To start, let me tell you about Jesus.
Jesus is our elder brother, spiritually. In terms of history and authority, He’s our God, our Creator, and our Saviour.
When we lived with our Heavenly Parents as their spirit children in realms that we don’t remember now, Jesus stepped forward to be the one who would bear the weight of all of our sins, in the hope that we would accept His sacrifice as the solution to our failure to meet the standard required to regain a place in our Heavenly Father’s home.
We wanted to become like God. We wanted to have the freedom and authority to participate in the ongoing and expanding cycle of life and creation that God, our Heavenly Father, leads – the goal that we have learned to call “exaltation” and “eternal life.” We came into this lesser, mortal phase of life, knowing that in order to accomplish that goal, we would need to rely on the medium of our elder brother’s love.
Jesus also came into mortality. He who had no need to experience mortal life in order to achieve the divine standard of perfection, who did not require suffering or sin to find his way toward righteousness and eternal life, nevertheless chose to be born into a time, place and circumstances that were trying, difficult and dangerous.
He lived a common life as the son of a carpenter. He had family and friends; but he was always something different from all of them. He came into the world as God’s Only Begotten Son, born of a mortal mother by the power of God through the Holy Ghost. He carried with him the weight of an eternally significant mission, to bring about our salvation from death and sin.
So, when he reached an age of maturity, he set aside his carpenter’s tools and started a new journey as a travelling minister, preaching the gospel of repentance and salvation to all who would hear him, performing miracles that demonstrated the power and love of God that overcome all obstacles, weakness, sorrow and suffering in this life, and gathering disciples to whom he taught the principles of eternal life so that they could establish a church as a community where the saints who seek to follow Jesus could gather together to learn, practice, and strengthen one another in living out his teachings in the world.
If all that was required for us to obtain exaltation was the sacrifice Jesus made when
he bled in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane,
was tortured and tormented by the Roman guards,
and then died in demeaning pain upon the Cross,
then it would seem that the years he took to preach and to teach his gospel, to train his disciples, and to establish his church, would have little meaning.
If that degree of salvation was just a matter of believing him, or believing in him, then nothing else we do would be of any significant effect. But the things we do, do matter. And what, amongst all the things that we can or think we must do as followers of Jesus Christ, is most important?
The Gospel of St. Matthew tells us, that when Jesus started his ministry, he “began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:12) That, for Matthew, was the summary of it all.
Repent.
What did Jesus mean by this?
Of course, he wasn’t speaking in English at the time, so it’s likely the actual word he used was the Hebrew term, “teshuva”, or maybe the older word that appears in Genesis when it says it repented God that he made man on the earth (Gen. 6:6), which is “sheenbeyt”. In the writings of the New Testament authors, they use the Greek word, “metanoia”. In every case, these words share a common sense or understanding, of “turning around” or “returning”.
One of the ancient Christian teachers suggested that a better word to express Jesus’ intent, is the word “conversion” – to be changed.* Another consideration is that the word “repent” had, for Jesus, the same essential meaning as his invitation to every disciple,
“Come, and follow me.”
This seems to be a friendlier way to think of the idea of repentance. Not with beating one’s breast in agonizing sorrow, contemplating our many wrong deeds, but stepping up to take the Lord’s hand, to walk his path, and enter into his peace. That’s a comforting and beautiful image; but let’s not be entirely fooled by it.
There is a place in the program of following Jesus and obtaining eternal life that includes our real sorrow and critical self-reflection. But when we do it with him, we will become happy that we did.
This paradox of suffering and joy runs throughout the story of Jesus and the teachings of the gospel. Consider, for example, his Sermon on the Mount, the key elements of which are repeated in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I read again from the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 5:
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: |
- The spiritually poor will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
- The mourning will have comfort.
- The meek will inherit the earth.
And later he also says,
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
No one should ever tell you that the path to happiness and eternal life that Jesus teaches is easy. It is a journey through sorrow and struggle, not to be saved from the trials and difficulties of this life, but to be empowered to endure them, to be affected and refined by them, and also to rise above them and ultimately to earn a more magnificent reward; and the starting point is repentance.
Recently, I learned from someone else how the principles of repentance are actually also revealed in the statements Jesus makes in the Sermon on the Mount.
He begins with being “poor in spirit.” Again, we can look to the original words to understand better what the translation in English means, but in this case, we find it’s really quite simple: “poor” really means poor. To be “poor in spirit” is not a metaphor for sorrow, for feeling down, for regret or self-pity. It means to be lacking in spirituality. To be less than you ought to be; and to know that that is what you are.
