The hopelessness of life without Christ

From The Gulag Archipelago:

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn't change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil."

Except for the saving power of Jesus Christ, we have no hope of ever rising above the hopelessness of that cycle. While we may still struggle, through Christ we have the strength to be overcomers. The grace God extends to us is so amazing! Who among us deserves to be spared the penalty for the evil sin nature within us?