In the October 2011 General Conference, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called repentance “a divine gift”, meaning that repentance is not something that is inherent within the natural man, and that in order to obtain it, we must seek it from God. “Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen!” 3 Nephi 9:2 Repentance is a part of our road to salvation. Without it we cannot be saved.
 

But why can’t we just repent on our own and it be acceptable to God? The prophet Jeremiah stated, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23. The fact is, true repentance is a change of our very nature. “And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” Mosiah 5:2.
 

This change must be wrought of the Spirit of God. It is a gift of God. We cannot bring about this change on our own. We of ourselves cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior. “And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God” Mosiah 27:26. This is a miracle of God which must be sought after with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, for God has said except we do this, we shall in no wise be saved.
 

I testify that true repentance is a gift, one that should be carefully sought after, asked for, fully appreciated and cared for, and recognized as only coming from our Heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, and by no other means do we receive it, this to his honor and his glory, leaving you this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
 

Craig Fujisue
 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2015 at 6:26 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.