Repentance presupposes regeneration, for an unregenerate person being dead in sins, and in love with his own righteousness, and devoid of understanding of true righteousness or of the extent of sin (many sinners will readily admit to being sinners, 'sure nobody is perfect' is a common admission; others will even say that they are great sinners, but will fall short of seeing NOTHING GOOD or POTENTIALLY GOOD in themselves) cannot repent.
They have hearts which are desperately wicked. That is why Jeremiah says of them, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil' (Jeremiah 13:23) Job speaks of man, 'How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh up iniquity as water' (Job 15:16) and John writes, 'For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved' (John 3:20).
For someone to repent, he has to first see his sins, he has to have understanding (Rom 3:11 says 'there is none that understandeth'), he needs to have a change of heart, a new nature, in short he has to be 'born again' or 'quickened' as Ephesians 2 says.
A repentant person has spiritual understanding ALREADY and he has a sin-hating heart ALREADY, and he has an interest in Christ's righteousness, having seen ALREADY that he has none of his own. That means that REGENERATION (where such understanding and religious affections are communicated to a soul) must have already happened before repentance.
When I say before I mean IMMEDIATELY before, I mean LOGICALLY before.
Of course, God addresses sinners in their experience, so when He comes to them He calls them to repentance, He calls them to turn from sin and embrace Christ. The call is clear, a clear command to obey.
When the Arminian hears a command in Scripture, he says, 'Ah, I can do that', but that is an error. When the truly enlightened soul hears a command, he says, Alas, I cannot do anything. Does he sit on his backside and do nothing? No! He cries to God, 'Create a new spirit within me'. 'Save me LORD, I perish', 'Help my unbelief'. 'Work in me thy good pleasure'. 'Give me grace to do thy will or I perish'.
The soul which has been taught of God knows that God is the author of his faith, that God is the author of his repentance, that God is the one who has wrought salvation for him and in him. 'For unto you it is given . . to believe on Him' (Phil 1:29) 'He that hath done a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ' (Phil 1:6) 'For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure' (Phil 2:13).
Repentance is God's to give and God's to wthhold: 'Him hath God exalted . . to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins' (Acts 5:31) 'Then hath God also granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life' (Acts 5:31). 'If God will peradventure give them repentance unto the acknowleging of the truth' (2 Tim 2:25)
It all boils down to this: why do all not receive Christ? You will say, that some are stubborn and reject them. I will ask again, Why are all not stubborn Christ-rejectors? (The Bible says we all are by nature). You will reply, God woos some by His Spirit. I will say, do all who are so wooed come to Christ? You will say, No, some still refuse. Again, Why do some refuse? The only reason that the Arminian can produce --- and he will seek to clothe his words in humble sounding language --- is that some see something, understand something, do something which the others don't, and since God, acc to the Freewiller, does the same for everyone, ultimately salvation is in the hands of man, and Christ is no longer the author and finisher of our faith, which if you can not see is blasphemy, accuse your blindness.
Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me and I shall be turned: for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned I repented. (Jeremiah 31:18-19)
