Welcome to the Verbal Motivation Podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My Name is Nathan Vail. This is episode number three called Absence Of Sin
My favorite religious picture is the one that shows the Savior embracing what appears to be a regular looking person. It looks like they are old friends being reunited. A moment that I hope to have someday.
I’m going to wonder into the fray just a little here, but stick with me just for a minute.
Imagine meeting the Savior after you die, and as you embrace you say to him, “that was a really great try. You made a great effort, but it wasn’t quite enough for me.”
Well, that sounds crazy, if not blasphemous…but that is exactly what we are saying if we think that we are too far gone or that our sins are too great to be forgiven. There could be no greater insult to the Savior or his sacrifice, than for us to think our sins are too much for him.
But that is not the end of the story. Forgiveness is only the beginning. We have missed the boat entirely if we think that…not having sins is the whole objective of repentance or the definition of perfection. The Purpose in repentance is to enable change or growth.
It’s like saying you can win a game by only playing defense. Now I’ll agree that having a good defense is vital. But you can’t win unless you score points. In other words, being forgiven is a starting place not a finish line.
If you sin and are forgiven 100 times, there is something more you have accomplished besides not having sins, as amazing and necessary as that is.
Consider this. If we leave this earth having accomplished nothing more than…not having sins, that’s how we came; without sin, so if that is all we accomplish here, we basically arrived back at the same place where we started.
As spirits in the premortal world we had the absence of sin BUT we did not have perfection. We had to come here for that. So, despite how intertwined they are, there must be a difference between perfection and the absence of sin. Otherwise, we could have just skipped over this life and moved onto eternity. But we didn’t, because perfection requires something more.
In the parable of the talents, when the Lord returned and one of the servants gave back the exact same talent that he was given, he was deemed a foolish and unwise servant and his talent was taken away.
Repentance is the gift we are given. The question will be what did we do with that gift? Will we bury it like the unprofitable servant or recognize it as the gateway that it is to something much more.
Jesus commanded us, “be ye therefore perfect even as my father in heaven is perfect.” Why would the giver of the gift command us to return with only what he is giving us…unless not having sins is not what he was commanding us to do.
Since we are commanded to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is, it’s worth asking, is God perfect because he is hiding at the far end of Kolob somewhere carefully not committing sins.
I don't think so, I think perfection is the opposite of that, it is the substance of action. It’s actually becoming something.
There is no such thing as passive or accidental perfection.
The way we pursue perfection here on Earth, I think, is in the mastering of ourselves. The perfect companion to repentance.
Our objective here is not just to return to him, it’s to become like him.
That is why, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is an eraser not a pencil. He doesn’t want to live our lives for us, nor could he. He wants to enabled us to become more than what we were when we came here.
To demonstrate why this Earth life was so necessary in our process of perfection, consider the apostle Peter before and after the crucifixion of Jesus. As you recall, Peter tried to walk on water but ultimately was unable to do it.
Is it possible that he couldn’t do it because he knew that Jesus would save him? In other words, can the knowledge that we can’t fail be a crutch that prevents our success?
When Jesus was taken into custody by the Sanhedrin. Peter followed, probably in disbelief because he had witnessed Jesus’ power so many times, it had to seem impossible to him, what he was witnessing. So much so, that while Jesus was being interrogated, Peter, who Jesus called the “rock,” denied knowing him three times.
Compare that to a time not long after Jesus’ crucifixion, when Peter, the same one that denied knowing Jesus, stood before that same tribunal that condemned the Savior and testified boldly that Jesus was the Christ.
Just to further the point, In Mathew 17, before Jesus was crucified, the apostles tried to cast out an evil spirit but couldn’t do it.
Yet in Acts chapter 3 after Jesus’ crucifixion when the apostles were on their own, Peter and john healed a man who was lame from birth.
What is demonstrated here is that we have to be pushed from the nest in order to learn how to fly. Just like young birds falling toward the earth, if the consequences are not real, it is simply not the same learning environment. In other words, Peter could not have become who Peter became, until he had to stand on his own.
That is why we had to come here to earth with a veil placed over our minds. We need to live where there are real consequences for our actions. This is us falling from the nest and learning how to fly. If we remembered the pre-existence it would be like a crutch preventing us from learning.
Just imagine this scene…as spirits we loved and admired our Heavenly Parents. We, as any child, wanted nothing more than to be like them. Our hearts must have sank when we realized that the only path was so laden with landmines that we couldn’t possibly make it. But then our elder brother stepped forward and said ”Here am I...send me...the glory be thine forever. We leapt with joy at the news. Not because it would be easy but because he made progression possible.
To return then, with nothing more than…the absence of sins would make us just as the unprofitable servant because perfection is why we are here.
Jesus died for each of us. His sacrifice was enough for no matter who we were or what we did.
And one beautiful day, we will feel his embrace around our shoulders and our thanks to him for what he did… will be what we have become in this life…because that is why he did it!