The Divine Gift of Repentance (Part 1)

by John Draney

I devote the inaugural post on this site to a translation of certain portions of the October 1, 2011 General Conference address, The Divine Gift of Repentance, given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which translation will likely require several posts.

Elder Christofferson:

Only repentance leads to the sunlit uplands of a better life. And, of course, only through repentance do we gain access to the atoning grace of Jesus Christ and salvation.

Translation:

For the members of the human family who either know or should know what God expects of them, and possess the capacity to choose, the only way to come to Jesus to receive a fullness of his grace and his salvation is through the attainable standards of the gospel of Christ, one of which standards is repentance.

Repentance, however, is not the absolute gatekeeper of grace, and not the only way we access the redeeming grace of Jesus and the spectrum of salvation that he freely offers to the world.

For Latter-day Saints, the redeeming grace of Jesus is magnificently more expansive and far-reaching than the grace of so-called traditional Christianity, which saves the believers (regardless of the manner by which they attain that blessed status), and essentially consigns everyone else to an endless hell of eternal suffering.

Consider how the following individuals benefit from the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World:

1. Those who die as little children.
2. Those who die without law.
3. The unrepentant who choose to ignore the invitation to come to Christ, and embrace the wickedness of the world, but do not raise the sword against him with their eyes open.
4. The wicked who make themselves like the fallen Lucifer and his angels, rebel openly and knowingly against God and his Christ, and raise insurrection and the sword against heaven.

We have no direct indication in the canon of the Restoration (King James Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) that anyone in the above list must repent to be blessed by the grace of Jesus. Does this mean that these unfortunate souls are forever barred from some measure of the blessings of his intercessory grace?

The answer from the canon of the Restoration is clearly no.

Non-Mormon Christians generally entertain some disagreement over how and whether divine grace applies to those in the above list, but Latter-day Saints should not.

Little children who die as such, and therefore do not repent, are the miraculous recipients of the gift of eternal life through the grace of Jesus.

Abinadi (Mosiah 15:25), Mormon (Moroni 8:8, 11-12, 19-20), and the Prophet Joseph (D&C 137:10) declare as much, and the Lord, during his earthly ministry, suggests (Matthew 19:13-15) and confirms (JST Matthew 18:11, JST Matthew 19:13) the same.

Those who die without law—that is, live and die without sufficient knowledge of the salvation brought to the world through the redemption of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God—are delivered from the punishment of hell, raised in the resurrection of the just, and, if they do not wish to pursue a fullness of the salvation of Christ, elevated to the terrestrial heaven by the grace of Christ, even if they do nothing after their death during their sojourn in the transitory spirit world.

Jacob (2 Nephi 9:23-26), Abinadi (Mosiah 15:24), Mormon (Moroni 8:22), and the Prophet Joseph (D&C 76:71-72) declare as much, and the Lord, during his earthly ministry, suggests the same (Luke 12:48). Even Paul implies that the intercessory grace of Jesus mitigates in some manner any condemnation that might come to those who are unaware of what he expects of them during their mortal lives (Romans 4:15, Romans 5:13, Romans 7:8).

Many Christians do not accept the existence of multiple, pleasant eternal destinations and states of being won by the grace of Christ for us after this life (Catholics, in their doctrine of Purgatory, at least recognize this possibility).

Jesus, however, implies this comforting prospect where he tells his disciples that “in [his] Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). Paul similarly alludes to several divisions in heaven, and the reality of one branch of the postmortem spirit world, where he writes of being “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2) and “caught up into paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:4). These references are not applicable to the temporal cosmos, but to unseen, transcendent spiritual realities hidden, for the most part, from mortal eyes.

Paul even distinguishes among different types of resurrection (the mechanism by which we gain access to, and metaphysical transformation in, the heavens prepared by Christ), and therefore implies the actuality of different heavens in his description of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:40-42).

To argue that God through his Son makes use of a one-size-fits-all damnation demonstrates a remarkable lack of understanding of the principle of mercy. The mercy and grace we receive from Jesus is not a callous, take-it-or-leave-it proposition, as so many preach, both in Christianity at large, and in the restored church of Christ.

Moreover, the stark bifurcation of a glorious heaven of endless happiness and bliss for the elect on the one hand, and a horrific hell of endless torment and misery for everyone else on the other, with no possibility of anything in between, does not satisfy in the least the divine principle of mercy.

Those who appraise the salvation of Jesus in this manner make of God a heartless sales manager who scrupulously maintains an eternal winners and losers board for his unfortunate subordinates.

The astonishing grace of Jesus does more than we think it does.

Infinitely more.

The angel who announces the birth of the Savior to lowly shepherds declares: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10).

How is this news good and glad to the multitudes of the earth (many of whom never know the name of Jesus during their mortal lives), who are presumably cast into an endless hell?

Are the tidings of the Lord’s birth not good and glad to all people because every last one of us will be subject to the mercy of the divine Son of God, who comes to bring hope, forbearance, and blessing to all the inhabitants of the earth?

Would we not expect to find elements of mercy in all of his subsequent rewards and punishments?

Is your unbelieving neighbor really destined to suffer the same eternal state as the beast and false prophet of Revelation 20, the individuals who raise the sword with their eyes open against Christ?

Would you feel the same way about this doctrine if you found yourself in your neighbor’s shoes?

The unrepentant who do not take up the sword against Christ suffer their punishment in hell, but are released from it in the last resurrection, and miraculously and mercifully raised up in telestial glory to a heaven of the same name, all through the grace of Jesus.

The Prophet Joseph (D&C 76:89, 98-112) declares as much.

I do not expect Christians outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to accept this doctrine from the teachings available to the world in the New Testament, but I do expect Christians generally to remember the nature and person of Jesus of Nazareth, contemplate the possible extent of the glorious spectrum of the marvelous salvation that he alone brings to a fallen world, and consider the implication of the resurrection Paul compares to the “glory of the stars” (1 Corinthians 15:41).

Last of all, even the unrepentant who take up the sword against Christ receive a measure of his grace by virtue of their eventual resurrection, which the Lord plainly views as his final gift to them (D&C 88:32-33).

Jesus was born, lived, and made atonement through his suffering and death so that all of us would be subject to him and his merciful redeeming grace, which he dispenses with remarkable latitude and liberality on the sons and daughters of every kindred, tongue, and people of this earth.

The question is not if will be blessed by the redeeming grace of Jesus, but rather, how much.

For a more comprehensive discussion of the magnanimous blessings of the redeeming grace of Jesus, see Chapter 7: Spiritual Safety Nets of the Atonement and Chapter 8: Saved by Grace in the book Redeeming Grace in the Canon of the Restoration (Amazon CreateSpace and Kindle).