More on prevenient grace

God is moving upon a person’s heart before the person even realizes what is happening. In presenting the gospel, then, we do not begin by attempting to convict people of sin. The movement of God’s prevenient (“going-before”) mercy comes first, in the disclosure of the presence of God, which then awakens the sense of sin by exposing the chasm between us and the holiness of God. When this recognition dawns on us, we are already standing within God’s grace (“this grace in which we stand” - Rom. 5:2). This is another way of explaining why the confession of sin can come as such a blessed relief.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 174 (emphasis original)