There are so many things I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these is how so many principles overlap, complement and enhance each other; and how things that we might have heard many times before can suddenly take on new meanings, or sometimes just become so much more important than they once were.

I was struck a few months ago by something someone said. I don’t remember where I came across it – it might have been a blog post, or a Youtube video, or a General Conference talk or something else entirely – so I apologise of the lack of attribution. I don’t even remember the actual quote, but I remember the reference and the impact.

It related to Alma’s great sermon in chapter 5 of the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon and if you are LDS it’s a verse you will likely be familiar with. We’ve heard in many sermons and lessons Alma’s teaching about the need for us to receive that ‘mighty change of heart’, something he here also refers to as being able to ‘sing the song of redeeming love’. This is something Alma himself was very familiar with. He himself had been a great persecutor of those who believed in Christ. Like Saul in the New Testament, he needed a miraculous divine intervention to set him right. It happened, transforming him into a person who could teach with great power.

But he knew that getting on the right path and staying there were two very different things, and so he says,

‘And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?’ (Alma 5:26)

I’ve read this verse probably hundreds of times over the years, but it struck me more strongly this time, and my mind turned to King Benjamin’s great address to his people. He taught us most clearly about the problematic state of our fallen natures, ‘For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever …’ (Mosiah 3:19)

In other words, while many of us will have felt a change of heart and to sing the song of redeeming love, as Alma taught, in the natural course of our lives, we’ll inevitably slip away from that and back to being an enemy to God. We’ll get angry, argue, focus on pursuing money or power or whatever it is that’s important to us. It’s natural. It’s normal. It’s just what happens. So the question about whether we can retain that change of heart and continue singing heaven’s songs is therefore crucially important.

King Benjamin’s people responded powerfully to his address, so powerfully that according to the prophet-writer Mormon, they underwent a fundamental change. The scripture tells us that the people cried out that, ‘… the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent … wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.’ (Mosiah 5:2)

I’ve pondered on that verse many times over the years, but over the last few months it’s just not left me. This isn’t talking about a desire to do good, but their very disposition – their underlying natures. I simply can’t describe how much I would love for that very change in my own disposition, to get rid of this frustrating ‘natural man’ in me. I don’t desire to sin or transgress God’s laws – I haven’t for as long as I can remember – but it happens anyway all too often because of this irritating natural man. My desires might be pure but my disposition isn’t.

Thinking about all of this led me naturally to think about scriptural references to justification and sanctification, but rather than dwell on those, my mind came back much more strongly to something far more ‘basic’ – that of repentance.

Repentance is an interesting topic in that it seems to me that we often feel it’s a negative word – or at least is carries some negative connotations. I’m not entirely sure why that is. Maybe it’s because when prophets appear in the scriptures telling people to repent it’s because there’s usually an ‘or else’. I remember when I was a child, I got into trouble for something or other – I’ve no idea what. But I remember standing on one side of a lemon tree in our back garden and my mum on the other side – a wooden spoon in her hand. She was trying to catch me so she could give me a slap on my backside, but whichever way she went around the tree, I ran the other way. Like an angry parent rebuking a child, do we see repentance as this big stick God waves at us? If we tell Him what we’ve done do we somehow think He will chase us with a celestial wooden spoon?

Maybe it’s because we associate repentance with guilt. If we repent, we have to feel guilty, so better not to repent right? That way we don’t need to feel bad about ourselves.

Except it doesn’t work that way – at least not for me. I’m spectacularly good at feeling bad about myself. If it were an olympic sport I could win gold. There are so many things I’ve done wrong in my life that I never have to feel good about myself again. I don’t need repentance to feel guilty or to feel bad. It happens anyway.

In truth, repentance is the very opposite – it’s God’s way of helping us to stop feeling bad and to feel that joy Alma spoke about. Yes we must admit that we’ve made mistakes and that might be uncomfortable for us at times. But the point of repentance is that through Christ’s grace we can be forgiven and feel joy.

The Greek and Hebrew words, translated as repent and repentance in the Old and New Testaments mean turning or returning – towards God, towards our covenants with Him. So, repentance isn’t about receiving a spiritual slap – it’s about re-orienting ourselves towards or back towards God.

