What is true, biblical repentance? Is the mere shedding of tears sufficient?

Jason Dohm explains in this video that we might think that a person is repentant if they appear sorry. But, there are other aspects to repentance that go beyond the mere shedding of tears. Repentance involves both the confession of sin and the forsaking of it as laid out in Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV): "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." 

Accordingly, it is not enough to just hear the confession, witness the tears, and thereby think that there is repentance. How can we determine whether the sin is forsaken? While there might not be a bright-line test to determine whether there is true repentance, we can ask whether there is victory, in time, over that sin or whether that individual continually returns to that same sin. We can also look to Scripture to see examples of true and false repentance.

Luke 18:13-14 (NKJV) – “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Oftentimes repentance, as it's said to be, is accompanied by tears, But this is why there really are multiple elements. It's not just the confessing of sin. It's also the forsaking of sin, which is the two elements that we see explicitly in Proverbs 28 13. So it's not enough to just hear the confession and witness the tears and say, that man or that woman, that boy or that girl has repented. Really, where the rubber hits the road, in a very practical way is, is the sin forsaken?

Is the person, do they return to that sin over and over again? Or is there victory, at least in time, over that sin? And so there are many, many examples of a person who sounded so sincere, They really did confess their sin, but they never really forsook the sin. And that is repentance that's not real. It's not biblical repentance.