40. Repentance
- L Rshaw
- Oct 6, 2019
- 12 min read
Updated: Jul 8, 2022
"The full benefit of forgiveness of sin through the Savior's Atonement begins with repentance and baptism and then expands upon receiving the Holy Ghost"
--- James E. Faust (Past Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
Our love for the Savior should go hand-in-hand with our love for repentance. It is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that mankind can be saved and that we can be forgiven for our sins. Everyone needs repentance. It is an essential step toward realizing our divine potential. So, instead of shaming repentance, let us repent joyfully and often.
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REPENTANCE: A STEPPING STONE TO BAPTISM
In "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ", I mentioned the "C. Family". As mentioned, the daughter was progressing towards a baptismal date we'd set with them.
If you don't know already, helping people prepare for baptism is one of the key purposes of missionaries. But preparation for baptism includes developing faith in Jesus Christ, and the desire to keep His commandments and repentance. So, in preparation for the next blog post, "Baptism by Immersion", this blog post will discuss the role of repentance, namely faith unto repentance.
THE "HOW" OF REPENTANCE
Repentance is the process by which we turn away from wrong and turn to God. It is the way we show our faith and love for God. Repentance is like washing your hands; you have to do it regularly. First, we acknowledge our need to repent, change, or improve. Second, we desire to repent because we feel “Godly Sorrow” (2 Cor. 7:8-10). Third, we confess our wrongs to God through prayer and to church leaders as needed (And to anyone else we may have wronged). Fourth, we do all we can to fix the wrong we committed and to restore the damage done; i.e. make restitution. Lastly, we resolve to never do it again and to continue in good works.
Repentance is made possible through the Atonement which allows mercy to "claim its own without destroying justice" (Alma 42:24). Without repentance, none would be able to return to God’s presence. And everyone has a need to repent because we all sin from time to time.
THE INFINITE ATONEMENT
You can't have a blog post such as this without talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and you can bet that I will write more about it throughout the blog. Directly related posts include the following which you may want to check out: "Great Sacrifice", "Knowest Thou the Condescension of God?", "The Plan of Happiness and Salvation", "Eternal Life: As He Is", "Christ's Ministry", and "One".
Repentance is only made possible because Jesus Christ performed an infinite atonement. What does this mean?
As used in the scriptures, to atone is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was the only one capable of carrying out the Atonement for all mankind. Because of His Atonement, all people will be resurrected, and those who obey His gospel will receive the gift of eternal life with God.
From before the Creation of the earth, the Savior has been our only hope for “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).
Only He had the power to lay down His life and take it up again. From His mortal mother, Mary, He inherited the ability to die. From His immortal Father, He inherited the power to overcome death. He declared, “As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:26)
Only He could redeem us from our sins. God the Father gave Him this power (Hel. 5:11). The Savior was able to receive this power and carry out the Atonement because He kept Himself free from sin: “He suffered temptations but gave no heed unto them” (D&C 20:22). Having lived a perfect, sinless life, He was free from the demands of justice. Because He had the power of redemption and because He had no debt to justice, he could pay the debt for those who repent.
Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. In Gethsemane, He submitted to the will of the Father and began to take upon Himself the sins of all people. He has revealed some of what He experienced as He paid the price for our sins:
“I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (D&C 19:16–19; Luke 22:44; Mosiah 3:7).
The Savior continued to suffer for our sins when He allowed Himself to be crucified—“lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:33).
On the cross, He allowed Himself to die. His body was then laid in a tomb until He was resurrected and became “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20). Through His death and Resurrection, He overcame physical death for us all.
Jesus Christ redeems all people from the effects of the Fall. All people who have ever lived on the earth and whoever will live on the earth will be resurrected and brought back into the presence of God to be judged (2 Nephi 2:5–10; Hel. 14:15–17). Through the Savior’s gift of mercy and redeeming grace, we will all receive the gift of immortality and live forever in glorified, resurrected bodies.
