Repentance: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

These posts on Repentance are intended to be read in order beginning with 

Repentance: Introduction

At the bottom of each post is a link to the next one. 

I would like to talk about and compare two fictitious members of the Church. It will seem reasonable that by virtue of this comparison we should be able to tell, by their fruits, whether either, or both, or neither are good members of the Church. 

One is Sister Bonnie Franklin and the other is Brother Robert Woodhead. Some background may be helpful. Sister Franklin is the oldest of six children, and was raised in the Church in a very active family. She had many opportunities for success in her life and took advantage of all of them. Not only was she very popular, but she was also very kind and giving, always looking to befriend those who were less fortunate. She knew what she wanted in her life and worked diligently to achieve her goals, including graduating college and marrying a returned missionary. Her friends and family adore her and feel fortunate that she is part of their lives. She did marry her returned missionary and they have five children. Her husband is a successful business man and has been able to provide many opportunities for his family, just as Sister Franklin had in hers.

People would describe her as a lovely and kind person, and in her many callings in the Church, she has always excelled and drawn the praise of those she has served.

Brother Woodhead, on the other hand, was not raised in the same type of family. His father left when he was 10 years old leaving behind Robert and his three brothers. He was the second oldest boy, but several years younger than his older brother. His older brother left home when Brother Woodhead was 14 years old, and he was left with the responsibility of watching out for his two younger brothers. 

His mother had to work long hours to provide for the boys, and he was often left alone with his brothers for many hours each evening. As a result he had limited opportunities for other activities and would be considered by most as a loner and not friendly. Even in his church activities he was shy and withdrawn and sometimes prone to anger. His anger caused him to lose his temper, and one evening while playing basketball with the boys in his ward, he was angry and hit another boy. An advisor was there and told him to leave and never come back. And so he left and didn't go back, at least not until he had served in the Army for three years where he picked up some bad habits, including smoking.

His younger brother had remained active and had received his mission call, and so Robert went to church to hear him talk. He was surprised at the friendly reception he received from many who had known him, and when his younger brother thanked him in his talk for watching out for him, and for helping him make better decisions, he felt something he had not felt for a long time.

One of the people who had welcomed him at the meeting was a girl he had known who had always been kind to him. He asked her out, and they began dating. She told him, however, that she wanted to be married in the temple, and he agreed. He worked hard to quit smoking and eventually they were married in the temple.

His activity since then has been mixed. He attends some meetings, but does not participate, and refuses to accept a calling. Members of his ward are sometimes put off by his shyness, which they see as not being friendly, and as a result he has no real friends in his ward. He works hard and is able to provide for his wife and 3 children, but not in the same way as Sister Franklin and her family.

Now let's stop here for a minute and based on what I have described, most of us would say that Sister Franklin is a better member of the church than Brother Woodhead. This is true if all we see is the participation of two individuals in an organization. One is better for the organization than the other, because, in the eyes of others, she is doing more, not only for the group but for the individuals in that group. But this is based simply on output--one appears to be producing more than the other.

If we left this in the context of the Church as an organization, we could stop here and draw our conclusion that Sister Franklin is a better church member than Brother Woodhead. Some could even go so far as to say that Sister Franklin, because of her many talents and good works, will be judged more favorably than Brother Woodhead. Sister Franklin may even believe it.

The truth is that in God's eyes Sister Franklin needs "saving" every bit as much as Brother Woodhead.

You cannot expect Christ to look at Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead exactly as we might. Their talents and dispositions result from natural causes and from circumstances in which God may have placed them. Genetics and other causes could account for Brother Woodhead's temperament, just as Sister Franklin's niceness and generosity could  have resulted from her nature and her circumstances. But being nice or not being nice is not what Christ is concerned about. It presents no difficulties for him to change Brother Woodhead's perceived nastiness, and He will in His own good time. 

No, what He is watching and waiting for and working for is something that even for Christ is not easy, because, He has given each of them the freedom to choose Him and His Righteousness or to choose evil and darkness, the latter of which includes their own flawed goodness. He is waiting for it in both Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead. Will they or will they not turn to Him (repent), and thus fulfill the only purpose for which they were created? And if they do will they continue to choose Him and His righteousness?

The question is whether Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead will offer themselves to Christ? The question of whether they are nasty or nice is of secondary importance. Christ will see to that part of the problem.

