What is the difference between sorrow for sin and repentance?

Michael Beasley explains in this video that there is a difference between mere sorrow and genuine repentance. Worldly sorrow still clings to sin even though there might be grief shown over sin. We can be sorry for what we have done but not truly repent.

Just because you feel sorrowful doesn’t mean that you are repentant over the sin that you have committed. In the book, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan talks about a man locked in an iron cage and how this man discusses his sin and the sorrow he had for his sin. But, this man remained in the cage because he was not genuinely repentant. Sorrow by itself does not mean that a person is repentant for their sin.

Luke 13:3 (NKJV) – “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” 

When we're talking about repentance and sorrow, the Apostle Paul describes and distinguishes between mere sorrow and genuine repentance. And so in writing to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 7, he said that he was glad that he had brought brought them to sorrow not as an end. In other words, he says that he wasn't rejoicing that he made them sorrowful by itself, but that they were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. And the idea here is this, is that you can have sorrow, but it's a sorrow that is shallow, it is a sorrow that regrets any kind of change. It is a sorrow that still clings to sin while still feeling in some sense grief for the sin.

It's kind of a strange thing but it shows the fact that we're very double-minded as sinners. We can actually be sorrowful for something that we've done and acknowledge that maybe we've done something that offends others and especially offends God, but still not have a transformation of mind, a genuine and godly repentance. And so Paul distinguishes those two things in a very important way and helps us to understand that just because you feel sorrowful that doesn't necessarily mean that you're Repentant over the sin that you've committed John Bunting in his classic work the pilgrims progress has In the allegory there he talks about a man in an iron cage. And that man in the iron cage talks about his sin and the sorrow that he had for the life that he had lived and the sorrow that he had for the sin that he had committed. But there was no sorrow that led to repentance.

He remained in the cage because he was not genuinely repentant. It is very important that we distinguish these things because sorrow, again by itself, does not mean that a person is repentant over their sin.