Repentance

One of the key principles of the gospel for which I will be forever grateful for, is the principle of repentance. Repentance is the process by which we can be made whole again through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is only made possible through the mission that Jesus Christ fulfilled when He came to earth. This is of course relating to the roles that justice and mercy play in our lives. To better understand the magnitude of repentance, we can examine the pre-existence. The gift of life eternal was offered to us through a trial and test of earth life, a period to prove ourselves worthy of the gift that was offered to us. We could choose between 2 plans, one that cunningly led us all to heaven without choosing, the other a difficult, treacherous path where we would have to choose one of 2 ways. We knew that we would make mistakes and that each man must pay the price for his mistakes. But a loving Heavenly Father provided a Savior, to pay for the price of those mistakes, our job being to love and follow Him and His commandments to return to Him. My favorite scripture is Alma 34:16 which says, “And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.”

I have seen the principle work with power over and over in my life. On my mission, we taught a man from Iraq, who lived as a Muslim growing up. Over several years, he recognized some falsehoods in the teachings and questioned the violent lifestyle led by many Muslims. He published a news article questioning the church, and was violently chased out of his country.  He walked from Iraq to Germany, and there found religious freedom. After being baptized into the Evangelical church, he read through the entire Bible, but continued to have questions as to where God’s truth really was to be found. As we met him for the first time on the street, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. We worked for about 4 weeks together to make sure he understood the lessons, and he read the entire copy of the selections of the Book of Mormon in his native language. We proceeded the next week to teach him the commandments, and came to the realization that he, too, had his struggles keeping the commandments of God. He brought a willing heart to the table, the first ingredient to true repentance. It was amazing to watch his heart change through that process. He would frequently ask for priesthood blessings to change his desires and to help him better understand the gospel. He’s still working through that process, but I am sure he will soon be baptized.

The thing that amazed me most about my mission was the power of the human heart to change. I didn’t recognize the full effect of that before. I am shocked by how God feels about His children, and how ready some hearts are to accept His love. I am grateful for what repentance has taught me and the role it has played in my life.