I Forgive Them Their Trespasses

Elder Edward Dube began his recent talk in general conference this way: “Thirty-nine years ago, President Dallin H. Oaks taught me about the character of Jesus Christ in a way I will never forget. In 1987, I was a young missionary with only two years in the Church. At the mission office, a sign on the gate read, ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted.’ President Oaks asked that it be removed to avoid any impression of exclusion. Rather, we invite all to come unto Christ through faith in Him and His Atonement.” Elder Dube applied this lesson later on in his talk: “And that is why President Oaks had the sign on the gate taken down: ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted.’ The adversary wants to hang that sign on the gate of our heart. Addiction, doubt, pride, pain, grief, guilt, materialism—or whatever is holding us back—he tells us this makes us unworthy to come unto Christ.” His point was that we should not let a feeling of unworthiness prevent us from coming unto the Savior. We are not trespassers when we seek to the Savior even with sins. As the Book of Mormon declares, “He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33). That, of course, does not mean that He wants us to hold on to our sins. Rather, as we come to Him and follow Him, He helps us to overcome them. Elder Dube summarized the order this way: “We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We need to come to Christ to be perfected.”

            It is interesting that one of the words used in the scriptures for our sins is trespasses. The word implies that we have gone where we shouldn’t go; we have trespassed spiritually in that we have broken His commandments. As I look at its usage in the scriptures, it is often spoken of in conjunction with our opportunity to receive forgiveness. For example, the Lord said, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). The Lord promises to forgive us from our trespasses as we forgive others. We should not figuratively try to put up a sign catching others in their trespassing, but we should seek to forgive others and look for that same forgiveness from our Father in Heaven. Mark recorded these words of the Savior: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). Again, the Savior used the word to encourage us to forgive others as we seek forgiveness for ourselves. In the Book of Mormon, the Lord made this promise: “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me. And ye shall also forgive one another your trespasses; for verily I say unto you, he that forgiveth not his neighbor’s trespasses when he says that he repents, the same hath brought himself under condemnation” (Mosiah 26:30-31). Once more the Lord promised forgiveness for our trespasses if we will forgive others. In this dispensation the Savior said to Emma Smith, “And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:56). The Lord will forgive our trespasses as long as we are willing to forgive others for theirs.

Paul used the word trespasses as well as he described what the Savior does for us: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). The Savior’s ministry can take away the impact of our trespasses so that we can be reconciled to God. All of us will do things that trespass on the Lord’s commandments, but if we come unto the Savior and forgive others, we have His promise that we will not “be prosecuted” for them.