Sister Oaks and I are glad to be with you
this evening. It is always a thrill to return to BYU, where
we have some of our happiest memories. For example, half of our six children were
born while we were here at BYU. The first two were born while we were students
here, and the last was born while I was serving as president. That is what you call coming full circle. I begin by describing an event that happened
here on campus. About fifteen years ago, a group of newspaper
editors from various western states came to Salt Lake City to learn more about the Church. They visited with Church authorities, went
to Temple Square, saw the welfare program in action, and then came to BYU. At dinner in the Wilkinson Center, I sat with
an editor from California. He was immensely impressed with what he had
seen. “You Mormons really know how to do it,”
he said. Then he praised the various things he had
seen. I enjoyed his positive reactions to everything. Later, he asked the location of the nearest
rest room and excused himself. When he returned he had a triumphant smile
on his face. “Well, I found out that you Mormons are
just like everyone else,” he said. In response to my question, he explained. “When I go into a rest room in another public
place, I find there are things written on the wall. When I went to the rest room here in the Wilkinson
Center, I found it was just like other rest rooms. There was something written on the wall.” Sorry that the man’s gleaming impressions
had been tarnished, I began to apologize about how difficult it was to keep current on the
maintenance in a public place. He smiled and raised his hand to stop me. “Oh, I’m just kidding,” he said. “It’s true there was something written
in there, but I’ve never seen anything like that written on the wall in a public place. It was just one word: repent.” Whoever wrote that word on a rest room wall
in the Wilkinson Center many years ago at least knew the word repent, which is more
than can be said for many people in the world today. But I wonder how many of us understand the
principle and purpose of repentance, including its relationship to sin and suffering. 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.” Young people are not the only ones with a
lax attitude toward sin. We know of mature members of the Church who
commit serious transgressions knowingly and deliberately, relying on their supposed ability
later to repent speedily and be “as good as new.” Such persons want the present convenience
or enjoyment of sin and the future effects of righteousness, in that order. They want to experience the sin, but avoid
its effects. The Book of Mormon describes such persons: And there shall also be many which shall say:
Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little
sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for
thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die;
and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we
shall be saved in the kingdom of God. The attitude and position of such persons
is exactly the opposite of the Savior, who never experienced sin, but whose atoning sacrifice
subjected him to all of its anguish. When I was a young man, I accompanied a Protestant
friend to his church service. There I heard a minister take on the subject
of sin. It was an uneven contest. That minister really beat up on sin. He condemned it. He denounced it. He castigated it. He left no doubt in the mind of anyone that
he was against sin. But he didn’t give the congregation one
word of definition or explanation about what it was. 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. During one week last month, a knowledgeable
observer listed some of the crimes reported in a Utah newspaper and then struck off those
where the accused was not a member of this Church. The remaining list provides some illustrations
of the kinds of sins in which Latter-day Saints were involved. Fraud
Sale of illegal drugs Aggravated assault
Aggravated kidnapping Sexual abuse by a woman upon a child
Sexual abuse by a man upon a child A professional having sexual relations with
a client Church disciplinary records make us aware
of other serious transgressions rarely reported in the press: adultery, fornication, polygamy,
and apostasy. When the Savior appeared to the people of
this continent, he spoke of the final judgment. There, he said, he would “be a swift witness
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages.” Those are some illustrations of serious transgressions. Others could be given. As background, let us review some familiar
principles. 1. One of the principal purposes of this life
is to test the children of God, to see whether we will keep his commandments. 2. Therefore, this life is “a probationary
time,” as Alma called it, “a time to repent and serve God." 3. The breaking of a commandment of God is sin. 4. For every sin there is “a punishment affixed." 5. In the final judgment, we will stand before
God to be judged according to our works. 6. Those who have broken the commandments of
God and have not repented in this life will “stand with shame and awful guilt before
the bar of God." They will have “an awful view of their own
guilt and abominations." The scriptures describe this as “a lively
sense of . . . guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose
flame ascendeth up forever and ever." 7. The awful demands of justice upon those who
have violated the laws of God, the “state of misery and endless torment” described
in these scriptures, can be mediated and eliminated by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is the essence of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. What do these basic principles mean in the
case of a lax Latter-day Saint who deliberately commits a serious transgression in the expectation
that he or she will enjoy the effects or benefits of the sin now and then make a speedy and
relatively painless repentance and soon be as good as new? 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." The Savior came to redeem men “from their
sins because of repentance” and upon the “conditions of repentance." One of those conditions of repentance is faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, including faith in and reliance upon his atoning sacrifice. As Amulek taught: 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. Another 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." Where there has been sin, there must be suffering. Perhaps the greatest statement of this principle
in all the scriptures is the revelation the Lord gave to the Prophet Joseph Smith in March
1830, the month the Book of Mormon was published and the month before the Church was organized. Here the Lord reminds us of “the great day
