Repentance: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

These posts on Repentance are best 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 Even in his church activities he was shy and withdrawn and sometimes prone to anger.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 human goodness 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

 

Repentance: Grace--After All We Can Do

These posts on Repentance are best read in order from the beginning with Repentance: Introduction. At the bottom of each post is a link to the next one. 

So what did Nephi mean when he said that we are saved by grace, after all we can do? Perhaps it is easier if we framed the question: What Can We Do? This is where religion and church culture, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are at odds. After teaching the Gospel of Grace and Repentance one Sunday in Gospel Doctrine, a friend said to me: “But we have to do something, don’t we?” He was asking because I had just taught that when we access the grace of Christ through faith and repentance, and not by our works, then it is He that begins to make the changes in us. The fruits of our repentance are a result of Him, the root making them, not us. We are, after all, the branches and cannot bring forth fruit of our own. 

Before we move on to what “after all we can do” means, remember that Nephi also said that “after (we) are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that (we) are saved” (2 Nephi 10:24 emphasis added). He says nothing about all we can do, but that it is only through the grace of God that we are saved!

Let’s talk about being “reconciled unto God.” 

Christ has already paid the demands of justice for all. We just have to take advantage of the grace of God. How do we do that? First, we have to lose the life that we have. “If anyone wants to come with me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For if anyone wants to save his life, he will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25 emphasis added). Losing our life is hard for winners, those who, like the Pharisee, attempt to justify their life by their good works. And yet it is only in losing our life that we can find it. And it was none other than Jesus who insisted that the only way to win is to lose. Nothing is harder to accept for those who are comfortably “living their religion."

In order to be reconciled to God, then, we must lose our life, or better yet, come to the realization that we are lost. We must become losers and not winners. We have to give Jesus someone he can work with, and He cannot work with winners because they insist that their works will save them. These are those who read Nephi’s “after all we can do” as just another call to be good and do good works and Christ will take care of the rest. These are the “ninety and nine” who need no repentance. These are the Pharisees in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and the elder brothers in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Incidentally, the “ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” whom Jesus introduced in the Parable of the Lost Sheep are strictly a rhetorical device: In fact, there are not and never have been any such people anywhere, only those who imagine that they need no repentance, or whose image is that of a winner.

Christ is going to present us all to the Father in the power of His atonement, death and resurrection, and not at all in the power of our own totally inadequate records, either good or bad. 

Ask yourself why is it that God cannot work with the Pharisee? Then ask yourself why is it that God can work with the Publican? But the most important question is: can He work with you? 

Let me share some thoughts from Robert Capon, an American Episcopal priest and author, whose studies and writings on the Parables are without equal. He is writing about the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. These will help you start to get an idea of what Nephi meant by “after all we can do.” I quote his words to see if you can hear God's words in them. It is only God's words that matter, and we should learn to hear His words no matter who speaks or writes them.

“But if the salt of the earth becomes insipid (loses its savor) --if a disciple of Jesus forgets that only losing wins, and a fortiori, if the church forgets it--where in the wide world of winners drowning in the syrup of their own success will either the disciple or the church be able to recapture the saltiness of victory out of loss? The answer is nowhere. And the sad fact is that the church both now and at far too many times in its history, has found it easier to act as if it were selling the sugar of moral and spiritual achievement rather than the salt of Jesus’s passion and death. It will preach salvation for the successfully well-behaved, redemption for the triumphantly correct in doctrine, and pie in the sky for all the winners who think they can walk into the final judgment and flash their passing report cards at Jesus.” (Pulpit Narrative)

“The church “preaches the nutra-sweet religion of test-passing, which is the only thing the world is ready to buy and which isn’t even the real sugar let alone salt. In spite of all our fakery, though, Jesus’ program remains firm. He saves losers and only losers. He raises the dead and only the dead. And rejoices more over the last, the least, and the little than over all the winners in the world. That alone is what this losing race of ours needs to hear, even though it can’t stand the thought of it. That alone is the salt that takes our perishing insipidity and gives it life and flavor. That alone….” (Scripture Narrative)

“He records that tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus to hear him, and that the Pharisees and scribes (winners all) grumbled extensively about such consorting with losers.”

“Give him a world with a hundred out of every hundred souls lost--give him, in other words, the worldful of losers that is the only real world we have--and it will do just fine: lostness is exactly his cup of tea.” (Christ is both the Shepherd in the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and the woman in the Parable of the Lost Coin. Note that the only criteria for being found was that each was lost.)