As I go on, there are a few overlapping principles here and I’m not sure I’ll be able to explain them very well, so please forgive me if I don’t. But I’ll try my best.

While in my head, I’ve understood repentance to be about turning towards God and not about punishment, in my heart this negative feeling about repentance has stuck with me most of my life. When church leaders talk about daily repentance, that has therefore to me looked like a type of self-flagellation every night trying to remember everything I’ve done wrong and beating myself up for being such a bad person. As someone who has suffered from depression and poor self-esteem for most of my life, that is an extremely unhealthy approach and I don’t believe is what the Lord desires. That false type of repentance just makes me feel worse. It’s the opposite of joy.

You see, while we do need to repent of specific things when we mess up, repentance isn’t primarily about identifying all the little sins and transgressions we’ve committed and saying sorry for them. When we get to the final judgement, we won’t find God holding a long list of all the things we’ve done wrong with a column next to them indicating whether we repented of them or not. ‘Sorry,’ He says, ‘But you said some mean things to your sister on 4 August 1988 and you never repented of that. You can’t come in.’

I don’t remember if I said any mean things to my sister on that date. It’s possible, and if I did I hope I repented (Sorry, sis – whichever one), but that won’t keep me out of heaven. Repentance isn’t primarily about saying sorry (and even meaning it) even if that is often necessary – it’s about changing. It’s about throwing off the natural man. It’s about becoming more Christlike.

Remember, repentance is about turning to the Lord; it’s about change. This is what Samuel (the Lamanite) said to the Nephites in the Book of Mormon,

‘… as many of [the Lamanites] as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.’ (Helaman 15:7-8, emphasis added)

How do we get that change of heart Alma spoke about? Apparently repentance is an essential part of that process. And it’s that change of heart that makes us want to sing that song of redeeming love. 

Repentance doesn’t make us feel bad. Acknowledging the natural man in us and the sinful state of our fallen natures makes us feel bad, even broken. But a broken heart and a contrite spirit is exactly what God requires of us. Feeling godly sorrow leads us to repentance – to Christ, who changes our natures, which makes us feel joy – so much joy, in fact, that we may once again feel to sing the song of redeeming love. Far from being a principle of punishment, repentance is a principle of pure love.

That’s why daily repentance isn’t about self-flagellation. It’s about acknowledging that today the natural man has still held sway at times, and that’s not what I want. I want my nature to be changed. I want to turn more fully towards God. So, I’ll recommit. I’ll once again forsake my sins, forsake that natural man and turn fully to God. As I do that, I can feel His love pour into me and the process of repentance becomes a joy.

If I keep at it, the length of time I’m able to continue singing this song of redeeming love increases each time I repent.

When the older Alma established a small covenant community, he ordained teachers and priests,

‘… he commanded them that they should teach nothing save it were the things which he had taught, and which had been spoken by the mouth of the holy prophets. Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people.’ (Mosiah 18:20-21)

Something I’ve done over the last few days is read every talk President Russell M Nelson has given in General Conference since being called as President of the Church. There are some striking themes that repeat again and again. If you wonder why modern prophets aren’t standing up and calling us to repentance in our day like they did in ancient times, think again! In almost every talk he has given, President Nelson encourages us to repent – often daily.

I’ll finish with a quote from just one of those talks, from April 2022.

‘Discover the joy of daily repentance.

‘How important is repentance? Alma taught that we should “preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord.” Repentance is required of every accountable person who desires eternal glory. There are no exceptions. In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord chastised early Church leaders for not teaching the gospel to their children. Repenting is the key to progress. Pure faith keeps us moving forward on the covenant path.

‘Please do not fear or delay repenting. Satan delights in your misery. Cut it short. Cast his influence out of your life! Start today to experience the joy of putting off the natural man. The Savior loves us always but especially when we repent. He promised that though “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed … my kindness shall not depart from thee.” ’ (Russell M Nelson, April 2022 General Conference, The Power of Spiritual Momentum)

© Copyright Jeffrey Collyer, January 2025