Can someone tell me how sorry I need to be for my sins to be saved? Really sorry or just a little? Is their a degree of sorrow I need to reach to be regenerated?
What about repenting of my sins? How many sins? All? How is that possible? I thought repentance was changing our mind about Jesus.
Hi Southern Fried Baptist,
I think the idea of "feeling sorry for my sins" is not about the depth of my sorry, but of its validity. You are spot on in saying all born anew believers continue to fall short of the glory of God, we all think and do things outside of the will of God. If we say otherwise, 1 John 1:8 provides rebuttal. However, we are not to accept our failures and say "Oh well." We are to acknowledge our short comings, and strive to do better each day. If we do not strive to walk the talk, that makes us hypocrites and ineffective witnesses for Christ.
But what about before I am saved? Yes we need to commit fully to Christ, turning from going our own way to God and to going as God commands. If our commitment is superficial or we do not go "all in" for Christ, then like the second and third soils of Matthew 13, our "faith" may not be credited by God as righteousness, and we will remain unsaved. So this pre-salvation "repentance and faith" refers to our heart-felt full commitment to following Christ as best we can, rather than actually stopping our smoking or drinking or whatever else we see as not following the will of God. To say, "nobody is perfect" or other such excuse in an attempt to justify our failures is the opposite of full commitment to Christ.