Following the new birth, Wesley calls for us to embrace a second blessing, a gracious act of God that requires a human response in the form of evangelical repentance that deals with the very being of sin in the human heart. Wesley writes of works of piety and works of mercy as united in the church and spread to the wider society as our way of expressing gratitude to God and benevolence to those around us. In other words, we are live lives of "true religion" while anticipating the second blessing and approaching ever nearer to a complete recovery of the Imago Dei.