Repentance is an act of faith. By repenting and confessing you are placing your faith that Jesus Christ is good enough, glorious enough and gracious enough to forgive, restore and redeem you. Sin is serious because it separates us from God and extinguishes our joy in him. It is so serious that Jesus came and died and so serious that we risk eternal judgement. If we take our sin seriously we will be burdened to the point of true grief. Our willingness to not diminish our sin and its true effects makes a statement about the power of Jesus and his work on the cross. See it? If we minimize our sin we are minimizing the true power of the Gospel to forgive that sin. I am one where often I value my reputation more than I hate my sin. I will minimize and hide my sin to protect my reputation and ultimately I am saying that I am prepared to reject the Gospel's joy and identity for others approval.
Our culture is one where we like to make excuses for our sin. I wonder if we are simply afraid to admit the full extent of our depravity because we fear people won't forgive or understand. When that is our fear then we expose who our god really is. God our Father sent his son Jesus Christ to pay for our sin and reunite us into an eternal relationship with him. Christ's death and resurrection has given us a new identity before God and that is we are accepted, justified, made right, loved and eternally forgiven. That is good, so good that we are freed from hiding, minimizing and excusing our sin. Godly grief brings unashamed and unlimited joy and freedom.