This is why our doctrine of salvation cannot be considered on the level of what we have done or not done. Salvation has to be regarded as a spiritual process, carried out by the grace of Christ with the active participation of the one who is being saved. In some people this process is completed quite quickly, as with the wise thief who repented on the cross, while in others it takes place slowly and indirectly. Beside, what is spiritually required of one man or another varies with the individual, as does the level of spiritual perfection which he may reach . . . According to Catholicism, water baptism is also the place where one receives forgiveness.
Faith resides in the baptism and in the hope that it confers forgiveness.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the judgment is that the penitent is truly sorry. So the confessor judges whether someone has repented and whether God has extended forgiveness. Those who opposed the reformation accused the reformers of libertinism since salvation by grace through faith was the hallmark of the reformation. The Bible does teach salvation by grace through faith. The book of Romans upholds that truth.