You Must Repent

Yesterday in a training class we watched this video about a “backwards bicycle” where when you turn the handlebars left it goes right and vice versa. The man suggested that it was totally impossible to ride this bike on a first attempt for those who knew how to ride a normal bike. He showed several people, including himself, trying to ride it and all failing. Even though they understood conceptually how the bike should be ridden, they could not get their brain to unlearn the old way and adapt to the backwards bike. He worked on it a little a day for eight months until he finally was able to do it, and at that point he then struggled to ride a normal bike because he had essentially unlearned that. Among other points, his experiment highlighted something that we all understand: change is hard. But from a gospel perspective, change is required of all of us and is at the heart of what we are to do on this earth: repent. President Nelson taught, “The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means ‘change.’ The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean ‘mind,’ ‘knowledge,’ ‘spirit,’ and ‘breath.’ Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to ‘repent,’ He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our wives, teach our children, and even care for our bodies.” In some sense we all have areas in our lives where we need to “unlearn” the old bike and learn how to ride the new way, the way that the Savior wants us to live. And like it was for this backwards bike, it usually doesn’t happen in a day—repentance is a process and we have to keep working at the changes He wants us to make. President Nelson invited us to seek after this change every day: “Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” It takes constant effort over time to change to become more like Him.

                I’m impressed by how often repentance is the first thing taught by both the Savior and His prophets in the scriptures. In the book of Matthew, the first words we have of John the Baptist are these: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Similarly, these were also the first words of the Savior after He began preaching: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). In the earlier revelation from the Savior that we have in the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord called the Prophet Joseph to repent. After describing what the young prophet had done wrong, He said, “But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work” (Doctrine and Covenants 3:10). Not long later He similarly said to Joseph, “And now I command you, my servant Joseph, to repent and walk more uprightly before me, and to yield to the persuasions of men no more” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:21). That wasn’t just the message for him, though, for the Savior instructed, “Say nothing but repentance unto this generation” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:9). He also said to John and Peter Whitmer, “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 15:6). If we had to summarize the message of the Restoration in a single word to the whole world, surely it would be repent.

                When Nephi and Lehi in the Book of Mormon preached to the Lamanites and were cast into prison, a cloud of darkness overshadowed all of them. The Lamanites heard this voice from heaven: “Repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants.” The voice came again, saying, “Repent ye, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; and seek no more to destroy my servants.” The people still wondered what they should do, and they said to a man named Aminadab among them, “What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us?” Again, the answer was to repent: “You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ” (Helaman 5:29, 32, 41). As so the invitation is for each of us as well. We must all choose to repent, no matter how difficult it is to change our habits and thoughts and feelings. President Nelson summarized the invitation in these words: “When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!”