true improvement

"For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 216.

This is soo true! I love this quote, because so many Christians believe they can get there on their own, just by becoming "better people".. This is actually possible, with a lot of will power you CAN stop doing certain things, but it DOESN'T change you inside! Inside you are still desperately wicked, and you won't be saved. A lot of the time, the people who are at their lowest, who do the worst things, and think they've hit rock bottom, are the people God can save the easiest!

That's why He allows Satan to strip us of our so called "good deeds", so we see how hopeless we are without Him. And then, and only then can He change us.

“Welcome, Prince,” said Aslan. “Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?”
“I - I don't think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I'm only a kid.”
“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not…” 

C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian (1951; Harper Collins: 2001) c. 15.