Leaves No Scar

In the last general conference two different speakers referred to President Packer’s teachings on the atonement.  Sister Reeves paraphrased a teaching that she had heard him give: “He shared that he had searched backward throughout his lifetime, looking for evidence of the sins that he had committed and sincerely repented of, and he could find no trace of them. Because of the atoning sacrifice of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, and through sincere repentance, his sins were completely gone, as if they had never happened.”  Elder Renlund quoted a similar teaching from President Packer: “The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how something happened, if we truly repent, [the Savior] has promised that He would atone. And when He atoned, that settled that.… The Atonement … can wash clean every stain no matter how difficult or how long or how many times repeated.”  That was one of the very last things the President Packer said in general conference and is a fitting conclusion to the countless testimonies that he bore of the Savior and His atonement.

               There are several scriptures about the atonement that suggest this same idea.  Perhaps the simplest is this commonly quoted verse about repentance: “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more” (D&C 58:42).  If the Lord doesn’t remember them, then I take that to mean that there is no lasting consequence of the sin as President Packer suggested.  In another scripture Isaiah invited us, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).  The idea of turning something from scarlet to as white as snow signifies a complete transformation.  If something was once bright red and now appears as snow then there could really be no recognition at all of the color it once was.  Other verses use similar imagery to speak of how we can be cleansed completely from sin.  Alma spoke of those past prophets who “were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb” (Alma 13:11).  John in his great revelation saw men dressed in white robes and learned that these were those who “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).  Nephi saw that the 12 disciples likewise had their “garments… made white in his blood” (1 Nephi 12:10). 

               One story in the Book of Mormon which seems to me to illustrate this principle of a complete forgiveness that leaves no trace is that of the brother of Jared.  At one point he failed to call upon the name of the Lord like he should have, and we read that “the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done” (Ether 2:15).  And yet, despite this sin, we find in the next chapter that he has a personal visitation from the Savior and was given a revelation so glorious that it had to be sealed up.  What this shows me is that the Lord truly had forgiven him, that the brother of Jared had changed and developed the incredible faith needed for that kind of spiritual manifestation.  There was indeed no scar left from his sin.  This gives me hope that the Lord can indeed cleanse us and allow us to leave behind past sins completely.  Through Christ’s atonement we can become perfectly white despite our many stains from sin.  As Mormon said we can “be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb” (Mormon 9:6).