Don't get me wrong. Of course Christ regards a nasty disposition as a bad and deplorable thing. And of course He regards a nice disposition as a good thing--like food, or sunshine or water. But these are the good things which He gives and we receive. It costs Christ nothing, as far we know, to create nice things: but for Him to change our lost and sinful nature, it cost Him His blood and His life. Moreover, because Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead have the freedom to choose good or evil, they can, no matter if nice or nasty, either accept or refuse His invitation to turn to Him, and to either rely on their own talents and good works, or to rely wholly on Christ's merits and be saved.

We should not be surprised if we find among Latter-day Saints some people who are like Brother Woodhead. But if you think about it, perhaps it is more likely that Brother Woodhead, and others like him will turn to Christ in greater numbers than the nice ones. That was what people objected to about Christ during His life on earth: He seemed to attract such awful people. That is what some people still object to, and always will. Do you not see why? Christ said how hard it is for the 'rich' to enter the Kingdom, and no doubt he meant not only the economically rich who can be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give, but those who fail to realize the need for Christ in their lives, even if they are going through the motions. If everything seems to come by simply using your credit or debit card, it is easy for some to forget that they are at every moment totally dependent on God.

Now quite plainly Christ also meant those that are 'rich' as to their genetics and nurture because natural gifts carry with them a similar danger. Because Sister Franklin is blessed with intelligence, and a good and generous disposition, and had opportunities for an education and had good upbringing, she could be likely to take credit for these gifts from God. Because a certain level of good comes to her fairly easily, she is not one of those who is being tripped up by addictions or a bad temper. Everyone tells her she is nice, and it would be easy for her to agree with them. She is quite likely to believe that all this niceness is her own doing, and may not easily feel the need for the better kind of goodness that comes from Christ.

Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness may not be brought to recognize their need for Christ and His atonement. In other words it is also hard for those who are 'rich' in this sense to enter into the Kingdom.

It may be very different for Brother Woodhead and the little, low, timid, warped, lonely, sensual and unbalanced people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn quickly that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. They are the lost sheep, the low, the last, the least and the dead. He came specifically to find them. 

After his return from the wilderness of temptation, Jesus read to a congregation in Nazareth a passage from Isaiah 61 that stated a central theme of his ministry: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18). And if we read His words to us and do not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are good, we will recognize that we are all poor, captive, blind and bruised.

If Sister Franklin mistakes for her own merits what are really God's gifts to her through nature, and if she is contended to just rely on her flawed goodness by being nice and generous, and working hard, she is taking strength unto herself and relying on her own merits. But these gifts will make her fall the more terrible, and her corruption more complete. Remember that Satan was a Son of the Morning, whose natural gifts far exceed our own.  

Again we must try by every means possible to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up nice; just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat. But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls.  As C.S. Lewis said, a world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world--and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about improvement, but about redemption. It is the power of God unto salvation, not the power of ourselves unto salvation.

Both Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead, like all of us, have need of redemption because of the fall of Adam, and because Satan tempts them (and all of us) to worship him and thereby become carnal, sensual and devilish, and because they (like us) are cut off from the presence of God. And unless they both repent, they will remain cut off from His presence. And for Sister Franklin, it may be more difficult for her to see herself as needing redemption because she may not consider herself as lost and fallen.

But doesn't one person need repentance more than another? Ezra and Baruch protested to God that while Israel had sinned, the Gentiles had acted much worse, and asked why they should be let off so much more easily. But God was not buying that argument. As Hugh Nibley reminds us, it is always easy to find somebody who is worse than you are to make you feel virtuous. It is, after all, those awful terrorists, perverts, druggies, fornicators--they are the ones who need to repent! Yes, indeed they do, and for them repentance will be a full time job, exactly as it is for all the rest of us. 

For both Sister Franklin and Brother Woodhead, the answer is the same. While they are a daughter and a son of God, they cannot and do not live wholly good lives because of the fall of Adam. They both (like us) need to be saved from the evil in their own hearts, the lack of their own minds and the weakness of their own strength. Jesus Christ was sent to this earth first as Jehovah, then as the mortal Jesus, and then as the resurrected Savior, to save them from themselves, from their weaknesses and from their sins.

Sister Franklin (like us) needs to eliminate from her thinking that it is about her goodness, her efforts, her striving, her discipline, remembering that "...there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need (or think they need) no repentance" (Luke 15:7). And Brother Woodhead (also like us) also needs to eliminate from his thinking that he is condemned for having done wrong. He is, however, condemned for continuing to do wrong, for not coming out of the darkness, for not coming to the light--in other words for not turning to Christ; for not repenting.

