He saved us. He is the only one who can. Everyone tries to do good deeds. But good deeds will not save you, and the apostle makes that clear. He does not give us a new leaf to turn over, or try to bolster up our moral courage a bit, or get us to try a little harder, but he changes us by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.
Psychology is absolutely helpless when it comes to that kind of a procedure.
But the gospel does what neither psychology or anything else can do. The supreme message of the church is to declare and proclaim this great good news that there is a means of being regenerated and renewed in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. Now beyond these fundamental facts of the gospel, these Cretans needed to learn some truth about present conduct. That is a kind of emotional reaction that sets in when someone contemplating the future sees it as hopeless, with no possibility of accomplishing anything. There is one Savior, and it is Jesus Christ who is the great God who will appear in glory to set right the things that are wrong in this world.