Preview The Divine Gift of Forgiveness Here
Preview the new book The Divine Gifts of Forgiveness by Elder Neil L. Andersen. Read an excerpt from chapter 9 below.
Chapter 9
Faith Leads, Repentance Follows
As I attended seminary in high school, I had a friend who sat across the aisle from me. She was intelligent and kind, and had a warm personality. We rarely saw each other outside of seminary. Through my senior year of high school, we got to know each other in seminary class and discussed many things that were meaningful to us.
My friend seemed to have a desire to do right and to keep the commandments, but at the same time she had trouble with consistently being obedient to the commandments. In seminary, she would speak of her love of God and of the gospel, but then, often on Monday morning, I would learn of her weekend activities and her difficulties following the Word of Wisdom and keeping other standards of the Church. Sometimes she would talk to me about her weekends. She seemed sorry for what she had done and wanted to do better. I would encourage her by talking about willpower, choosing the right friends, not getting in certain situations, and being able to say no. She seemed to appreciate the encouragement, but she continued doing the same things month after month. She spoke of wanting to change and repent, but it never seemed to happen.
If I were talking to her today, I would speak less to her about the steps that would be required for repentance, and much more about the source and power of her ability to change, to repent, and to be forgiven. I would speak about her faith in Jesus Christ. (1) I would try to help her realize that if she would build her knowledge and belief in Christ, and strengthen her faith in Him, then her trust and confidence in Him would bring power—His power to help strengthen her in changing her behavior. (2)
Amulek
I love the story of Amulek. You will remember that after Alma had left the city of Ammonihah thinking there was no one there who would hear his message, an angel of the Lord sent him back. “As he entered the city . . . he said to a man: Will ye give to an humble servant of God something to eat?”
Amulek said to Alma, “I am a Nephite, and I know that thou art a holy prophet of God, for thou art the man whom an angel said in a vision: Thou shalt receive.” (3)
Alma went to Amulek’s home and stayed with him many days. Can you imagine the teachings and experiences that Alma shared with Amulek? Alma strengthened Amulek’s faith in Jesus Christ before they went together to preach to the people of Ammonihah.
In one of their first teaching experiences, when it was Amulek’s turn to speak, he explained that he was a man of no small reputation in Ammonihah, and then he added, “Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power . . . I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know.” (4)
I have always been intrigued by Amulek’s words, “I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know.” My friend in seminary knew the answers to the questions asked by the seminary teacher, but she did not know the strength and power that could come to her personally if she would look to Christ and build her faith in Him. She knew, yet she would not know.
For Amulek to change who he was and become a mighty believer, he had to take the things he had learned, things he had been told, things that he knew intellectually, and open his heart spiritually. He then put his spiritual learning into action. The strengthening of his faith in the Savior brought the changes he needed. Interestingly, about eight years later, we find him with Alma teaching the people known as the Zoramites, who were spiritually in a similar situation to those in Ammonihah eight years previously. However, these people he was now teaching were poor and had been unfairly treated by the more affluent Zoramites. The spiritual issue, however, was the same.
Before talking to them about repentance, Amulek invites them to better understand the source and power that will help them change. He says, “We have beheld that the great question which is in your minds is whether the word be in the Son of God, or whether there shall be no Christ.” (5)
Amulek then confirms what Alma has already taught them “that the word is in Christ unto salvation.” (6)
He testifies of Jesus Christ: “I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world.” (7)
He explained the reasons for an Atonement, and that without it, all would perish: “For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice,” (8) and that it “must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice,” emphasizing that it is this Atonement that “shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name.” (9) Amulek explains that this amazing gift from the Son of God will “bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance. Amulek uses the phrase “faith unto repentance” four times in four verses.
“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. Therefore may God grant unto you . . . that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance.” (10)
Repentance Begins with Faith in Jesus Christ
In order to repent, we need to believe that God will forgive us, and then take the actions needed for us to change. President Henry B. Eyring said, “Faith is not simply to know God could do something. Faith is to know He will.” (11)
Repentance must begin with faith in Jesus Christ. The prophet Alma taught the Zoramites how faith in the word—which is in Christ—as it is nurtured, will grow from a seed, to a seedling, to a powerful tree of faith in Christ. (12)
Faith is multidimensional; it has depth and breadth. Your faith is growing or diminishing. Faith grows and strengthens within us as we desire to believe, as we ponder the word of God, as we increase the sincerity and frequency of our prayers, as we repent and keep the commandments, and as we experience the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. Alma begins his teaching on faith in chapter 32 with these words: “If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if you can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.” (13) He then talks about planting that seed in your heart, not dismissing it by unbelief, and allowing it to enlarge your soul and enlighten your understanding. (14)
Alma asks, “Would this not strengthen your faith? . . . because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good.” (15) Next, Alma ties our experience to the growth of the spiritual knowledge inside us: “Is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible.” (16)
Faith is something that grows, and as it grows, you receive heavenly gifts, power, and the ability to do what you could not do without it.
The author of Hebrews said, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (17) Faith brings assurance. As we nourish our faith by taking righteous action, the evidences of its reality come into our life; we know it is real. Those evidences that we acknowledge as spiritual gifts that we did not have previously allow us to have greater faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ builds upon itself, experience after experience, feeling after feeling, confirmation after confirmation.
President Henry B. Eyring explained how this knowledge moves us to action: “It will take unshakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to choose the way to eternal life. It is by using that faith we can know the will of God. And it is by exercising that faith in Jesus Christ that we can resist temptation and gain forgiveness through the Atonement.” (18)
Notes
1. See 2 Nephi 31:19–21.
2. See Mosiah 3:19; Philippians 4:13.
3. Alma 8:19–20.
4. Alma 10:5–6.
5. Alma 34:5.
6. Alma 34:6.
7. Alma 34:8.
8. Alma 34:10.
9. Alma 34:15.
10. Alma 34:15–17.
11. Henry B. Eyring, “We Must Raise Our Sights,” address to religious educators at a conference on the Book of Mormon, Brigham Young University, August 14, 2001.
12. See Alma 32.
13. Alma 32:27.
14. See Alma 32:27–28.
15. Alma 32:30, 33.
16. Alma 32:35.
17. JST Hebrews 11:1.
18. Henry B. Eyring, “Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Ensign, November 2005.