Saint Nikolai of Ochrid: About How God Whitens the Repentant Sinners

"No matter how often linen is washed and rewashed, it cannot become white until it is spread under the light of the sun. Thus, our soul cannot become white, no matter how often we cleanse it by our own effort and labor until we bring it to the feet of God, spread out and opened wide so that the light of God illumines and whitens it. The Lord commends all of our labor and effort; He wants us to bathe our soul in tears, by repentance to constrain it by the pangs of the conscience to press it, to clothe it with good deeds. Then He calls us to Himself: "Come now," says the Lord, "and let us reason together". That is, "I will look at you and I will see if there is Me in you and you will look upon Me as in a mirror and you will see what kind of person you are." O Lord, slow to anger, have mercy on us before the last wrath of that Dreadful Day. 

Saint Nikolai of Ochrid