Proverbs tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. And why should we fear Him? And how do we acquire that fear? The best example to answer both questions might be that of Moses, whose feelings, after his first encounter with God, are described this way in The Pearl of Great Price:
9 And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. |
11 But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; …
withered,
powerless,
and nothing.
We can only come into God’s presence from time to time,
when his glory, through the power of the Holy Ghost, rests upon us.
And this we can only do, this blessing can only be obtained,
because of and by the power and grace of Jesus Christ.
You can’t do it on your own. You can’t call down the powers of heaven by your own will or your own righteousness. It will never be enough. You are too poor in spirit. But Christ is not.
In the Letter of St. Jude, the apostle tells us that when Michael the Archangel was “contending with the devil …[he] durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” If Michael the Archangel needs to rely upon the name and authority of Jesus Christ to rebuke the devil, then Michael the mortal must need his help even more.
We are, and ought to be conscious of the fact that we are, spiritual paupers. And in The Book of Mormon rendering of the Sermon on the Mount, the principle is then clarified, (3 Nephi 12:3)
3 Yea, blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
So, that is principle number of one of repentance: Know what you really are, an utterly dependent spiritual being, without the power on your own to bring about your own salvation or exaltation; but when you truly come unto Jesus, you come immediately into his kingdom.
Repent, he said, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not later, not future, not somewhere else, but now, and here, in his presence, in him. But first, you must accept your spiritual poverty in order to receive his spiritual wealth.
Then, as the prophets have taught us, it’s not enough to just acknowledge your miserable state, you must also feel sorrow for the sins that weigh you down.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted
The Lord tells us repeatedly that those who come unto him with a broken heart and contrite spirit will find themselves enveloped in the loving embrace of his kindly grace.
Jesus lives to love us. “I will not leave you comfortless,” he said to his disciples. “I will come to you.” (John 14:18)
Sometimes we are taught in the world that we should rely on positive affirmations to develop a positive self-image, in order to have power, comfort, and happiness in the world. This isn’t bad advice in a worldly sense, but in relation to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it can ultimately lead us away from him.
Jesus, for his part, invites us to embrace our sorrow for sin. Not to tell ourselves, “well, I did the best that I could,” or “I’ll do better next time,” but to be like the publican, the tax collector, in the story related in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 18, when Jesus taught,
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. |
And you know you have them. All of you. All of us. None of us escapes the burden of sinful acts, thoughts, and choices. Hopefully, over time, as we continue on the road of repentance, they get fewer and fewer, and less and less serious; but have you noticed, as you walk this path, that though your sins get fewer, your concern for them increases? That’s a good pattern. That’s a sign that repentance is working.
And don’t worry about comforting yourself; because if your sorrow for sin is real, so will the loving assurance be that he sends you. You are saved, you are seen, you are loved, and he will let you know. As he said to his original apostles,
…he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)
Now, it won’t be possible for me to speak as much about each of the remaining steps of repentance as they are presented in the Sermon on the Mount, so let me just quickly list them. Following poverty of spirit and mourning for sins, the Lord tells us,
- To be meek
- To hunger and thirst after righteousness
- To be merciful
- To be pure in heart, and
- To be peacemakers
You see, the path of repentance is not only a matter of turning from, but also of turning to. This is why I suggested that for Jesus the phrases, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and “come, follow me” have identical meanings.
As followers of Jesus Christ, it is not wrong for us to acknowledge our spiritual poverty and beat our breasts in sorrow for our sins – in fact, these steps are essential, but they are by no means enough. They are a starting point, but they are not the destination.
Again, in the Gospel of St. Matthew (ch. 25), Jesus said,
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
being spiritually prepared,
developing talents, and, ultimately,
serving others.
This is the pattern and path of repentance. This is what it means to follow Jesus. It ends with
not just needing and loving him
but loving and fulfilling the needs of others.
And this is the ultimate key to exaltation.
Jesus Christ has, by his grace, freed us all from the power of death. He has, by his virtue, blessed us all with freedom of sin. He has, by his teachings, his example, and his ongoing revelation, shown us the path we must walk to obtain our exaltation.
May we each follow his words and his ways, accept his grace and his strength, and become the merciful, pure, and peacemaking people who are thereby enabled to live with him eternally, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.