Repentance: The Lord's Definition

These posts on Repentance are intended to be read in order from the beginning: 

Repentance: Introduction

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

As we examine how the Lord defines repentance, based on what He has revealed and caused to be written, one problem we will encounter is what we have already learned about repentance. Words matter, especially the words that God has caused to be written. While He does not make it easy to understand all His words, He expects that we will search them. He has, nevertheless, defined his words. There is no dictionary or glossary where His words are defined, but He does define them. We just need to do the work to find the definitions.

As I said, repentance is the most misunderstood doctrine in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just recently I read in a general conference talk that if we do not follow the prophet, we need to repent and follow him. This is just an example how even now at the highest levels of church administration, repentance is associated with a behavior that we need to repent of and stop doing. You can test yourself by asking if you were the Publican’s bishop, what would you want him to do or stop doing after he went to his house ‘justified?’ We need to get rid of all the false doctrine, the weeds that grow in our minds, because we have not sown the seeds (His words) in our hearts and minds. It will be through His words, therefore, that we will get rid of these noxious opinions and false teachings. We cut down these noxious weeds by searching and feasting on the words of God.

I asked a friend of mine, who has been an active member for over 70 years what he thought it meant to repent. His answer was that you ask for forgiveness from your sins. I ask this often, and have found that most members do not know how the Lord has defined repentance, and if this be the case, then how can they ever teach their children to understand the doctrine of repentance before they are 8 years old? And if they do not teach them, does it not in fact affect generations.  I think of my own children and grandchildren. Because when they were young, I did not understand the doctrine of repentance and therefore could not teach it to them. And unless they learned it from the Lord, they could not teach it to their children, even though they remain active and religious. See How to Teach Young Children to Understand the Doctrine of Repentance.

As we go through the Lord’s definition of repentance we will use rhetorical links that link the word repentance with its definition. For example the first time repentance is introduced to Adam is in Moses 6:50, where Enoch tells the people that “...God hath made it known unto our fathers that all men must repent.”  God, by His own voice to Adam links its definition with the word repentance. We will discuss why in another post.

“And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh. And he also said unto him: if thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions,...” (Moses 6:51). Note that Enoch is quoting from Adam’s Book of Remembrance wherein Adam writes that it is God that is speaking to him directly by His own voice. Hence the reference to ‘hearken unto my voice.’ Since it is God who introduced repentance, Adam (and us) must hearken unto the voice of God, believe Him and then turn to Him or repent.

Note that repentance is linked to turn, hearken and believe. This is a pattern that is repeated throughout the Book of Mormon. Specifically speaking to us who are identified with the Gentiles, Nephi, after Christ’s visit to the Nephites, says:

“Hearken, O ye Gentiles and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you (concerning us), for, behold he commandeth me that I should write, saying:

Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings…, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.” (3 Nephi 30:1-2). Used in parallel, we see that repent means to turn, not only turn to Christ, but to turn away from all our wicked ways. (What those wicked ways are we will discuss in a later post.) Another Nephi, the son of Helaman, asks: “...how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless wo? O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you? It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you” (Helaman 7:16-17).

Again using parallelism, Nephi links the word repent with turning to Christ and turning away from our sins.

Think of a continuum, a straight line with God at the end of one side of the line, and Satan at the end of the other. Think of you being on this line, and you are either facing God or facing Satan. God has designed His plan in such a way so that we only have two choices, and the way we are turning depends on where our hearts and desires are. If we are turned to Christ and away from Satan, we are repenting, and if we are turned to Satan and away from Christ, we are not repenting. Because in Christ is found all Good, when we turn to Christ, we turn to the Good, and when we turn away from Christ, we turn to evil. Hence, the choice is between good and evil, but only as the Lord defines good and evil.  Nephi, spells this out in even stronger language with respect to those who were at Jerusalem. He says:

“And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside (because of what they really desire), rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel.

And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish…” (1 Nephi 19:13-14). These are the same people at Jerusalem whom Laman and Lemuel said were a righteous people. “And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; (why) for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people” (1 Nephi 17:22). But before this they were angry with their father Lehi because he “had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance, and their gold, and their silver and their precious things…” (1 Nephi 2:11). Being a righteous person has nothing to do with being religious. What is the term we use today? A person of faith? Only those who turn to Christ (and away from their sins) and repent receive His righteousness.

