Repentance: Why We Need to Repent

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. 

Now that we know how the Lord defines repentance, and keep in mind that I have only cited a few of the many scriptures where repent and turn are used in parallel, let’s turn our attention to why we need to repent, and why we have been commanded to say nothing but repentance. It must be important? Right? But wait. Isn’t it enough to be kind, honest, tolerant, chaste, hardworking and generous? Do these have anything to do with repentance? When we understand why these have nothing to do with repentance, we will begin to comprehend why we must repent, or why we should repent. 

Again we go back to Adam where Enoch is telling the people “because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and  are shut out from the presence of God” (Moses 6:48-49). To summarize:

1. We are

2. We die

3. We suffer

4. We are carnal, and

5. We are shut out from God’s presence

And when I say we, I mean everyone who is born into this world. This is the condition of everyone. As Alma says: “Now we see that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit, according to the word of God (justice), and thus we see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people” (Alma 12:22 emphasis added ). “And we see that death comes upon mankind” (Alma 12:24), both a physical and spiritual death. 

These are the conditions that are appointed by God, but “after God had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold he saw it was expedient that man should know concerning the things whereof he had appointed unto them” (Alma 12:28 emphasis added). 

So what did God do? “He sent angels to converse with them” (Alma 12:29), and His words were recorded so that we can know for ourselves of our condition here. I suggest that until you know of and experience your own lost and fallen state, you will never repent. Why? Because you will think that you are part of the ninety and nine that do not need to repent. Or that because you followed the tradition of confessing your sins, paid your penance, and quit doing whatever it was that you confessed to, you continue to work on your behavior, stay active, keep a current temple recommend, and give lip service to following the prophet, you will be OK. Or you may think that you are a good person, even though you make mistakes, and that because He loves you so much, He will forgive you and ceremoniously usher you into His presence. I am here to tell you that is not the case. 

“Wherefore, he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good--

Therefore God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness, for on such the plan of redemption could have no power, for the works of justice could not be destroyed, according to the supreme goodness of God” (Alma 12:32 emphasis added). It seems as if He is focusing on our behavior when he says “they should not do evil,” and He is, but not as you might think. It is because we do evil, because we are evil, that we must repent or turn to Him and desire to be changed, rather than by our discipline quit doing evil, or worse, by justifying our evil works. And by justifying I mean grading our sins and thinking that because we did not commit the really bad sins, we are OK. This overlooked statement by James should be enough to cause us to tremble and be harrowed up by our sins: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10 emphasis added). It is impossible for us to not do evil and that is the point. Our only hope is in Christ. I love these words by Jacob:

  

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light off the day, harden not your hearts. Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, for why will ye die” (Jacob 6:5-6)?

And what was the commandment that would enable them to overcome the effects of the fall, to not suffer a second death, to be redeemed by the Lord, and receive His mercy? “But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid), saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you through mine Only Begotten Son; 

Therefore, whosoever repenteth and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.

And whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity; behold, I swear in my wrath (His justice) that he shall not enter into my rest.

And now…seeing we know these things, and they are true, let us repent, and harden not our hearts, that we provoke not the Lord our God to pull down his wrath upon us in these his second commandments which he has given unto us; but let us enter into the rest of the Lord, which is prepared according to his word” (Alma 12:33-37 emphasis added).

So it comes down to repentance. It is all about repentance, that greatest of all gifts given to us by God to be redeemed by Christ. All because Christ paid the demands of Justice, all but Sons of Perdition will be redeemed, even those in the telestial or lower kingdoms (D&C 88:17-33). And why won’t Sons of Perdition be redeemed? Because they refuse to repent. They refuse to turn to Christ even after receiving great light and knowledge. They openly rebel against Him as did Perdition himself, hence the title Sons of Perdition.

An overlooked example is found in D&C 138 concerning those spirits of men kept in prison at the time of Noah. “The dead who repent will be redeemed through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God. And after they have paid the penalty of their transgressions, and are washed clean, shall receive a reward according to their works, for they are heirs of salvation” (D&C 138:58-59 emphasis added). This should give us a hint that it is better to repent now than wait until we are in the spirit world. In case you missed it: they were redeemed after they paid the penalty for their transgressions! If we repent and turn to Christ sooner, rather than later, then He pays the penalty for our transgressions. To me that is all the difference in the world, or another way of saying it, is that all the world has to offer is not worth it.

