This same distortion appears when the gospel is preached to the natural man. Boston was all too familiar with the instinct of the awakened individual to say, "I will now try much harder, and I will do better." It seems logical: I realize I have failed. I must reverse this failure by doing better. But it is serpentine logic, for it simply compounds the old legal spirit.
This quote vividly illustrates a common and subtle temptation faced by those who hear the gospel: to approach it through a lens of legalism rather than grace. The natural man, in a spiritual sense, tends to interpret salvation and the Christian life as an ongoing series of efforts and assessments—