Although we are redeemed unconditionally from the universal effects of the Fall, we are accountable for our own sins. But we can be forgiven and cleansed from the stain of sin if we “apply the atoning blood of Christ” (Mosiah 4:2). We must exercise faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
SIN
We hear the word "sin" a lot but what is sin? Sin is disobedience to God’s commandments despite knowledge of God’s law (Romans 7:7). There are sins of commission, meaning that you did something you shouldn’t have and then there are sins of omission meaning that you didn’t do something that you should have (James 4:17). Most of us are so preoccupied with sins of commission that we often undermine the sins of omission. To some degree, all of us are guilty under these definitions of sin.
Many are familiar with the scripture in Romans, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) but rather than focusing on the negative truth of mortality, we must not underestimate the miracle of repentance and forgiveness of sins. How often Christ would declare, “thy sins are forgiven thee” or “that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins!” (Matt 9:6)
NO ORIGINAL SIN
The reason Paul teaches the Romans that “all have sinned” has nothing to do with being born in sin [1]. As a matter of fact, no one is born with sins (Moroni 8:8; Mark 10:14; Matt 18:10-11). That would be unjust of a just and loving God. The scripture refers to the ability to sin following Adam and Eve. Prior to their partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:5), they, by definition, knew neither good nor evil. They were innocent like children. The positive consequences of that event were inheriting the ability to know good from evil (Gen. 3:22) and thus sin, the ability to have children (2 Nephi 2:23), and a door to eternal progression (vs. 22). The negative consequences included physical suffering and eventual death (vs. 19), as well as separation from God (vs. 23-24). Paul’s message to the Romans and the message of all the prophets of God is to have faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance that we might return to God’s presence clean.
It is appropriate to say that all are fallen from birth, not sinners. We live in a less than celestial world with less-than-perfect people [2]. There is a “natural man” in all of us (Mosiah 3:19; 1 Cor. 2:14), but no one is a sinner at birth. We do not inherit sins (Ezek. 18:20), although opportunities to sin are all around us. There is opposition in all things. We always had agency but Adam and Eve exercised and enabled its full purpose which is essential to God’s plan [3]. Jesus Christ came to restore mankind from their fallen state and it is because of His sacrifice that we are not held responsible for the actions of Adam and Eve. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)
All of us capable of sinning, after eight years of age (D&C 68:27; 1 Peter 3:20), have sinned, except for Jesus only, hence the scripture in Romans. We call eight years of age, the "age of accountability".
Again, little children have no sin because they cannot sin. Jesus and Heavenly Father love the little children. When asked the disciples of the Master, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”, Jesus called a child unto him, and set him in the midst of them and said, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:1-6)
SIN vs. MISTAKES
Our English translation “sin” in the scriptures comes from the term “Hamartia”, from the Greek hamartánein first used by Aristotle, which means “to miss the mark” (like in archery) or “to err”. Hamartia can result from an error of judgment, a flaw in thinking, or wrongdoing and typically leads to the protagonist’s downfall in Poetics. I only mention this to help you understand what the scriptures allude to when they say sin.