“If we badger ourselves (and each other) with the dismal notion that sinners must first forsake their sins before God will forgive them, that the lost must somehow find itself before the finder will get off his backside and look for it--we carry ourselves straight away from the obvious sense of both stories.” (Lost Coin and Lost Sheep) “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 emphasis added).

“They are emphatically not stories designed to convince us that if we will wind ourselves up to some acceptable level of moral and/or spiritual improvement, God will then forgive us; rather they are parables about God’s determination to move before we do--in short, to make lostness and death the only tickets we need to the Supper of the Lamb.” 

Now do you better comprehend the reason that in order to be reconciled to God we must experience Godly Sorrow--our nothingness, our lostness?

“Neither the lostness, nor the deadness, nor the repentance is in itself redemptive; God alone gives life, and he gives it freely and fully on no conditions whatsoever. These stories, therefore, are parables of grace and grace only. There is in them not one single note of earning or merit, not one breath about rewarding the rewardable, correcting the correctable, or improving the improvable. There is only the gracious saving determination of the shepherd, the woman, the king, and the father--all surrogates for God--to raise the dead.”

“Rather it is the admission that we are dead in our sins--that we have no power of ourselves either to save ourselves or to convince anyone else that we are worth saving.” (Godly Sorrow/we cannot merit anything of ourselves)

“It is the recognition that our whole life is finally and forever out of our hands and that if we ever live again, our life will be entirely the gift of some gracious other.” (Godly Sorrow)

“When God pardons, therefore, he does not say he understands our weakness or makes allowances for our errors; rather he disposes of, he finishes with, the whole of our dead life and raises us up with a new one.” (Become new creatures!)

“He finds us, in short, in the desert of death, not in the garden of improvement; and in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, he puts us on his shoulders rejoicing and brings us home” (Capon, The Parables of Grace, emphasis and comment added).

Christ did say after all: “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 unto the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18 emphasis added). 

In addition to experiencing our nothingness, our deadness, our lost and fallen state, there are still other things that we can do to be saved by Grace. We can repent,  but then again repentance is the experiencing of our lost and fallen state, our nothingness and His goodness. But we can also forgive, and since all are lost, all are fallen, all have sinned, repenting, as the Lord defines repentance, and forgiving are the only things we can do.

Lamoni and his brother, sitting in council, after they had been reconciled to God, or as they described it “converted unto the Lord,” said “And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son. And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent…for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain…” (Alma 24:10-11 emphasis added).

It was all they could do to repent. By linking “all we could do” with Nephi’s “after all we could do,” we see that all we can do is repent. No winning. No justification by our works, regardless of how good they may be. Remember the Pharisee. His long list, which included fasting, tithing, praying, and attending meetings and the temple, did count for nothing. The scriptures have concluded that all are under sin, and that our sinfulness cannot be broken by good examples, even if we could follow them. Quite the contrary the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that we can be saved only by the horrible example of a Savior who, in an excruciating death, lays down his life for us.

No human virtues, however revered or practiced, will be enough. Those who are found guiltless (3 Nephi 27:16) are only made up of forgiven sinners. There are no good guys, the successful types, who of their own integrity, have been accepted into God’s presence. There are only failures, only those who have accepted their deaths in their sins and have been saved from their sins.

The sole difference, therefore, between those who are found guiltless and those who are “hewn down and cast into the fire” is that the love of God is accepted and passed along by this group, while the others reject and block it. The spotless, because of the Grace of God, do not withhold their forgiveness from others, while those cast into the fire are living a life of keeping tabs on everyone else, unforgiving, judgmental and in hell. No mercy is found in them, and they have refused to receive mercy.

I know that all of this requires a new mindset, a new paradigm because we have all been raised in religious families, where being good was prized. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 27:13-21) is not the same gospel most of us were taught. It may have been called the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we did pride ourselves in living it, but it was not the Gospel of Repentance, Mercy and Grace. Unless we are willing to see our own death as necessary to salvation, and give up on trying to justify our lives through living them the way we have been taught, we will never be able to enjoy the Atonement, even though it is handed to us on a silver platter.

So far we have defined repentance, learned why all need to repent, defined Godly Sorry, caught a glimpse of why we should say nothing but repentance unto this generation, learned that it is by Grace that we are saved, and that we must lose our life in order to find it. But if we leave it at just learning about repentance, we will be as those who know, but don’t know. Why? Because we have not experienced our own lost and fallen state, have not been harrowed up in our sins, have not experienced our nothingness in comparison to His goodness, and have refused to do it His way--lose our life, the one we have made for ourselves, the more comfortable the better. 

