Sorry For The Punishment
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This is episode number 7 called, Sorry for the punishment
I was watching the TV show cops the other day and an interesting exchange happened. After a lengthy foot chase the officer arrested a man who he had spotted committing a crime. While still breathing heavily the officer asked, “Why did you run?” He responded angrily, “I’m not going back to jail.”
Apparently not committing a crime never crossed his mind as a possible means of staying out of jail.
The thought occurred to me while watching this exchange that there is a difference between being sorry for the crime and being sorry for the punishment.
The reason this distinction matters is because if a person is sorry just because they are going to be punished, they will likely continue in that behavior as long as they are not caught. Whereas, if they are truly sorry for committing a crime, their behavior would change.
Understanding the difference between being sorry for the punishment as opposed to being sorry for the crime is fundamental to understanding The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is not a new concept. In the Book of Mormon there is an anti-Christ named Korihor who was cursed because he led the people of God astray. Once he saw the punishment for his actions, asked the prophet Alma to remove the curse. Alma’s response was an indictment of our natural tendencies as human beings saying, “If this curse should be taken from thee thou wouldst again lead away the hearts of this people.”
In other words. When we are faced with punishment we are suddenly remorseful, but if the punishment is removed, we return to it.
Proverbs 26:11 Says, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”
If we live the gospel of Jesus Christ in fear of being punished in the next life, then we obey rules in a half hearted discipleship and do only what is required. But if we are truly sorry for disobeying commandments, we will have a desire to change and become a better person. Two very different outcomes.
I believe the commandments, when used properly, are like training wheels. When we obey them, it is not the obedience to a commandment that is the benefit, it is what effect it has on us.
Elder Uchtdorf in recounting the parable of the widow’s mite said, “To the Lord, the value of the donation was measured not by the effect it had on the treasury but by the effect it had on the heart of the donor.”
And just like training wheels, the commandments of the gospel are figuratively taken off when we get to a point where we live the Gospel because we want to, not because we have to.
The saints in King Benjamin’s day said that they had, “...no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” That’s a very different attitude than avoiding punishment.
I think we get the idea sometimes that if we keep enough of the commandments, we will make it to heaven. That sounds right on the surface, but is very reminiscent of the way Jewish tradition became so rigid and so much about the rules that the spirit of personal progression was lost in the counting of steps a person can take without violating the sabbath. In other words, it becomes about not doing things rather than developing as an individual child of God.
I was teaching a Word of Wisdom discussion with the missionaries some years ago and the woman declared to me very passionately, “God will not send me to hell for smoking!”
That comment demonstrates a perfectly backward understanding of what commandments are and what final judgment is.
Pres. Dallin H. Oaks. in the most recent general conference explained, “We conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become.”
I love working in the yard at my house. Especially in the winter time when it’s cold because I hate working in the heat. When I first go out to work I look like that kid in the movie A Christmas Story where I can barely put my arms down. But as soon as I start working, I immediately start taking off layers of clothing not because the temperature outside has changed, but because I begin to produce my own heat, to the point that I am comfortable working in that environment with less protection.
That is how The Gospel and commandments work. When we are young in The Gospel we are wrapped up in the comfort of our parents' or the missionaries’ testimony. Eventually, as we learn The Gospel, we graduate to following the commandments ourselves and in the end, we develop to the point that we are producing our own desire to live a celestial life. Not to be obedient to rigid rules, but because that is the kind of person we want to be.
There is only voluntary righteousness and there is only voluntary sacrifice. No one can do this to us or for us.
In the criminal justice system the founding fathers gave us one of the greatest protections against oppressive government, described in a phrase that you have all heard before, “Innocent until proven guilty.”
But some in society have turned that great protection into a crutch, where they feel that they are innocent unless proven guilty. In other words, it is only a crime if you get caught and even then only if you're convicted.
Once again, punishment becomes the only arbiter of whether or not a crime was committed. No punishment means no crime was committed.
In society that system may work, but in an attempt to be celestial people, the punishment is not really relevant because we are striving for so much more than, not being sent “to hell for smoking.”
In fact, our loving Heavenly Father is waiting at the far end of this mortal existence anxious to endow us with greater power.
What would a person do who has never learned self-control, if they were given even greater power than we have as mortals? Imagine what a person addicted to pornography, gambling habits or with a drinking problem would do, if given unlimited power?
With that perspective in mind, the kingdoms of glory set up in the next life make a lot more sense.
This scenario is not unlike what parents here on earth are faced with, if we give the keys to the car to a child before they are ready or allow them to stay out late when they are too young, they could become a detriment to themselves. Yet, we are anxiously waiting to share with them that moment when they drive for the first time or get their first car.
Imagine this. When my youngest son was around three years old he wanted to learn to ride a bike. I loved riding motorcycles when I was younger so I decided to put him straight onto a power motorcycle instead of a bike with training wheels. Of course that would never happen, because he couldn’t handle it and he would likely just hurt himself.
That is precisely why we are taught precept upon precept. Milk before meat is a long term successful strategy for teaching and learning.
Just as in science, there came a point where we could not learn anymore as spirits without actual experimentation. Thus, we all had to come to earth to be proven “herewith, to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us]...” But we often think of this life as the endgame and a simple reward or punishment is all that waits at the other end. But what if we are here to learn how to wield the tools of greater power. If we look at it that way, it changes the whole discussion about the kingdoms in the next life.
My friends of other faiths talk about sitting by the stream drinking lemonade in the next life. I think they are right. That is exactly what happens in the Terrestrial and Telestial worlds, if that is where they end up. Those kingdoms are kingdoms of glory; peace and plenty will reign there.
But it almost feels like there is a conflict. When the scriptures talk about hell fire and damnation and Pres. Oaks talks about kingdoms of glory for everyone depending on the “laws they choose to abide.” But actually, they could be one and the same.
Consider this. A few years ago I went to a beach resort in Mexico.The first week was amazing. No responsibilities. All you can eat. Everything was free and above all…no cell service. It was heavenly!
If I had stayed a second week it would have been slightly less amazing. The third week I think I would have become restless and if I had to stay there the rest of my life having nothing more than peace and plenty…it would eventually feel like a prison.
The glories prepared for those who choose not to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ are full of beautiful streams and lemonade…but make no mistake, there is no progression there. It makes one wonder, at what point of forever does that life become a prison.
I have found that it is pointless to have a conversation with people who want to argue that certain pleasures that society has accepted or has legalized are OK because everyone does it. They are talking about rules and what we can get away with, but we are talking about mastering ourselves so that we can be endowed with greater power in the next life.
I was in the hospital last weekend and several different times soft celebratory music played, signifying that a baby was born. I wondered to myself, as I laid there, if there are also heavenly choirs announcing with celebratory song, when someone triumphantly crosses over to the next life.
At any given point in our lives we are an accumulation of experiences we have had up to that point. We don’t have any power to change what brought us to where we stand right now, but we can decide where we will go in the future. We can embrace the idea that rules are but training wheels and we are here to learn to wield the tools of greater power.
And perhaps choirs of heavenly angels will announce our arrival, as we are greeted by a loving and a proud Father in Heaven who has been waiting anxiously to endow us with greater power. We will recognize him immediately because we will have become “...like him…” (Moroni 7:48)
My name is Nathan Vail and this is the Verbal Motivation Podcast
