Repentance

“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinnersto repentance.” Luke 5:32

That is, such as see themselves as sinners, and thereby in a lost condition. 
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

God will have the soul truly sensible of the bitterness of sin–before it shall taste the sweetness of mercy. The plough of conviction must go deep, and make deep furrows in the heart, before God will sow the precious seed of grace there–so that it may have depth of earth to grow in.