The World Through Him Might Be Saved

Elder Patrick Kearon gave a powerful address in the most recent general conference about God’s desire to bring us home. He told of how he recently observed from a hotel window a policeman stationed in front of a roadblock who turned away cars as they approached and seemed to revel in doing it. He then suggested that our Father in Heaven is not like that. He declared, “My friends, my fellow disciples on the road of mortal life, our Father’s beautiful plan, even His ‘fabulous’ plan, is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out. No one has built a roadblock and stationed someone there to turn you around and send you away. In fact, it is the exact opposite. God is in relentless pursuit of you. He ‘wants all of His children to choose to return to Him,’ and He employs every possible measure to bring you back.” God’s desire is not to keep us out by giving us commandments we can’t follow, but rather He wants to help us become even as He is and bring us home. John declared this truth: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). Our purpose should be the same as parents and teachers and leaders: the goal is not to find things to correct or reasons to condemn but to seek through the power of the Son to lift others up and help them on the covenant pass. We should strive to remove roadblocks for those we love to help them on their journey home. 

            Given the Father’s love for us, we might ask these questions that Elder Kearon posed: “Does this mean anything goes with regard to how we live our lives? That the way we choose to use our agency doesn’t matter? That we can take or leave God’s commandments? No, of course not. Surely one of Jesus’s most consistent invitations and pleas during His mortal ministry was that we change and repent and come unto Him. Fundamentally implicit in all of His teachings to live on a higher plane of moral conduct is a call to personal progression, to transformative faith in Christ, to a mighty change of heart.” And so we must find a way to help people feel the love of God while also helping them have a desire to become better and be more like Him. If we speak only of the commandments and rules they need to be following, they may feel very unloved indeed. But if we speak only of God’s love and never help them to repent by striving to live as He lives, they will not learn to become who He wants them to become. The example of the Savior and the rich young man is a powerful example for us. After the young man explained how he was keeping the Ten Commandments, Mark recorded this: “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me” (Mark 10:21). Jesus loved the young man before He gave any counsel or correction. He invited the young man to do something hard, but then Jesus also encouraged him to be with Him. Unlike the policeman in Elder Kearon’s message who simply wanted to tell people they were doing something wrong, Jesus loves us, encourages us to be better, and then promises to be with us as we repent. Perhaps one of the main reasons that the Savior had to come and be mortal with us is so that He could give us the example of how to both love and lift others, how to both give empathy and invite them to repent. As He said to the woman taken in adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).