Human Effort.

John Owen has written:

“Humanity will always make great efforts to extricate by its own powers whenever it is brought to see the fallen nature of its intellect and the darkness of mind which dwells within. What we can see is that even total mastery of all of the arts and sciences would never suffice for such an end! Those who abide in ignorance of the saving light of the gospel can never raise themselves up by the power of their minds, however high the mark they aim at might be! They may yearn to rise up above the darkness of their natures by diligent study of the arts and sciences, but they are subject to inborn depravity, and so have no absolute certainty by which to recognize truth. The latter is a goal which we as Christians acknowledge will never be attained outside of the saving grace of God in Christ. Until even the pursuit of the arts and sciences progresses by that standard, all must prove in the end nothing but delusion and vanity and failure for the student.”

(Owen, John. Biblical Theology, Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002, pp. 692-693.)