I grew up going to church but I’m not religious now and I never really understood this part.
Please, no answers along the lines of “aha, that’s why Christianity is a sham” or “religions aren’t logical”. I don’t want to debate whether it’s right or wrong, I just want to understand the logic and reasoning that Christians use to explain this.
Answer according to anyone christian: (note- not me) You don’t. You have have to “Be sorry” and “ask forgiveness”. You can still be an enormous piece of sh*t if you say you’re sorry that you were bad.
The Catholic viewpoint on Confession is that its a holy sacrament where you’re truly sorry for the sin and are effectively promising not to do it again. That’s why it requires a priest and a visit to the church, its not just some thing you decide during a night-time prayer, you have to go out of your way and invoke the sacrament.
There’s too many Christian faiths out there for me to know how it works in every faith. I can tell you that Protestants in general didn’t like Confession because of the old practice of indulgances (ie: 1500s-era Catholic Priests saying “If you’re truly sorry, you’d give a $1000 donation to the Church”). My understanding of the “Faith alone” argument from Protestant groups is more of a anti-Catholic / anti-Confession perspective, rather than a “God just lets everyone into Heaven” kind of viewpoint.