Well, neither Paul not Christ give you any credit for just feeling the remorse. Saying you are sorry just doesn't cut it. How many times do you want to be regenerated!? In case you missed it, there is only one Baptism. You don't get a second chance.
Christ commands you: "sin no more!" and Paul says you are a slave to righteousness. You can't serve two masters. If you have faith you will never cheat on God, but if you continue to sin, Paul tells you there is no faith in you..
And he says that if, once regenerated, you continua to sin you are not going to heaven. Those who claim to be in Christ but can't say not to sin are cheaters, and they have no faith, says Paul clearly. No one ever says in the Bible that being a Christian would be easy.
That's something Luther invented. Paul and Peter tell you that being a Christian is a life of self-denial and suffering. Protestants turned that around into a cult of feel-good self-rightouesness.
NO ONE has said anything different on this thread. What we know of "God's will" is found in the Scriptures and the Scriptures tell us that no one will see heaven who denies Him.
Doubt is not a denial. It's actually a struggle.
If Mother Teresa's last thought on her mind as she died was "I have no faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, God and Savior," what is your best guess as to her eternal reward?
I don't second guess God. But it seems to me, self-professed "Christians" do.
Do you think she could be saved having said she once knew Christ and then turned her back on Him?
Christians should be content believing that God is just and merciful, always and forever more.
Would Peter have been saved if his life had ended after he denied Christ?
Is that any of your concern? You have the commandment "sin no more." Are you a "slave to righteousness" or just something you profess on your lips in hopes it catches? Are you faithful to God? If you are not, Apostle Paul says there is not faith you.
Catholics and Orthodox know that and that's why they keep saying "God have mercy". That's why they can only hope that their imperfect faith will not condemn them if they honestly try and persevere despite their weakness.
Repentance means to admit our sin and work to sin no more.
With the free gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Christians can have confidence they will do just that.
Are men perfect? Sinless? No. That is the arrogance of Romanists and the EO who believe in perfection in this life.
Paul tells us none of us can expect to be sinless in this life, but we can expect mercy from God who gave us our faith in the first place.
And he says that if, once regenerated, you continua to sin you are not going to heaven.
That is not what Hebrews 6 says. Hebrews 6 tells us that if we continue to love our sins we were never regenerated in the first place. Because if we had been truly regenerated and yet continued to love our sins, it would mean we were putting Christ to an open shame, crucifying Him again for sins already forgiven.
An error Rome displays with every pagan mass.
Again, if you seek a sinless life for yourself, you will fail because the only sinless life is Christ.
Doubt is not a denial. It's actually a struggle.
Romanticize it however you want. To arrogantly elevate real "doubt" in Jesus Christ's salvation to a "struggle" is the habit of teen-aged angst. Get over it. Grow up.
To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." -- 1 Thess. 3:12-12"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
Not "sinless."
"Unblameable." Justified by Christ who took on the punishment for His sheep so that He could present them covered in His righteousness and His obedience and His faith.
Free, unearned mercy and not debt.