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Dear
Gramps, My question is on repentance. How
does one go about it? My
question arises because in a recent meeting of the stake priesthood (I
attend a University student stake) the president advised those who had
committed any form of fornicative sin to see his bishop. Also I am taking a
celestial marriage course in institute and in the last lesson the teacher
mentioned that many people have marriage problems and it comes out that when
interviewing with the bishop they were not truthful about the intimate
relations within their relationship. Could these people have realized the
problems on their own and gone before the Lord in prayer and confessed their
sins and be repentant? Malik, from Utah |
Dear
Malik,
Regardless
of feelings of remorse, there are certain sins of sufficient gravity that they
must be confessed to the bishop. Sexual sin is among these. Repentance is not an
easy process, and in the case of serious violations of God’s commandments,
often needs the counsel and guidance of the servant of the Lord who represents
the Lord to the members of his Ward.
It’s
true, and indeed necessary, that people who have sinned realize the problem on
their own, confess their sins to the Lord and appeal to him for his forgiveness.
But this is not repentance; it is only the beginning step. The process of
repentance is not complicated, but, again, it is not easy. The Lord has said,
Behold,
he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember
them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins--behold, he
will confess them and forsake them
(D&C 58:42-43).
You
have addressed the confessing part. Let’s discuss the forsaking part. To
forsake a sin does not mean just to not do it anymore. The sin is in character
of the person, which gives expression to the physical act. An incarcerated bank
robber may be sorry that he robbed a bank, and may not be robbing more banks
because he does not have the opportunity, but he would not have repented of his
crime until he became an honest person. The test of his honesty would be, for
example, that after he was released from prison and again incorporated into
society, he met with a bank president in his office in dire need of a loan. On
the desk in the office would be a pile of money that the person had understood
from the bank president had not yet been counted. At this moment the president
is called out of the office and remarks to the applicant the he will be gone for
fifteen minutes. If this former bank robber sits in the presence of all that
money for fifteen minutes and makes no move to take any of it, he has repented
from being a bank robber.
Repentance
requires change in the inner man—a change of character, not just a change of
routine. True repentance results in the spiritual strength to control the
passions and appetites of the body, even in times of severe temptation.
Gramps