of judgment” when all will be judged according to their works. He explains that the “endless” or “eternal
torment” or “punishment” that comes from sin is not punishment without end, but
it is the punishment of God, who is endless and eternal. In this setting, the Savior of the world commands
us to repent and keep his commandments. “Repent,” he commands, “lest . . . your
sufferings be sore —” how sore you know not, how exquisite you know
not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. For behold, I, God, have suffered these things
for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer
even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the
greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer
both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and
I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. Wherefore, I command you again to repent,
lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer
these punishments of which I have spoken. As we consider these sobering words of the
Savior, we realize that there is something very peculiar about the state of mind or “heart”
of the person who deliberately commits sin in the expectation that he or she will speedily
and comfortably repent and continue as a servant of God preaching repentance and asking others
to come unto Christ. I will illustrate the peculiarity of this
attitude with two analogies. Picture a father who labors tirelessly to
support a large family. He denies himself many things in order to
provide their urgent needs: food, clothing, housing, health care, and education. He works every waking hour, scrapes, saves,
and prays that there will be enough to go around. The children see his tireless work and his
sacrifices for them. Finally, a day comes when the family gathers
for a celebration. They go to a restaurant where the father,
with carefully saved resources, plans to treat everyone to a nice meal. Mindful of their financial circumstances and
the sacrifices the father has made to bring them to this place, most of the children are
very considerate about what they order. But some are heard to say, “We don’t have
to pay, so we’re going to order everything we want, no matter how expensive. We’ll enjoy it, and he’ll pay for it.” Second example. The mother of a large family is burdened almost
past the point of endurance. Every waking hour is spent serving the needs
of her large family: meals, mending, transporting, counseling, caring for those who are sick,
comforting those who mourn, and administering to every other need a mother can understand. She has committed herself to do everything
within her power to serve the needs of her children. She is giving her life for them. The children know she will attempt to carry
whatever load is placed upon her. Most of them are considerate and do all that
they can to minimize her burden. But some, knowing of her willingness to serve,
heedlessly pile more and more tasks on the weary mother. “Don’t worry about it,” is their attitude,
“she’ll carry it. She said she would. Drop it on Mom, and we’ll just have a good
time.” In these two analogies, I am obviously likening
the heedless children to those who sin in the expectation that someone else will bear
the burden of suffering. The one who bears the burden is our Savior. 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. Let us recall two scriptures quoted earlier:
(1) “Repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment” (Alma 42:16);
and (2) the Savior said that he had suffered these things for all, “that they might not
suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I." Does this mean that a person who repents does
not need to suffer at all because the entire punishment or suffering is borne by the Savior? That cannot be the meaning because it would
be inconsistent with the Savior’s other teachings. What is meant is that the person who repents
does not need to suffer “even as” the Savior suffered. Sinners who are repenting will experience
some suffering, but, because of their repentance and the Atonement, they will not experience
the full “exquisite” extent of eternal torment the Savior suffered. President Spencer W. Kimball, who gave such
comprehensive teachings on repentance and forgiveness, said that personal suffering
“is a very important part of repentance.” One has not begun to repent until he has suffered
intensely for his sins. If a person hasn’t suffered, he hasn’t
repented. . . . He has got to go through a change in
his system whereby he suffers and then forgiveness is a possibility. 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." 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." Bruce C. Hafen has described how some people
think that repentance is too easy. They look “for short cuts and easy answers,
thinking that quick confessions or breezy apologies alone are enough0". President Kimball said, “Very frequently
people think they have repented and are worthy of forgiveness when all they have done is
to express sorrow or regret at the unfortunate happening” (TSWK, p. 87). There is a big difference between the “godly
sorrow [that] worketh repentance," which involves personal suffering, and the easy and relatively
painless sorrow for being caught or the misplaced sorrow Mormon described as “the sorrowing
of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin." Alma the Younger certainly understood that
easy and painless sorrow was not a sufficient basis for repentance. His experience, related in detail in the Book
of Mormon, is our best scriptural illustration of the fact that the process of repentance
is filled with personal suffering for sin. Alma said after he was stopped in his wicked
course, he was “in the darkest abyss," racked with eternal torment, for my soul was
harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities,
for which I was tormented with the pains of hell. He tells how “the very thought of coming
into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror” (verse 14). He speaks of being “harrowed up by the memory
of my many sins." After three days and three nights of what
he called “the most bitter pain and anguish of soul,” he cried out to the Lord Jesus
Christ for mercy and received “a remission of [his] sins." All of our personal experience confirms the
fact that we must endure personal suffering in the process of repentance—and for serious
transgressions that suffering can be severe and prolonged. I believe that every one of us who is truly
honest with himself recognizes the truth of this principle. We have felt it in our own lives, and we have
seen it in the lives of others. This month’s Ensign (August 1990) contains
an anonymous article describing such an experience. Under the title “Yearning to Return,”
