into the one who is "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).

We are not omniscient as God is, and we do not love ourselves as God loves us, and we are not powerful as God is (we cannot save ourselves from sin and guilt). We see that there is really no sense in relying upon ourselves and one's own nature because in that case we are faced with three insoluble problems: limited ideals, the lack of a genuine wish for salvation, and the inability to realize it.

WE DO NOT KNOW

Our ideals are limited by our experience, our nature. We are limited by our own misery. We do not know God and so we are not inclined towards Him. We cannot realize more than what we already qualitatively are. In the state of sin, we consider real love to be strange and boring:

"Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Our criterions for good and evil are corrupted together with our nature so we are not conscious of the depth of our spiritual needs nor of the greatness of the grasp we need.

Trusting ourselves we limit our ability to see the beauty of the truth and to understand the character of the real love. The deeds of real love and goodness we cannot explain differently but ascribing to them sinful background because we ourselves are good out of sinful motives.

Only the One who means love can reveal love to us and make us conscious of the need for salvation.

WE DO NOT WANT

We want to remove the consequences of the sin (unpleasant feelings, sickness, bad experiences, death) because we are moved by selfishness, but we do not want the real salvation because, as we saw before, we do not have the real love for ourselves. "There is no one who is righteous, no one who is wise or who worships God." (Romans 3:10:11)

We can even reasonably be conscious of the weight of the state in which we are, but in ourselves we will never find the motive and strength to get out of such a state.

Only God by His Holy Spirit can in us conceive the act of salvation. And if we answer to that call, God will answer to desire which He Himself moved in our soul. Getting to know majestic God's character, the wish will appear in us to, to revealed God's love, answer also by love.

WE CANNOT

Trusting ourselves we are powerless to help ourselves even if we are conscious of the spiritual needs, even when we really want the salvation. We do not have the power to change our hearts (motives determined by our genes), nor to be redeemed for our sins. Only God can perform the miracle of goodness in our heart and life. He calls us to come to Him and says:

"I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." (Isaiah 44:22)