When we take all 5 steps I listed and complete them all, then we have fulfilled the requirements of repentance.
Again, the steps are first to recognize that we have sinned. Second to feel genuine sorrow that we have done wrong. Third, resolve to do better. Fourth, make it right with those affected. Fifth to change so completely that we come to abhor the sin. The exact order of these things is not so important as that all the steps are taken.
Now the Lord does not require us to be perfect in order for the atonement to apply on our behalf. What he does require is that we are earnestly striving to progress. Faking and kidding ourselves is not real repentance and will not produce the results.
When we truly repent, then Christ will atone for our sins and we will gradually become clean and blameless. This is not a sudden or overnight process. It takes years for us to repent. That's why this idea of a deathbed repentance is nonesense. If you lack the determination to repent in life, you are not going to do it in death.
For the aid of the reader, I will repeat the 5 Rs of Repentance
- Recognition of sin
- Remorse or Regret for wrongdoing
- Resolve to change
- Reconcile with yourself, others, and God
- Reform completely to become a new person
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