We had a great sunday school lesson this last week in which I had an epiphany. I love those! I find discoveries in the Gospel more exciting than a good day of downhill skiing. Truthfully. Spiritual/Gospel epiphanies are much more fulfilling and longer lasting by far.
Well, we were discussing the principles surrounding the time when John baptized the Lord, one of which is repentance, which, of course, the Lord needed none of, we are told.
(As a side note, I'm not so sure about that thought, that the Lord didn't need to repent, because I consider that He, being totally repentant at all times, submissive to His Father's will 100%, never faltered enough to take him out of the classification of being sinless. Did he ever make any errors of ignorance that may have hurt someone else, that he should repent of? Wasn't it sort of an error to have remained in Jerusalem without telling his parents, making them panic for his safety for two and a half terror-filled days? I would have considered that error of pain provoking thoughtlessness to be somewhat on the side of being at least a mistake, maybe even a transgression of some eternal nature. He, of course, being the one to pay the price of all sins and transgressions would pay for his own as well, but I would think he would have immediately repented from having hurt his parents in that thoughtless manner and resolved to never do anyhting like that again.)
Back to the point about repentance that was my epiphany:
Repentance is sweet, even joyful.
In my youth I got the idea that repentance is, by it's nature, painful. Period. If you have to repent, you are in for a lot of pain. School mates who attended other churches shared how they would be told to kneel on rice while praying for forgiveness and that sort of thing, to increase the pain of repentance in order to make the lesson stick, I suppose. Even in our own Sunday School, Mutual and Priesthood classes the idea of repentance was, to me at least, always attached with the idea that it required suffering or it was not repentance. This Sunday I learned I missed the real truth until now.
The real truth is, and truly is, that it is the pain of guilt from sin that hurts, whether one is repentant or not. Guilt hurts. That guilt is even the sting of death for without guilt death is sweet to the soul even though it may be physically painful getting up to it.
When a person feels the pain s/he can either
1. grit teeth and try to ignore it while continuing in the sinful, pain producing activities, or
2. s/he can cry, weep and moan and curse God for making the illicit activities "sin" and pain producing, or
3. s/he can cry and weep and moan until s/he sincerely looks to Chist and humbly, sincerely requests forgiveness and help.
Instantly, upon that sincere request, forgiveness, healing and joy sweep away the guilt and that pain is forever gone, assuming the sin is truly forsaken. Forgiveness is free for the asking, humble and sincere asking only. Gratis. No cost. No upbraiding. Just peace and hope and joy.
Has repentance taken place at this point? No, not all, not yet. What has taken place is confession to Christ and activation of His Atonement covering that person with mercy and hope and joy. The remainder of repentance is still required: "fruits meet for repentance", as labeled in the Scriptures. Those fruits are confessing to the hurt parties, restitution of that which was damaged, lost, destroyed, etc., and never repeating the sin but instead serving, blessing, loving others. Those actions, the actions of repentance are sweet, fulfilling, joyful, even exciting sometimes.
To reiterate: the pain of guilt is what hurts.
Repentance: giving up the sin and asking for forgiveness while in that pain and receiving joy in return is not painful. It is JOYFUL! Confessing our sin to others, even though it can dredge up the feelings of guilt, if done while feeling the joy of the Lord's loving forgiveness still is not all that painful, and again joy of returned friendship, strengthened bonds and increased love are sweet fruits of this repentance process. The labor of restitution yields increases of all the good living Gospel truths brings. Again, the fruits of repentance are are sweet.
We can expect the Law of Return to always work; it is one of God's laws, it is a Law of Gods - "That which ye send out will return unto you again", "pressed down, shaken together and overflowing", as the scriptures say. God is a multiplier whose rate of return is hundreds and sometimes millions to one, in other words 1000's of percent return. Knowing all of this can make even hard physical labor of repentance pleasant with the expectation (hope) of sweet returns from the labor.
What an epiphany! I love it. I am eager to repent, knowing this. And then, knowing that I can avoid a lot of the pain part by being as repentant as possible as much as possible, in other words, meek and teachable, eager to learn and improve, easy to entreat and instruct, life just gets better and better. When I sin in ignorance, humbly ask forgiveness RIGHT AWAY, get to the pleasant part fast. Christ is eager to forgive those who truly are eager to bring forth fruits worthy to be called repentance. The pain is gone fast and we can get to the good part right away: repentance which brings friends, love and joy. Ain't it great!
One thing I thought I'd share with you, Jon, regarding God's commandments. To obey "because they are commandments" used to irritate me, too, but for different reasons other than just wanting to obey in other than ignorance, in other words intelligently obeying. I used to chafe at being commanded. You know: Obey my command or you'll get another whiplash, slave! Not for me! But... this is God's commandment, we are talking about. He loves us, right? I was confused. "I guess I had just obey because they are His commandments and for my own good, mystery or not."
Then I read (again) D&C 82:8-9 and this time noticed the definition of a commandment: instructions on how to act (before him or while in communication with Him and in His service blessing others) so things will turn to our salvation ... even the bad things that Satan or Nature turn our way.
Commandments are instructions. He is teaching for our good, not just commanding. We can come up with a hypotheses or a question and likely have already in the form of a prayer over a problem. The commandment instructs us or gives us the roadmap to the answer so we can recognize the answer when we arrive at it. In the traveling meanwhile, just follow the map, drive safely and enjoy the view. Take frequent rest stops, i.e. Church meetings, temple visits, scripture/prayer hours, etc.
I truly love the scriptures, feasting from the ideas banquet found therein. I love the restful Sabbath sabbatical taken weekly. I love the rest found in the temples and the reminder that the reason for this whole earthly experience is so we "may fulfill the measure of [our] creation and find joy" and rejoicing therein. What a purpose! What a Plan!
Life isn't easy. That's ok because, knowing what we know, life is GOOD!
