Faith and Repentance

Recently I have been studying about faith and how faith helps us live gospel principles. One of the principles that is vital for us is the principle of repentance. For "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). How then is the principle of faith related to repentance? Romans 3:25-25 tells us that it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we can be redeemed. I'm not sure how to write all of this out, but these are some of the things that have been rattling around in my brain.


Here are some things that I know about faith:
1. In order to exercise faith in God unto life and salvation, we must have "a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes" (Lectures on Faith).
2. Faith unto salvation must be centered in the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Faith is a principle of power and of action, not just a passive proclamation of belief.


If we don't understand that God is our Father, that he loves us, and that he has the power to forgive us, what reason would we have for repenting? It would be useless to pray to a god for repentance if that being did not have the power to forgive sins, or if he was not inclined to grant forgiveness to the petitioner. So before we can repent, we must know something about God and about the Savior.
There are some that believe that if there is a god he makes no real demands on us, that he will forgive all sin with a simple confession, even lacking a true intent to change. We are surrounded with a culture of moral relativism, where anything goes and we don't really need repentance because there is no universal moral code. None of those beliefs stem from a correct knowledge of God and his attributes.
Having faith then helps us understand the need to repent. Faith helps us understand that we must have a desire to change, a desire to become better, and a desire to get closer to God for true repentance to be possible.


Second, faith must be centered on Jesus Christ. It is only through the atonement of Jesus Christ that we can repent and be forgiven. Without that atonement, no amount of desire or work would reconcile us to God. The Savior has said, "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit" (D&C 19: 16, 18). The Savior shouldered the burden of our sins so that we could have the chance to repent. His atonement allows us to receive mercy. He pleads for us. "Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him-- Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of they Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life" (D&C 45:3-5). 


"The Greek word of which is the translation [for repentance] denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined." We have to do something for repentance to take effect. We must turn our hearts and will to God. Constant striving to become more like Him is an act of repentance. Faith is a principle of action. Faith is what keeps us striving to do better.


I hope that some of this makes sense. Faith is not simply something that helps us with the principle of repentance. It is vital to repentance. They are so interconnected that I don't think you can have one without the other. If you have faith, you will want to repent, and you cannot repent without faith.

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Freedom

Today I had to give an hour long presentation in my leadership class. We were supposed to read a book on leadership and then present it with a partner to the rest of the class. The book that I chose was The Founding Fathers on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips. As part of our presentation, we played a clip from the John Adams movie where the congress passed the resolution to declare independence and then it showed the declaration being read to and by the people. I know that this is not the kind of thing that gets discussed in the academic world, but I could feel the Spirit of God as we watched that clip and heard the words of the Declaration. Reading through the book about some of the events that took place during the American revolution, reaffirmed for me that God had his hand in the creating of this nation. There is no way we should have won that war. George Washington was going up against the strongest military power on earth at that time. The American troops were ill equipped, poorly trained, and few in number. Somehow they managed to gain victory. It is my firm conviction that without the aid of God, America's independence would never have been realized. The Spirit of God is the spirit of freedom. I don't know if you have ever had the opportunity to go to the archive building in Washington D.C. and have seen the Declaration and the Constitution of the United States. I have only been there once, but what an amazing experience. Standing in that rotunda, I felt such a strong spirit of peace and goodness. I know that God, our father is a champion of freedom. His son, Jesus Christ suffered and died so that we could one day be completely free. Free from the sting of death, free from the pain of sin, free from the hurts and troubles of our mortal existence. That freedom may not be immediate and it may not come in the way that we anticipate, but Christ can and will make us free. And in the meantime, God continues to spread freedom throughout the world. It may not happen as quickly as we would like, and we must do our part, but if we want to be truly free, we must rely on Him. During the constitutional convention, when disagreement threatened to tear the convention apart, Benjamin Franklin said this: "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?" I truly believe that God does govern in the affairs of men. Let us turn to Him as we seek for freedom. 

Elizabeth and Zacharias

Here are just a few thoughts I have about Elizabeth and Zacharias. In Luke 1 it says that both Elizabeth and Zacharias were "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." They had been unable to have children even though they had prayed for that blessing and were now "well stricken in years." While Zacharias is working in the temple an angel comes to him and tells him that Elizabeth will have a son and that his name will be John.

I have wondered why the Lord sometimes makes some of us wait to receive our righteous desires. Sometimes we are told that if we just made more of an effort or had greater faith that we would receive those blessings. But Elizabeth and Zacharias were faithful. They were blameless before the Lord. They were doing their duty and remaining righteous. Why did the Lord make them wait? I think sometimes there is something that the Lord needs us to learn before we can receive the sought after blessings. Sometimes the blessings are delayed because the Lord is preparing us to be of service to others. I think that this may have been part of what was happening with Elizabeth and Zacharias. Elizabeth was a cousin to Mary, who would be the mother of Jesus. Mary was young, unmarried, and was going to be the mother of the son of God through a miraculous conception. We don't know much about Mary's family, but certainly she would have needed some people to accept and understand her situation. What better place to find acceptance and understanding than from your cousin who has just had a miraculous conception of her own? I think that Elizabeth was uniquely prepared to be someone that Mary could go to. I think that just maybe this was one reason that Elizabeth had to wait for so long to have a child. It was not because she wasn't doing her part. It was not because she didn't have enough faith. The Lord knew that Mary would need someone, so he prepared Elizabeth to help fulfill that need.  

New Beginnings

It's a brand new year. Time to figure out what was wrong with our life in this past year and start on the process of remaking ourselves...again. We had a lesson in church this last Sunday on setting goals. What kinds of goals to set. How to set goals. Why we should set goals. Yes, I think goals are important. We should be constantly striving to become better people and make changes in our lives that are necessary. However, while I was listening to the lesson on Sunday, I was struck by the thought that it is only because of our Savior, Jesus Christ that we have the ability to truly work on remaking ourselves and becoming better. It is only through the atonement that we can let go of our mistakes and have a new beginning. Christ is the one who inspires us in our quest to be better and He is also the one that will guide and help us through the process.

During the lesson the teacher also talked about the number of times that we intend to make changes but they just never occur. Most of us have made new year's resolutions that somehow don't even last through the end of January. Why is that? Maybe it is because we are trying to accomplish the remaking and reshaping of ourselves all by ourselves. I think that if we made an effort to prayerfully consider some goals for our lives and then consciously petition heaven for help to achieve them we might end the year with a greater sense of accomplishment and fewer regrets. Just a thought. We may still find ourselves unable to accomplish everything we desire, but I think we will have learned something about ourselves and maybe just a little bit more about aligning ourselves to God's will. We might also gain a deeper understanding of the atonement and a closer relationship with the Savior who truly makes it possible for us to become new.