Discipline, whether well or poorly applied, can never be the cause of conversion or earn salvation for us. In this quote from Conversion, written by Christian missionary and writer E. Stanley Jones, we learn that surrender must precede our attempt to discipline our lives.

While salvation cannot be attained by discipline around an unsurrendered self, nevertheless when the self is surrendered to Christ and a new center formed, then you can discipline your life around that new center – Christ. Discipline is the fruit of conversion, not the root.