The obligation to repent will only be acted upon where pardon and atonement have been offered to allay the guilt, condemnation, and pain of conscience. Citizenship in the kingdom of heaven depends upon this change of disposition. This brings us to the connection between genuine repentance and that which goes before it, and which is called regeneration. In the Roman Catholic Church, baptism is regarded as simultaneous with regeneration and the washing away of sins. The decisive element in repentance, or metanoia , is faith.
Good works are the necessary fruits of true repentance.
Calvin did not differ from Luther, although he failed to emphasize the pangs for sin committed as much as he. This led to the exaggeration that true repentance necessitates a prolonged and agonizing spiritual struggle. Spener never countenanced this idea, except to say, that whereas many passed into the joys of adoption without experiencing the terrors of the law, others might reach them only after prolonged spiritual gloom and sorrows, or after passing, as it were, through hell itself. Zinzendorf, however, under the influence of the former theory, lingered for a protracted period in a state of spiritual gloom and doubt before reaching conviction. The subject was warmly discussed by the Pietists on the one hand, and Luther on the other.