How do we understand repentance wrongly?

Jeff Pollard explains in this video that there is a difference between true and wrong repentance. When people are caught in an act of sin and discover themselves in sin, there is a sense of shame and guilt. In fact, everyone feels bad when they get caught in doing something that is wicked. However, some people confuse that sense of shame or guilt with true repentance.

Paul contrasts “worldly sorrow" with “godly sorrow." Worldly sorrow stops at tears and a feeling of guilt. Godly sorrow is something that is worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit that moves the believer into a genuine sense of changing their mind. They understand their guilt and they realize that they’ve sinned against a holy God. The believer has a desire to walk in what is right and leave behind what is sinful.

2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV) - " For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."

There is a difference between true repentance and what we might call temporary or fleshly or some people might call it legal repentance. When people are caught in an act of sin, when they discover themselves in sin, There always is a sense of shame and of guilt and we can stop at that point. Anybody, everybody feels bad when they get caught in doing something that is wicked And so some people unfortunately confuse that sense of shame, that sense of guilt, even rivers of tears that they cry about this thing. They confuse that with true repentance. Paul couches it in the terms of worldly sorrow and godly sorrow.

Worldly sorrow stops with itself. It stops with its tears and with its feelings of guilt. But godly sorrow is something worked in the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit that moves a believer into a genuine sense of changing their mind. They realize they've sinned against a holy God. They understand their guilt.

They feel their shame. They may weep those rivers of tears, but it doesn't stop there. It goes on to a new desire to walk in what is right and to leave behind that which was sinful. You