Ablnadi, armed with the word of God, is calling on king Noah and his priests to turn from their pride and their idolatry, where they boasted of their own strength, to “repent and turn to the Lord their God…” (Mosiah 11:21). Again we see the use of a Hebrew literary pattern where ‘repent’ and ‘turn’ are used in parallel to define each other. Repent means to turn to God, and turn to God means to repent. From other scriptures we learn that when we turn to God, we turn away from our wickedness and abominations. It is a complete and not a partial turn to God. Alma the Elder, when he heard Abinadi’s words, believed them and turned completely to God. In other words, he repented. Again and again and again Abinadi said: “except they repent and turn to the Lord their God” (Mosiah 11:21;23:25 See also Helaman 11:4).

We turn to Him because we believe His words. Those who believe Christ and His words will repent, and those who do not, will not repent. Turning to Him or repenting also implies that we “turn to the Lord with all (our) mind, might, and strength” (Alma 39:13). In doing so we soon come to realize that our mind, might and strength is wanting, and that we cannot rely on our will and/or our works to remain turned to God. 

The word of God teaches us that we are spiritually deficient and that our goodness is flawed goodness. Turning to Christ and His words (feasting upon them), we receive His light and spirit. We not only come to know that we “cannot merit anything of ourselves” and that we must “rely wholly upon the merits” of Christ, we also experience our own lost, fallen and corrupt state. His words teach us that redemption is not a matter of legislation, moral exhortation, proper examples, rules and regulations, and good education. We are beginning to experience Godly Sorrow, which is the only kind of sorrow that brings about repentance, but more on that later.

Our misunderstanding of the doctrine of repentance leads us to ‘chop at the leaves’ as opposed to getting to the root of the problem. Note the play on the word root. Christ is the root and we are merely the branches. As a result almost all of our efforts are directed as if a change in our behavior or the behavior of others is the cure to our sinful nature. We are only right when there is no wrong in us, not when we have quit doing wrong. We must be set free from the evil within us, not set free from the sins or evil we are doing, nor set free from the sins we have committed. See Saved From Our Sins.

We therefore turn (repent) to Christ, and we validate that repentance by enduring to the end.

Alma’s experience as he recounts in Alma 36 shows us how we turn to Christ. I will refer to his experience many times in this series, but for now focus on Alma turning toward Christ. “And it came to pass that as I was racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death” (Alma 36:17-18). Having experienced the Justice of God, he remembered Jesus and turned his heart and mind to Him, and as soon as he had cried unto Jesus, he could “remember (his) pains no more” (Alma 36:19). He later described his experience as repentance and said “...from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance…” (Alma 36:24). “For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit” (Mosiah 27:24).

Repentance in the Book of Mormon is defined as turning to Christ. The Latin word for repentance means to turn, in Hebrew repentance means to return. In Hebrew,  we see these examples and many more: “Return unto me, and I will return unto you” (Malachi 3:7). “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God” (Hosea 3:5). “And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God” (Hosea 7:10). “...Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after others gods to serve them” (Jeremiah 35:15). Note that these verses are also prophetic in that Israel will return (repent) in the last days, and the Lord will remember His covenant with them. The Old Testament prophets were always calling for Israel to return to their God, or in other words to repent. As a result of their repentance, they will return to their lands of inheritance and receive the blessings promised them. In fact only those who repent will be numbered among His people. “But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel” (3 Nephi 16:13).

In Alma’s recounting of his experience, notice what is not said. He did not have to go to His father who was the High Priest and confess his sins. He did not have to be on probation for a period of time. He did not have to make restitution. He did not need to be forgiven. “And it came to pass that I was three days and three nights in the most bitter pain and anguish of soul; and never, until I did cry unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, did I receive a remission of my sins. But behold, I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul” (Alma 38:8). 

But there needs to be a reason, a motivation to turn to Christ. In Alma’s case it was coming face to face with his sins and his sinful nature. The Lord invites (Alma 5:32-33), commands (3 Nephi 27:20), warns (Helaman 13:6), sends messengers (Moroni 7:31), causes His words to be recorded (Moses 6:46;51-52), and tells us exactly why it is critical that we turn to Him and repent (Alma 42). The knowledge of the goodness of God and our nothingness will awaken us and cause us to want to turn to Christ (Mosiah 4:5). We must view ourselves in our fallen state. For my own experience see I Am a Sinner.

Which brings us to my next post Repentance: Why Do We Need to Repent? Or why did the Lord give us the gift of Repentance?