God’s justice was introduced to Adam at the time of his fall. He told Adam and Eve that they would surely die if they partook of the forbidden fruit, and when they did, being God, He could not go back on His word, otherwise He would cease to be God. But the plan was for God to send His Son to pay the demands of justice for all those who would repent.

My question for you is, is God’s justice enough to make you want to repent? Let’s look at what God says about His justice. “Therefore, I command you to repent--repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore--how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not” (D&C 19:15 emphasisadded). God describes His justice as His wrath, His Anger and the rod of His mouth. He continues, “For behold 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 body and spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink--” (D&C 19:15-18).

This post is entitled Why Do We Need to Repent? And as I said in my last post, you need a reason to repent. I have given you one--God’s justice. And as for the spirits of those who at the time of Noah, refused to repent while in the flesh, but afterward repented, they must suffer God’s justice and pay the demands of justice for their own sins.

Let me make a comment about sins. When we are told to repent of our sins, we are being told to turn to Christ and seek His mercy. As Paul said we all sin. Sinning is part of our nature in our fallen state. But do not fall for the idea that you can grade your sins, and avoid God’s justice if you do not commit the more ‘serious’ sins. No! One sin, no matter how small, will subject you to God’s justice and not just for that sin, but for all your sins. “Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power, and that you confess your sins (acknowledge them, face them, own them), lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit” (D&C 19:20 emphasis added). So when we repent and turn to Christ, we give Him our sins, we confess that we are sinful, we acknowledge that we do not merit anything of ourselves, and we rely totally upon His merits, with faith in His promises of mercy and rest.

Besides using His Justice to drive us into the arms of His Mercy, He made sure that He revealed and caused enough of His words to be written so that there would be no excuse on our part. We can never plead ignorance when He has revealed all that we need to know to overcome our condition here and return to His presence. But more importantly He has given us enough of His light and spirit that we can experience our nothingness. His words shed light on us. And because His words are His light and His spirit we can ‘hear’ His voice in them. His words can cause us to view ourselves in our “own carnal state, even the dust of the earth” (Mosiah 4:2). For more see Faith Comes by Hearing the Word of God and More Blessed Are They Who Humble Themselves Because of the Word.

If His justice or mercy is not enough to make you want to repent, what would it take for you to want to repent? Is the Lord’s command or invitation enough? How about seeing yourself in God’s light? Or better yet, how about your own road to Damascus experience? What if you were threatened with destruction? One thing you should know is that there is no repentance without godly sorrow, which requires that we experience our nothingness, our evil,  in comparison to God’s goodness.

Being sorry for what he may have done, is not godly sorrow. When Mormon had hope that perhaps his people had been humbled enough to repent, he said: “And it came to pass that when I, Mormon, saw their lamentation and their mourning and their sorrow before the Lord, my heart did begin to rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord, therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto them that they would again become a righteous people.

But behold my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God, but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin. And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits….” (Mormon 2:12-14 emphasis added).

Mormon makes a distinction between the sorrow of the damned and sorrow which brings about repentance. What is that difference? He defines the sorrow of the damned as that sorrow where the people want their own kind of happiness and the Lord does not always suffer them to take happiness in sin (not repenting). Note he says the Lord  “does not always suffer them.” Christ says that sometimes people are allowed to have joy in their works, but only for a season. “Verily I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and then are hewn down and cast into the fire…” (3 Nephi 27:11 emphasis added).

But in the end they don’t repent because they do not have godly sorrow. What exactly is godly sorrow? Mormon tells us but we have to read and digest what he says a few times. Let’s review what he said: “...their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God” (Mormon 2:13 emphasis added). He doesn’t give us much, but it becomes clear--sorrowing for not getting what we want, as opposed to sorrowing because of the goodness of God. In other words when we see ourselves in relation to His goodness, we will plead for His mercy. The process of repentance requires that we experience our nothingness in comparison to His goodness. We can only experience it, however. We just can’t read it, or hear it, or cognitively understand it. This is exactly what happened to Alma, and why Alma always admonished his sons to be harrowed up in their sins. It is not enough to have a form of godliness, while denying the power of God. 

Paul also tells us the same: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation…but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Cor 7:10 emphasis added).

And what leads us to experience our nothingness and His goodness? His words will cause us to fall to the earth and fear the justice of God.

Next: Repentance: Godly Sorrow