We cannot sin without accepting the consequences, and sin always brings suffering. Sincere repentance is not easy, but it is possible.
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"We are concerned that some young people who are anticipating serving a mission or being married in the temple have a very lax attitude toward sin. “I’ll just have a few free ones,” they say, “and then I’ll repent quickly, and go on my mission (or get married in the temple), and everything will be all right.”
To minimize misunderstanding, I will give some illustrations of the kinds of things I mean when I refer to sin or transgression. In its widest application, sin includes every irregularity of behavior, every source of uncleanliness. But many things that are sins under this widest definition are just grains of sand or specks of dirt that come out in the weekly wash and do not block our progress on the path toward eternal life. When I speak of sin in this message, I refer to serious transgressions, the boulder-size obstacles that block the path and cannot be removed without prolonged repentance.
The Book of Mormon teaches that the Savior does not redeem men “in their sins." “The wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death” (Alma 11:41). The Savior came to redeem men “from their sins because of repentance” and upon the “conditions of repentance” (Helaman 5:11).
One condition of repentance is suffering or punishment for the sin. In the words of Alma, “repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment” (Alma 42:16). Where there has been sin, there must be suffering.
Am I suggesting that the benefits of the Atonement are not available for the person who heedlessly sins? Of course not. But I am suggesting that there is a relationship between sin and suffering that is not understood by people who knowingly sin in the expectation that all the burden of suffering will be borne by another, that the sin is all theirs, but the suffering is all his. That is not the way. Repentance, which is an assured passage to an eternal destination, is nevertheless not a free ride.
The Savior taught this principle when he said that his atoning sacrifice was for “all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Nephi 2:7; also see Alma 5:48, 11:40). The repentant sinner who comes to Christ with a broken heart and a contrite spirit has been through a process of personal pain and suffering for sin. He understands the meaning of Alma’s statement that “none but the truly penitent are saved” (Alma 42:24).
Why is it necessary for us to suffer on the way to repentance for serious transgressions? We often think of the results of repentance as simply cleansing us from sin. But that is an incomplete view of the matter. A person who sins is like a tree that bends easily in the wind. On a windy and rainy day the tree bends so deeply against the ground that the leaves become soiled with mud, like sin. If we only focus on cleaning the leaves, the weakness in the tree that allowed it to bend and soil its leaves may remain. Merely cleaning the leaves does not strengthen the tree. Similarly, a person who is merely sorry to be soiled by sin will sin again in the next high wind. The susceptibility to repetition continues until the tree has been strengthened.
Most of what I have said here has been addressed to persons who think that repentance is too easy. At the opposite extreme are those who think that repentance is too hard. That group of souls are so tenderhearted and conscientious that they see sin everywhere in their own lives, and they despair of ever being able to be clean. I will conclude with a message of hope that is true for all, but especially needed for those who think that repentance is too hard.
Repentance is a continuing process, needed by all because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Repentance is possible, and then forgiveness is certain.
How glorious God’s own promise that “he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more” (D&C 58:42; see also Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12)." - Elder Oaks
Dallin H. Oaks was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside
address was given at Brigham Young University on 5 August 1990.
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