Elder Henry B. Eyring wrote in his book ‘To Draw Closer to God’:
“Not only is your feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost a sign that the Atonement, the cure for sin, is working in your life, but you will also know that a preventative against sin is working.
The affects of the Atonement—the lack of pride, of envy, of malice—are a shield against temptation. The Savior taught that… in the… first verse in section 95 of the Doctrine and Covenants: “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you.” (Doctrine and Covenants 95:1)
I bear you my testimony that God loves you and that he has prepared a way for your deliverance in all things out of temptation. In that verse the Lord was announcing a chastisement because his people had not built his house as he had commanded. He called that a grievous sin. But the Lord taught that the chastisement that would prepare them to be forgiven would also produce a shield against temptation.
The broken heart and contrite spirit that are requirements for forgiveness are also its fruits. The very humility that is the sign for having been forgiven is protection against future sin. And it is by avoiding future sin that we retain a remission of the sins of the past.
You may not know when you have been fully baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, but you can know you are inviting His presence. And you know when you are making His presence impossible. …you may be determined to serve the Savior, and thus invite the Spirit, or you might be tempted by some thought like this; “Look, as long as you do not commit some great sin, repentance isn’t that hard. You just confess, take a little embarrassment, and you are clean again.” That is a lie in at least two ways.
First, I have never forgotten the voice of Elder Tuttle as he read this description of suffering for sin from section 19 of the Doctrine and Covenants: “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.” (Doctrine & Covenants 18:19)
It was about there that I wrote these words: “Teach the people repentance hurts.” You must never believe the lie that there is no pain from sin. You can be forgiven; the Atonement is real. But President Kimball taught that “if a person hasn’t suffered, he hasn’t repented.”[i below] So true faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, rather than leading you to try a little sin, will lead you to stay as far away from it as you can.
That leads me to the second falsehood. (Continued with the next post…)
Elder Henry B. Eyring, “To Draw Closer to God”, Deseret Book, 1997 p.50-52
