Time to get back to General Conference talks, at least for one or two nights. Sister Linda S. Reeves' talk The Great Plan of Redemption is mostly about repentance, and it touches on a point that I feel is well worth pointing out. Repentance is and was a worthwhile endeavor.
It's worthwhile for us mostly because of a truth Elder D. Todd Christofferson shared in a talk titled The Divine Gift of Repentance: “… Whatever the cost of repentance, it is swallowed up in the joy of forgiveness.” Repentance can be hard, and it often takes a lot of work, but the blessing of having that weight of sin off our conscience and having it replaced with a divine and purifying light is well worth what it takes.
Thankfully, Jesus Christ felt similarly.
Repentance is only possible through the Atonement, and the Atonement was much harder to endure than any amount of repentance ever was. This sacrifice on our behalf was so intense that it caused Jesus an amount of pain that probably would have killed anyone else. Having some idea of how painful it was going to be, He was tempted not to go through with it. But as one of Sister Reeves' grandchildren said concerning repentance, “I feel that Jesus feels it was worth it to do the Atonement, and He’s happy that we can live with Him again.”
The Atonement was much harder on Jesus than repentance is on us, but it makes repentance possible, and that fact makes the Atonement worth it. And repentance, though sometimes difficult and/or painful, makes it possible for us to live with God and Jesus Christ again, which makes repentance worthwhile as well. Both repentance and the Atonement are painful parts of God's plan, but they are also essential parts, and I think that almost everyone involved can agree that the results of repentance and the Atonement are and were well worth the pain and effort.
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