“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
Why do so many, who are simply filled with regret and remorse get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. This is the third part of a four part series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance
This is not difficult, yet so many of us seem intent on making it so. In America today even the clergy seem to have diluted repentance down to regret. However, just because you call a sparrow an eagle does not make it so. So what is false repentance? False repentance is said to be worldly, the sorrow of the world, that is, it is sorrow for sin, arising from the worldly considerations and motives connected to your present life, or at most, has respect to his own happiness in a future world, and has no regard to the true nature of sin.
1. It is not founded on such a change of opinion as I have specified to belong to
true repentance, there has been no change in the mind in regards to sin. As such the change is not on fundamental points.
A person may see the evil consequences of sin in a worldly point of view, and it may fill him with anxiety. He may see that it will greatly affect his character, or endanger his life; that if some of his concealed conduct is found out, he would be disgraced, and this may fill him with fear and anguish, but it does not alter his conduct, his disposition, nor does it lead to any restitution to those whom he has sinned against. It is very common for a person to have this kind of worldly sorrow, when some worldly consideration is at the bottom of it all.
2. False repentance is founded in selfishness.
It may be simply a strong feeling of regret, in the mind of the individual, that he has done what he has, because he sees the evil consequences of it to himself, because it makes him unhappy, or exposes him to the wrath of God, or injures his family or his friends, or because it produces some injury to himself in his lifetime or in eternity. All this is pure selfishness.
He may feel remorse of conscience--biting, consuming REMORSE—and yet no true repentance. It may extend to fear--deep and dreadful fear--of the wrath of God and the pains of hell, and yet be purely selfish, and all the while there may be no such thing as a hearty abhorrence of sin, no change of conduct, no restitution, no altering of his character; and no feelings of the heart going out after the convictions of the understanding, in regard to the infinite evil of sin. You know this person, it might even be you, the person who regrets their sins, the one who feels deep sorrow and remorse for what he has done, but does not turn away from his choice, rather he tells you that God has forgiven him, while he fashions the noose around his neck (so to speak).
Judas regretted what he did, Judas felt deep sorrow and remorse for his betrayal of Jesus. Judas hung himself in remorse. But Judas was not repentant, and he took his sin with him into hell.
