I think this is what Shad was tring to say about repentance and Grace (Shad, tell me if I am wrong):
Only the Grace of Jesus Christ can save you. Repentance can't.
I believe that. Hear me out in trying to say why.
Many people "repent" of their sins to priests, to others, and to God. But, they have not "confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead." Therefore their repentance means nothing because they were never saved. God does not forgive you no matter how much you confess/repent if you are not saved.
I was eight when I became a Christian. I remember where I was and roughly what I said. Main points of what I said/believed when I became a Christian:
I believed that hell was real and that I did not want to go there.
I believed that Jesus is God in the flesh and that he can save me from hell.
I believed that Jesus can help me act in a way that is pleasing to him.
I believed that Jesus can not just be God in my life but a friend and a father.(Divorced - not a good role model dad)
I asked God to forgive me of my sins and to be Lord to me and a father and friend. I asked for him to help me act in a way that pleased him.
Yes, I repented of my sins in asking to be saved, however Gods grace led to that repentance. There is nothing good in anyone if it is not from God. My sinful nature did not want to repent. God, through his grace, convicted me and gave me the power to repent after I believed that Jesus is God and that He is able to forgive me based on what he did on the cross.
Repentance itself does not save you, but it is a result of the Grace of God bestowed on me when I believed that Jesus is Lord and that he died and resurrected to take away the sin of the world.
I think what Shad is saying is that repentance outside of salvation is pointless and rightly so. I repented, to turn away from our sinful ways, because I believed Jesus can save me from it, I believed Jesus is Lord, and God has given me a desire to be like Jesus. I confess my sins and ask for forgiveness today, not because I believe that I lost my salvation when I sinned (that goes against the very cross of Christ), but because I am so hurt that I hurt Jesus with my sins, that I have damaged my relationship with him and because I am so thankful that he is able to forgive me of my sins based on what he did on the cross.
Grace is the root of all that. Nothing in our lives desires to be like Jesus. That desire to be saved and to be like Jesus comes from God Grace through the blood of Jesus. We don't deserve to be saved at all but Jesus decided to give us an opportunity to be saved anyway. That is Grace - God giving us something that we don't deserve. Like salvation!