Repentance is the first step to take in our freedom in Christ. But repentance can be falsified. There is such a thing as a counterfeit repentance.Real repentance turns to God from sin. It is a conversion (Acts 3) of thinking and attitudes toward the sin that we ahve fallen into. It is humble. It doesn't make excuses or blame - on the contrary it takes full blame for the sinful actions (Ps 51). It is godward in its focus ( Is 55.6), though it makes restitution to offended men where it can (Luke 19.9).
False repentance compromises on one or another (all?) of these steps. The danger in a quick repentance is that it doesn't fully grasp the heinousness of the sin. When that happens, we tend to fall into the sin-repent- sin- repent cycles that we are so familiar with. Real repentance sees the demonic destruction that is underlying the sins of the flesh. It, therefore, develops a contempt for that sin. That contempt becomes a hatred that serves as a boundry between the beleiver and casually falling into that sin again.
Unfortunately, we have people who think they are christians in our churches that demonstrate by their lifestyle, that they are not yet converted to God's point of view on various areas of their lifestyle. They walk in and out of the church with impunity while living in sin- not realizing that God has promised to spit them out of his mouth, and not taking seriously the offense that they cause to God personally.
Ultimately, repentance is a gift that we are given by God. To gloss over it lightly or to take it presumptuously is to miss the point of grace. Grace is supposed to lead us into freedom. Without that freedom we have no joy.
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