Can you tell whether an individual is truly repentant or not?
Joel Beeke explains in this video that when there is repentance, a person's behavior changes as well. There is a forsaking of sin. You can see a person's repentance by the fruit shown in one’s life. When people say “I’m sorry,” it is difficult to tell the sincerity and genuineness of it. While we cannot definitively say whether a person is repentant or not, fruits of repentance help to indicate that the person was genuinely repentant.
Matthew 7:16-17 (NKJV) – “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”