Sabbathought: It takes a good person to repent.

What do you make of our title here this time?

Let's expand it a bit: It takes a good person to repent --- in fact only a good person can repent properly --- in a way that will do any good and have any benefit or value for him.

This needs some attention and explanation.

If there is a more important idea or doctrine or truth anywhere, please let me know. The whole concept of repentance holds a negative place in our minds. Admit it. It is not something we want to discuss. I don't need to go see the bishop! I have not lied, cheated, or stolen anything. Repentance comes after faith and before baptism. I can prove it. It's in the fourth article of faith. I know my scriptures and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. . . .

And I am already baptized so repentance is now passe' for me---done, dusted, a thing of the past. My sordid past. So please don't bring that up again.

I wonder how many of you had chance to read the article by Wallace Goddard in Meridian magazine we sent out this week. No reason why you should --- I impose things on you from time to time as if you were looking around for things to do or to read or to learn. I sense how presumptuous that may appear.

But Brother Goddard did a good job. His article is a partner for what we try to advance in these pages. To sum up his message: 1) We are all in a fallen state, and in deep, deep trouble. 2)The only solution is the Atonement of Jesus Christ --- not just the best solution . . . the only solution. 3) The only way to access that Atonement is on His terms, the terms of repentance.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us", says the article.

I have tried for years to find the perfect teaching illustration to drive home the greatest irony on this earth: that the whole created world---all the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, but especially mankind, for man caused it---is in a desperate state, is dominated by a fallen nature, and is helpless to rescue himself from it. The irony is that, in this condition, man thinks he is OK ("I'm OK --- You're OK") and that any flaws or deficiencies he may have he can take care of himself, thank you very much. And any other view is judgmental, negative, and unhelpful.

But, in truth, there is nothing that is more helpful and crucial to us than the doctrine of Christ, and His Atonement, and His restored gospel. Central to that message --- which is the message of the Book of Mormon --- is the notion of repentance. You can't come unto Christ without repentance. Or rather, the way to Christ is repentance. There is no other way. Can you see why Satan has invested so much trouble in making it a negative thing?

Let's explore how it is so: the word repent in English has negative connotations to begin with. It comes from a Catholic background and carries the idea of punishment. You can almost see and hear the word repent in the word punishment. The Old Testament word is nacham, to sigh or be sorry; or shuwb, meaning turn (back). The Greek (New Testament) is even better: metanoia, to change, to think differently, to change the mind and heart.

This Greek meaning is helpful. Can you see the idea of metamorphosis in it? Metamorphosis is when a caterpillar changes from a wormy little bug into a butterfly. It changes. It repents . . . ! . . . It gets wings! It becomes liberated.

John the Baptist came before the Lord Jesus, to prepare the way for Him. The first word John spoke in his ministry was, Repent (see Matthew 3:2). Our footnote is helpful: The Greek word denotes 'a change of heart or mind,' i.e. 'a conversion.'

In the next chapter we find: "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4:17). His first word? Repent. This is the gospel, the message of salvation, the good news, the glad tidings of great joy. Namely that here comes the means now, the way whereby you fallen beings can repent. Here comes the Savior. The Lamb of God. The Redeemer of the world. Rejoice! All is not lost. Here comes the rescue!

Can you see why the enemy would seek to make repent a dirty word . . . ? He has largely succeeded, has he not!

Stay with me here, if you have the time and the interest. Let's go a bit further:

The idea for our title came from C.S.Lewis's Mere Christianity. I'll paraphrase and quote from it: We are told in scripture that Christ died for us, "that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. . . . How Christ's death did all this [is] secondary; . . . not to be confused with the thing itself."

We hear and speak of how His death let us off or excused us "because Christ had volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense.

"On the other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if you take 'paying the penalty,' not in the sense of being punished, but in the more general sense of . . . 'footing the bill,' then, of course, it is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend."

Are you with this idea so far? It makes sense. It echoes Elder Boyd K. Packer's masterful talk on The Mediator. What C.S. Lewis is saying here is the point of the Book of Mormon message and of Brother Goddard's article: You have got yourself in a hole --- the fall of Adam did that for you --- and you need a kind friend who has assets, the means and the will, to get you out . . . ! Brother(!) Lewis's next sentence confirms this context and perspective:

"Now what was the sort of 'hole' man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor---that is the only way out of a 'hole.'

"This process of surrender---this movement full speed astern--- is what Christians call repentance."

Do you see it? Surely you can start to see the doctrine if you have stayed with us this far! What a glorious way of looking at it! What a marvelous work and a wonder! What a message of good tidings and great joy to all (fallen) men! Brother Lewis continues:

"Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years [since Adam fell]. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person--- and he would not need it.

"Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back."

[Think of the true definitions of repent --- to turn, to go back, to return.]

To go back without going back "cannot happen. Very well, then," concludes Brother Lewis, "we must go through with it. . . ."

And he goes on to show how it is done. C.S.Lewis learned all this good doctrine from the New Testament, without the help of the Book of Mormon, which is more than remarkable. You can hear echoes of Paul's epistles, as well as the Savior's teachings, in his words.

Next week we will take a look at how Jack Lewis describes it is done, how it is that we are able, in Christ, to "go through with it."

Do you see what a blessing and a privilege the capacity to repent is, and how it has come to us as a marvelous gift in the Atonement? Do you also see the vested interest the devil has in keeping it from us! Of getting us to think it is a thing of naught? That we don't need it!

We have more to say on this. For it is the gospel. Small wonder that every dispensation of the gospel opens with this one word: repent. No wonder that the Lord opened our dispensation with this command: "Say nothing but repentance to this generation." It is not a punishment, it is an open invitation to come unto Him, a blessing and a privilege. And it is the message of the Book of Mormon.

More later.

General conference this weekend. Let's see how many of the talks echo this glorious doctrine. My thought is: they all will. Listen carefully . . . .

Steve