a repenting transgressor who was excommunicated describes his personal feelings: “tearful
hours,” “misery,” “wishing to be covered by a million mountains,” “crushed by the
shame,” “dark blackness,” “unbearable pain,” and “anguish. . . as wide as eternity." 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. When a person has gone through the process
that results in what the scriptures call a broken heart and a contrite spirit, that person
is not only eligible to be cleansed from sin. He is also strengthened, and that strengthening
is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our
Heavenly Father. To be admitted to his presence we must be
more than clean. We must also be changed from a weak person
who once transgressed into a strong person with the spiritual stature that qualifies
one to dwell in the presence of God. We must, as the scripture says, become “a
saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord." This is what is meant by the scriptural explanation
that a person who has repented of his sins will “confess them and forsake them." Forsaking sins is more than resolving not
to repeat them. It involves a fundamental change in the individual. King Benjamin and Alma both speak of “a
mighty change of heart.” King Benjamin’s congregation described that
mighty change by saying that they had “no more disposition to do evil, but to do good
continually." Alma illustrated that change of heart when
he described a people who “awoke unto God,” “put their trust in” him, and were “faithful
until the end." He challenged others to “look forward with
an eye of faith” to the time when we will “stand before God to be judged” according
to our deeds. Persons who have had that kind of change in
their hearts have been cleansed from their sins and have attained the strength and stature
to dwell with God. That is what we call being saved. Some Latter-day Saints who think repentance
is easy maintain that a person is better off after he has sinned and repented. “Get a little experience with sin,” one
argument goes, “and then you will be better able to counsel others and sympathize with
others. Anyway, it won’t hurt to sin a little.” I plead with you, my brothers and sisters,
my young friends and my older friends, avoid transgression! The idea that one is better off after one
has sinned and repented is a devilish lie of the adversary. Does anyone here think that it is better to
learn firsthand that a certain blow will break a bone or a certain mixture of chemicals will
explode and sear off our skin? Are we better off after we have sustained
and then healed such injuries? I believe we all can see that it is better
to heed the warnings of wise persons who know the effects on our bodies of certain traumas. Just as we can benefit from someone else’s
experience in matters such as these, we can also benefit from the warnings contained in
the commandments of God. We don’t have to have personal experience
with the effects of serious transgressions to know that they are destructive of our eternal
welfare. Some years ago one of our sons asked me why
it wasn’t a good idea to try alcohol or tobacco to see what it was like. He knew about the Word of Wisdom and he also
knew the health effects of these substances, but he was questioning why he shouldn’t
just try them out for himself. I replied that if he wanted to try something
he ought to go out in the barnyard and eat a little manure. He recoiled in horror. “Ooh, that’s gross,” he reacted. “I’m glad you think so,” I said, “but
why don’t you just try it out so you will know for yourself? While you’re proposing to try one thing
that you know is not good for you, why don’t you apply that principle to some others?” That illustration of the silliness of “trying
it out for yourself’ proved persuasive for one sixteen-year-old. Here is another experience. A few years ago my wife and I and another
General Authority and his wife were on a Church assignment. The other man’s wife and I had dated when
we were both in high school. I was glad, and I am sure she was glad, that
we did not have any bad memories of that date. Both of us could speak of it to our spouses
and both of us could speak to a Church audience in the presence of the other without embarrassment. When we are young, we sometimes behave as
if there were no tomorrow. When we are young it is easy to forget that
we will grow up, marry, raise a family, and—note this significant point—continue to associate
with some of the same people who are witnesses to or participants in our teenage pranks or
transgressions. Young men, the girl you are dating may be
your wife in a few years, but probably she will not. Possibly she will turn out to be the wife
of your bishop or your stake president. Young women, the fellow you are dating may
turn out to be your husband, but more likely, he will not. He may turn out to be the husband of your
sister or your best friend. He may even be a counselor in your bishopric
or an employee you supervise at your place of work. Conduct your life today so your tomorrows
are not burdened with bad or embarrassing memories. 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. The shot of doctrine that is necessary to
penetrate the hard shell of the easygoing group is a massive overdose for the conscientious. What is necessary to encourage reformation
for the lax can produce paralyzing discouragement for the conscientious. This is a common problem. We address a diverse audience each time we
speak, and we are never free from the reality that a doctrinal underdose for some is an
overdose for others. 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." Repentance is possible, and then forgiveness
is certain. Elder Spencer W. Kimball said: Sometimes . . . when a repentant one looks
back and sees the ugliness, the loathsomeness of the transgression, he is almost overwhelmed
and wonders, “Can the Lord ever forgive me? Can I ever forgive myself?” But when one reaches the depths of despondency
and feels the hopelessness of his position, and when he cries out to God for mercy in
helplessness but in faith, there comes a still, small, but penetrating voice whispering to
his soul, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” When this happens, how precious the promise
that God will take “away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son." How comforting the promise that “though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." 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." These things are true. I testify of Jesus Christ who made it all
possible and who gave us the conditions of repentance and the pathway to perfection provided
by his atoning sacrifice. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
