Richard G. Scott wrote in his book “Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy:”
“Every incorrect choice you make, every sin you commit is a violation of eternal law. The violation brings negative results you will generally soon recognize. There also can be other consequences of your acts of which you may not be immediately conscious. They are nonetheless real. They can have a tremendous effect on the quality of your life here and most certainly will powerfully affect it hereafter. A role of justice in our Father’s plan of happiness is to require that a payment be made for every law that is violated. Yet unless the demands for justice for broken laws are satisfied, your mortal life will be impaired and eventually you will be ruled out of the presence of God, to suffer endless negative consequences.
Each of us has made and will make mistakes, large or small, which if unresolved will keep us eternally separated from our Holy Father and His Beloved Son. As a consequence, we would be void of enduring peace and happiness. The life, teachings, and most significantly the Atonement of Jesus Christ provide a means to resolve what for us alone would be an impossible challenge.
Through His grueling, indescribably onerous sacrifice of self, Jesus Christ earned the authority and power to save us from the effect of a broken law. He has done this through His matchless love and perfect Atonement. This act is the central ingredient of our Holy Father’s plan of happiness. That is why the Atonement of Jesus Christ is considered to be the single most significant event that ever has or ever will occur. This selfless act of infinite and eternal consequence, executed by the Savior alone,[i] was essential to the fulfillment of the plan of salvation of our Father in Heaven.[ii below] Through it, Jesus Christ severed the bonds of death, thus assuring our resurrection. By His Atonement He earned the right to be our Final Judge.[iii] Because of the Atonement, our obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ makes it possible to avoid an eternity under the dominion of Lucifer.[iv] That supernal act opened the gates to exaltation and eternal life for all who qualify for forgiveness through repentance and obedience.[v below]
Through your continuing faith and obedience and the fruits of His Atonement, the Redeemer can satisfy the demands of justice for your violation of God’s laws and grant forgiveness through the merciful path of repentance.[vi] Full repentance is absolutely required for the Atonement to have full effect in your life. Without it, no soul can gain the presence of God.[vii] Through your study of the Atonement, you will confirm that God is not a jealous being who delights in persecuting those who transgress. He is an absolutely perfect, compassionate, understanding, patient, and forgiving Father. He is willing to entreat, counsel, strengthen, lift and fortify. He so loves each of us that He was willing to have His perfect, sinless, absolutely obedient, totally righteous Son experience indescribable agony and pain and give Himself in sacrifice for all.[viii below] Because of the Atonement, you can live in a world where absolute justice reigns in its sphere so that there will be order. The demands of justice are satisfied through mercy, which is attainable through your faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to His teachings.
Do you yearn for peace of conscience and have not yet found it? Have you felt anguish, grief, and turmoil in those quiet moments when you look objectively at your life and recognize the tragic mistakes you have made? You may have endured pain of conscious for a long time, or possibly it results from more recent transgression. Know that only through full repentance, which qualifies you for the forgiveness available through the atonement of Jesus Christ, can you find peace once more.
Which of us is not in need of the miracle of repentance? Whether your mistakes are small or profoundly serious, the principles of recovery are the same. God has made the length and severity of the treatments conditioned to fit the circumstances of the transgression. Your goal surely must be forgiveness. The only possible path to that goal is repentance, for it is written:
There is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. . . . He will not come to redeem [His people] in their sins, but to redeem them form their sins. And he hath power given unto Him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance.[ix below]
Obedience and faith in the Savior give you power to resist temptation. The more temptations you reject the less need you will have for repentance.
Forgiveness is the sweet fruit of repentance, but you can never taste it until you make a firm decision to repent with resolute determination to do it completely. ~ Richard G. Scott (deceased) was an Apostle of Lord Jesus Christ in our day and often spoke/wrote on the subject of repentance. The above was from his book ‘Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy’, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2007, 137-39.
[ii] Gordon B. Hinkley, Faith, the Essence of True Religion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 89-90
[v] Truman Madsen, Joseph Smith, the Prophet (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1989),
[viii] Boyd K. Packer, “Balm of Gilead,” Ensign, November 1987, 17-18.
[ix] Joseph Smith, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, com.and ed. Dean C. Jessee (Salt Lake City:; Deseret Book, 2002), 143-44.
