Everyone feels tormented after they sin. Some analyse their own wrongdoings and walk into a dark cave, while others believe in God’s kindness and walk towards the light.
Guilt and repentance might seem similar, but they are completely different. Guilt is the feeling of self-condemnation, believing that we are worthless. You think, ‘I’m not the kind of person who would say or do this. How could I hate others like this as a believer?’. You are discomforted about yourself and think that you’re capable of living righteously, yet you acted foolishly just this time. This ultimately denies God’s declaration that you are a sinner. And since you can’t deny the fact that you actually committed the sinful act, you end up feeling tormented. It’s so emotionally distressing that you pray to God, confessing your wrongs and asking for forgiveness, but deep down, you can’t accept that you’re a sinner. Though you’re denying God’s fundamental word, that you’re a sinner, you still think you’re repenting.
Repentance is acknowledging that you are utterly corrupted and powerless, so you couldn’t help but sin, and that you were in such a desperate state that the only reason you can live righteously is because God had sent His Son to die on the cross in your place and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within you. It’s admitting this and seeking God’s mercy. Rather than analysing your own sins, it’s about accepting God’s boundless mercy through faith. Repentance involves a heart that’s infinitely sorry to God but doesn’t criticise or mistreat oneself. Instead, because of the loving God who loves you, you love and hold your own self dear.
Therefore, having guilt means tormenting shame, which comes from not acknowledging that you can commit such wrongs and saying sorry to God, without progressing to accepting God’s mercy. So it’s not true repentance.
True repentance exists through two extremes. It’s recognising that my existence is entirely corrupted but also knowing that I am so valuable, that Father God planned for Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and the Holy Spirit’s entrance into me, to save me from sin. Repentance is willingly accepting God’s forgiveness of sin through faith.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you” (Romans 8:1-2)
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8: 33-34)
