God's Prior Saving Act

The joy robbing error persists among many Christians that they are in Christ because of something they did--a prayer, repentance, baptism, etc. The good news is that you are in Christ, you have entered the kingdom of God because of a gracious, prior act of God whereby he raised you from spiritual death and to new life. Being borrn of the Spirit occurs before you receive Christ, and repentance is something we do in response to God's acceptance, and not at all in order to earn his acceptance.