Repentance is not a single act or multiple acts of righteousness. It is the action of turning to God and His righteousness and turning away from Evil--turning our backs on all that which is opposed to the Righteousness of God, experiencing that only God is righteous and desiring to be a follower of His righteousness. And we are only considered as being righteous, after having been born again and changed by Him from our lost and fallen state to a state of righteousness (His righteousness! Not ours! (Mosiah 27:25)

Christ is not interested in just making better men and women, but in making new men and women.

For Brother Woodhead remember this promise: "The branches of the wild tree have taken hold of the moisture of the root...that the root...hath brought forth much strength; and because of the much strength of the root...the wild branches have brought forth tame fruit...And now...I shall lay up much fruit, which the tree (not the branches!)...hath brought forth; and the fruit thereof I shall lay up against the season, unto mine own self" (Jacob 5:18 emphasis added).

And for Sister Franklin (and all of us), the same promise, but this warning:  Do not take strength unto yourself! When the branches overcome the roots, and grow faster than the strength of the roots, thereby taking strength unto themselves...the trees of thy vineyard become corrupted" (Jacob 5:48 emphasis added).

So the fruits are the fruits that result from repentance and His goodness and His righteousness. He tells us that "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5 emphasis added).

Alma makes it clear that the fruit is the fruit meet (which means fit or as a result of) repentance. (Alma 5:54; 9:30; 12:15 and 13:13), and not the fruit that results from our own good works. (3 Nephi 27:11-12)

The question is not then, of the two, who is the better member of the Church, but whether either, or both, or neither, are of his Church. And what does it mean to be 'of his Church?' He tells us: "And now, behold, whosoever is of my church and endureth of my church to the end, him will I establish upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them" (D&C 10:69). But who does He say is of His Church? "...whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church" (D&C 10:67-68 emphasis added).

Post Script: One Sunday while attending an Elders' Quorum Meeting, Bro. Woodhead was struck by something the instructor, Bro. Tim Merrill said. Tim was teaching about the Prodigal Son, and said that it is not about us being good, but rather about us choosing good. Tim went on to teach that it is about choosing the goodness of God, and then turning towards that goodness and accepting Christ's gifts of repentance and grace. This resonated with Bro. Woodhead. Whenever he heard the word goodness, he had always thought of the goodness of others, certainly not his own. Tim was teaching him that the Parable of the Prodigal Son was not about the son, but about the Father, the Father's love and forgiveness. Tim then said:

Not by works of righteousness
   [insert commandments a thru z]
   which we have done,
   but according to his mercy
   he saved us (Titus 3:5).

As he said this, Bro. Woodhead could feel the love of Christ for him, who was lost. He could relate to the Prodigal Son. He had always felt that others in his ward had and were judging him, and that he would never measure up to their expectations of him. He felt they wanted him to be more involved and become a more productive member of their ward. Something he could not do. He could never match their talents and God-given gifts.

Bro. Woodhead could think of nothing else the whole next week. His own list of sins was endless, and he wanted to feel the Father's forgiveness of his sins, just like in the parable. And so one night after his family was asleep he knelt and prayed and asked for forgiveness. He found himself asking even while working and driving. He remembered that Tim had taught that repentance is turning to Christ, to His goodness and righteousness. He could feel himself wanting more than anything to experience the goodness of Christ in his life. He was also reading the Book of Mormon and the teachings of Alma. He read about the justice of God and knew that he didn't want to experience God's justice. So he prayed for His mercy. One night he felt compelled to turn to Doctrine and Covenants 90 and read the first verse:

"Thus saith the Lord, verily, verily I say unto you my son, thy sins are forgiven thee, according to thy petition, for thy prayers and the prayers of thy brethren have come up into my ears" (emphasis added). Little did he know but that Bro. Merrill had also been praying for him. He experienced the forgiveness of the Father and felt like a new person. He knew that if he endured in faith in Christ to the end, always relying on Christ's merits, he would be saved from his sins. He had been born again. And in heaven the angels rejoiced, but many in his ward were still keeping the books on him, and he was not measuring up to their expectations. They may never recognize the fruits of his repentance. 

But Tim would. How? "By this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me. For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin. And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me. And by this you may know the righteous (those who are repenting) from the wicked (those who are not repenting), and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now" (D&C 84:50-53 emphasis added). They both hear the voice of God in His words. They are speaking the same language.

Next: Repentance: Fruit Meet For Repentance