“Therefore, blessed are they who will repent, and hearken unto the voice of the Lord; for these are they that shall be saved. And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works (works meet for repentance, the fruits of His repentance; His works done by the power and gifts of God), that they might be restored unto grace for grace. And I would that all men might be saved” (Helaman 12:23-24 emphasis added),

“Follow me,” He says. All the other ways--all the moral, philosophical and religious works on which humanity has always counted--have been canceled. Nothing counts now except being one of the lost and dead with Him. Follow Him into the waters of baptism, into His death and be raised with Him in His life. Anything else will leave you subject to His justice. But keep in mind that we are not saved by what Christ taught, and we are certainly not saved by what we understand Jesus to have taught. We are not saved by repentance. We are saved by Christ. We just have to believe Him.

I want to end with an example of where the Pulpit Narrative is the Scripture Narrative. Elder Jeffrey Holland, in the October 2017 General Conference said concerning the Parable of the Unjust or Unforgiving Servant.

“Our only hope for true perfection is in receiving it as a gift from heaven—we can’t ‘earn’ it.

Let me use one of the Savior’s parables to say this in a little different way. A servant was in debt to his king for the amount of 10,000 talents. Hearing the servant’s plea for patience and mercy, ‘the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and … forgave … the debt.’ But then that same servant would not forgive a fellow servant who owed him 100 pence. On hearing this, the king lamented to the one he had forgiven, ‘Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?’

There is some difference of opinion among scholars regarding the monetary values mentioned here—and forgive the U.S. monetary reference—but to make the math easy, if the smaller, unforgiven 100-pence debt were, say, $100 in current times, then the 10,000-talent debt so freely forgiven would have approached $1 billion—or more! As a personal debt, that is an astronomical number—totally beyond our comprehension. (Nobody can shop that much!) Well, for the purposes of this parable, it is supposed to be incomprehensible; it is supposed to be beyond our ability to grasp, to say nothing of beyond our ability to repay. That is because this isn’t a story about two servants arguing in the New Testament. It is a story about us, the fallen human family—mortal debtors, transgressors, and prisoners all. Every one of us is a debtor, and the verdict was imprisonment for every one of us. And there we would all have remained were it not for the grace of a King who sets us free because He loves us and is ‘moved with compassion toward us.’ Jesus uses an unfathomable measurement here because His Atonement is an unfathomable gift given at an incomprehensible cost” (Holland, Be Ye Therefore Perfect--Eventually October 2017 General Conference emphasis added). 

And then he quoted from Tolstoy a truth which, when I heard it, caused me to shout for joy!

“In that regard, Leo Tolstoy wrote once of a priest who was criticized by one of his congregants (an unforgiving servant perhaps) for not living as resolutely as he should, the critic concluding that the principles the erring preacher taught must therefore also be erroneous. In response to that criticism, the priest says: ‘Look at my life now and compare it to my former life. You will see that I am trying to live out the truth I proclaim.’ Unable to live up to the high ideals he taught, the priest admits he has failed (‘O wretched man that I am’). But he cries: ‘Attack me, [if you wish,] I do this myself, but [don’t] attack … the path I follow. … If I know the way home [but] am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way simply because I am staggering from side to side?’” Holland, Be Ye Therefore Perfect--Eventually October 2017 General Conference emphasis and comments added).

Again, what do you hear in the Gospel you have received?

Next: Repentance: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

Repentance: Grace (And Not After All We Can Do)

These posts on Repentance are best read in order from the beginning with Repentance: Introduction. At the bottom of each post is a link to the next one. 

I was teaching a High Priest Group one Sunday and during the discussion a member of the group brought up Nephi’s quote that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. It was quite a large group, probably more than 75 members. I asked “Has everyone here done all that they can do?” After no response, I asked “Has anyone here done all that they can do?” And of course no one raised their hand. So I concluded that if we read Nephi’s statement as only receiving grace after all we can do, then none of us will ever be saved by His grace because no one has done all he could do.

Let’s look at what Nephi said: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23 emphasis added). The answer lies in what Nephi means when he says ‘all we can do.’ But first let’s talk about the grace of God.

The Lord said unto Alma, “Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming, his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 27:25-26 emphasis added).

