Our Father in Heaven sent Jesus Christ into the world to provide for us the atonement and make resurrection possible for everyone. It is only through Christ’s atonement that we can be cleansed of sin and return to God. No unclean thing can dwell with God, so we must be cleansed of sin in order to dwell with Him. When we are judged by Him, that judgment will take place according to the laws of justice and mercy.
Justice is the eternal law that every choice has a consequence, and every choice made will result in its natural consequence. Even God does not and will not break this law. According to the law of justice, every sin has a negative consequence that is unavoidable. One of the consequences of sin is that we become unclean and cannot dwell with God in our sins. Thus without Christ’s atonement, we would have no chance for salvation of any kind. His atonement provides mercy. The law of mercy is that one can suffer consequences for another. That is what Christ did – He suffered the consequences of the sins of every person who has, does, or will walk the earth. That is the atonement.
While making mercy available to all, Jesus Christ does not take away our responsibility to use the atonement to grow and become like Him. If we refuse to use His atonement by repenting and keeping the commandments of God, His suffering in our behalf will have been in vain, and we will have to suffer for our sins. He has already paid the price, but if we do not repent, we will also have to pay that same price. Because of this fact, Jesus Christ forgives us of our sins when we do our part – we must accept Him, repent, and obey His commandments. He has promised us that if we will keep His commandments and obeying the principles and ordinances of His gospel, we can dwell with Him and our Father in Heaven again, and learn and grow to become like Them.
Repentance
We cannot return to live with God without repentance. Repentance is only possible because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Everyone everywhere is commanded by Him to repent, because repentance is for every person who is not perfect. Jesus Christ is the only person who ever lived on this earth who never committed even one sin. That is part of the reason that He was able to suffer for our sins. It is our love for Him that leads us to repent. When we have sincerely repented, the Lord supplies us with a new outlook on life – a new perspective; a truer, more accurate perspective. This renewed outlook gives us a greater sense of fulfillment and joy. He frees us of all our feelings of guilt.
We repent by first recognizing our sins, and feel bad for committing them. We pray and confess our sins to God. If we have committed more serious sins, we ought to confess to God’s authorized servants, such as our bishop, so he can help us through the repentance process. We must ask God to forgive us of the sin, and if we have somehow hurt others, we need to do all in our power to make things right with them. We then must not commit the sin any more. This is essential to true repentance.
True repentance will strengthen our relationship with God, and allow Him to give us a greater vision of our true potential, which empowers us to do better in the future. Repentance is essential to our salvation, and we ought to use it every day of our lives.