Mistakes are not sins. We make plenty of mistakes. I refer to the definition of sin at the beginning of this blog which specifies sin as disobedience to the commandments. In the question of sins and mistakes, a deliberately wrong choice in the contest between what is clearly good and what is clearly bad is a sin, but a poor choice among things that are good, better, and best is merely a mistake. We all make mistakes and we all sin from time to time but we try to learn and improve. Some sins are more serious than others but all sins can and must be made right through repentance which is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
MIRACULOUS MERCY AND COMPASSION
When the Pharisees brought a woman, who was “taken in adultery”, to be accused by Jesus and catch Him in a two-edged snare, the expectation was that she be stoned according to the Law of Moses (Lev. 20:10). Their intentions were foul. This they did to accuse Him. Instead of taking her to the Roman powers, they took her to Jesus that they might accuse Him of exercising power superior to the government (political law) or of perverting Jewish traditions (spiritual law). At first, Jesus wrote on the ground, “as though he heard them not” (John 8:6). When they would not leave, “he lifted up himself, and said unto them, ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” and they all left having been self-convicted by a guilty conscience. Said the Lord now left alone with her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, ‘No man, Lord’. And Jesus said unto her, ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more” (John 8:10-11). Jesus did not condone her sin but warned her to sin no more; not dealing immediate judgment or dismissing the serious sin but allowing time to repent. He loved the sinner though not the sin. So should we love people, not their sins. It reminds me of a bumper sticker that was once quoted, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you do” (See "Sabbath Day Observance"). We all have things to work on. We cannot deal out final judgments but each man and woman must repent before the final judgment day. In time, Christ will judge us according to our works which include our repentance (John 5:22). Today is the day of repentance and we must not procrastinate it. (Alma 34:32-34; John 9:4; see "Night of No Labor")
Jesus was the only one without sin, and still, He did not cast a stone at the adulterer. He was accused because He ate with “publicans and sinners”, to which He responded, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:11-13). The Lord came that we might be healed. He does not turn away the sinner. He invites them to “Come unto [Him]” repeatedly (Matt. 11:28; 19:14, John 6:65; 7:37) so that they might be healed.
Joseph Smith taught the importance of being kind to everyone:
“Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness. When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind… There should be no license for sin, but mercy should go hand in hand with reproof.”
HEAVENLY LAW
Those without the law are not punished by the law (Romans 2; 5:13-14; 2 Nephi 9:25). The Apostle Paul taught that we commit sin only if, knowing the law, we disobey it (Romans 7:7). There is something to be said about accountability for one’s actions and his own sins here. The prophet Ezekiel taught, “…The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the
father bear the iniquity of the son…” (Ezek. 18:20). Our sins are our own and it is our responsibility to repent of them for ourselves.
To abide in the kingdom of heaven, one must be willing to abide by God’s laws (Through covenants) but he that does not know them will not be punished prematurely or unjustly. “The atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them [in life]” (2 Nephi 9:26; Alma 42:17). Similarly, the prophet Mormon declared that “all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law” (Moro. 8:22); but at some time before getting to heaven, we must learn and agree to obey the law. That’s where missionary work and temple work plays a big part (see "Temples -- Holy Houses of the Lord"). The kingdom of God is governed by eternal laws.
One cannot be an unrepentant lawbreaker in heaven. Repentance is a commandment and blessing. It is the rule, not the exception. The gospel of Jesus Christ helps us repent and become clean from our sins. Like dirty clothes, we sweat and get dirty naturally so we need to keep washing our clothes and bathing to stay clean. Just because we can repent does not mean that we choose to find mud and wallow in it and somehow procrastinate our repentance until the last possible moment. Cleanliness is more than the cleanliness of hands, or actions so to speak, but also of the heart. The book of Psalms answers the rhetorical question, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalms 25:3-4). In other words, he who is true just as much on the inside as he professes on the outside shall inherit eternal life.
Repentance is a blessing as much as it is necessary. Repenting brings us happiness and greater spiritual blessings now and into the eternities. Let's all repent with glad hearts!
The Lord's promise is this, "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more" (D&C 58:42). Forgiveness is a miracle that's only possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He says, "I have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer i they would repent".
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Although there are scriptures describing what both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon call, “the natural man” (1 Cor. 2:14; Mos. 3:19), there is no scripture that says anyone is born with sin. If everyone was born with sin, then including Christ, such a false doctrine would be blasphemous. The scripture so often used in argument, Psalms 51:5, is a lament of King David over his natural desire to sin (the natural man), specifically having committed adultery with Bathsheba, not having been born with sins.
[2] Brigham Young once said, “To live with Saints in Heaven is bliss and glory, to live with Saints on Earth is another story”. https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/volume-3-number-3-2002/brigham-young-disciple-indeed#_edn37
[3] Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness is for His children to have the opportunity to become as He is. In order to do this, He gives us opportunities to choose the right. In order to exercise our agency, there needed to be choices. In order for there to be able to choose the good, there also needed to be a choice that was not good. Thanks to Adam and Eve, mankind is free to choose good from evil.
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