One Way Christianity Is Different

I am reading a compilation of three of John Owen's works entitled Overcoming Sin & Temptation, edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor. Owen, in the first work, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, contrasts the work of the Spirit in "killing sin" with the normal way by which most of us try to be better Christians:

Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.

Are you trying to be a better Christian by making yourself better? This is not biblical. Romans 8 tells us that the Spirit will do this in our lives.

Now, I have an idea that Bible intake and meditation play a big part in this, but I'll have to keep reading.