Through the grace of Christ, following repentance and being born again, we are changed and become new creatures, and continue to become until perfected in/by Him. Not by any works or merits of our own, but by the grace of Christ. Incorrectly grace and works are often described as either being saved by grace or saved by works. This is not an accurate comparison. In fact, in the scriptures the comparison is between faith and works, not grace and works. Paul said: “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:1-3 emphasis added). And then he says, and this is the point:

“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace” (Romans 4:16 emphasis added). Think of this for a minute: “It is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Christ’s Grace then is something that comes as a result of our faith in Christ, the fruits of our repentance. We have access to Christ “by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2 emphasis  added). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasis added). Paul also taught "...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

When we have faith unto repentance and begin the process of repenting and turning to Christ, then we by His Grace, begin the process of being changed by Him, and it will be because of our faith in Christ.

There is always the temptation to try to describe how we are changed by Him, how His grace saves us. But isn’t it enough to just believe Him when He says “My Grace is sufficient for thee?” Putting our faith in Him means just that. We don’t need to analyze how His grace works, how His power changes us, only that it does. Isn’t it enough to know that it is through our faith in Him that we access His grace and His righteousness? Why is it that we tend to think that we can arrive at some satisfying explanation? Could it be that we lack faith in Him? That we don’t believe His words? Don’t His words have whatever power He has, no matter what we may think about them?

Take for example, a type was raised up in the wilderness by Moses that whosoever would look upon the staff would live. But few understood the meaning (perhaps tried to analyze, and because of unbelief they would not look and therefore perished. The reason they would not look “is because they did not believe that it would heal them” (Alma 33:19-20 emphasis added). Alma then asks (think of him asking you): “...if ye could be healed by merely casting your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your heart in unbelief” (Alma 33:21 emphasis added).

What we do know is that we access His grace through our faith in Him, and we gain faith by hearing the word of God, and through our faith we desire to repent and turn to Him to save us, to hold us guiltless. We do this by relying “wholly” or “alone” upon His merits (2 Nephi 31:19; Moroni 6:4; Helaman 14:13; Alma 24:8; 2 Nephi 2:8). It is so difficult to let go of our own merits. We have been so conditioned that it is about our goodness and righteousness, that we have a difficult time getting our heads around the fact that we do not merit anything of ourselves! Nothing! (Alma 22:14)

There are some fruits of our repentance, things that He, through His grace, starts to change in us as we turn to Him and put our faith and trust in Him, relying wholly upon His merits:

“Ye shall always rejoice;

Be filled with the love of God;

Always retain a remission of your sins;

Ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of Him that created you;

Ye shall grow in the knowledge of that which is just and true;

Ye will not have a mind to injure one another;

But to live peaceably;

Ye will desire to teach your children to walk in the ways of truth (His words) and to love and serve one another;

Ye will want to succor those that stand in need and administer of your substance unto him who standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain;

He will pour out His spirit upon you and cause that your heart should be filled with joy;

You will believe all the words which He has spoken to us;

And know of their surety and truth,

He will wrought a mighty change in you or in your heart;

You will have no more disposition to do evil;

You will have a disposition to do good continually;

You will have great views of that which is to come (Spirit of Prophecy) (Mosiah 5).

He changes us from our carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness;

We become His sons and daughters; and

We become new creatures (Mosiah 27:25-26).

We become alive in Him.

We are born again and are filled with the Holy Ghost. Joseph Smith said that “The Holy Ghost has no other effect than pure intelligence. It is more powerful in expanding the mind, enlightening the understanding, and storing the intellect with present knowledge….it is calm and serene; and his whole soul and body are only exercised by the pure spirit of intelligence” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected and arranged by Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 149. emphasis added). We will talk about this in another post, but for now, just recognize how Joseph says “no other effect than pure intelligence.”

And Joseph Smith also said: “We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients, arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker and is caught up to dwell with Him” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected and arranged by Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 51. emphasis added)

John bore record of the “glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us. And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at first, but received grace for grace; and he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness. And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at first. …And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him” (D&C 93:12-14;17 (emphasis added).

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourself of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ. …And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32-33 emphasis added).

Paul’s experience with grace can become our own experience. He says that there was given to him “a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan” to buffet him, and for this he “besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart” from him. And Christ said unto him, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness….for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor 12:7-10 emphasis added).

And further:

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27 emphasis added).

All this according to our faith in Him.

But he needs someone He can work with like the Publican. He cannot work with the Pharisee. He did, after all, come to the least, the last, the lost and the dead 

Christ said: “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 unto the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18 emphasis added).

And so if His grace is sufficient for us, why did Nephi say that we are saved by grace after all we can do? 

Next: Repentance: Grace--After All We Can Do