Repentance IS the Escape
"Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you" (D&C 95:1).I’ve always thought that repentance is something we do after we escape from sin. But repentance is the escape. Repentance isn’t some victory lap or diploma or stamp of approval once we’ve overcome sin and temptation, but rather repentance is that process of overcoming. When we are at the bottom of the pit and we are climbing to get out and our strength fails us and we fall back down, that is repentance. When we are straining and heaving and bleeding trying to pull ourselves free from the manacles that bind us, that is repentance. When we are picking the lock of our cell and the pick breaks, that is repentance. When we are running with all of our might from the guards and the attack dogs and we stumble and collapse and get hauled back to our prison, that is repentance. When we tunnel out of our cell and into someone else’s cell instead of outside, that is repentance. Plus, now we can help each other escape. Repentance is an imperfect process for imperfect people. It’s messy. It’s sometimes half-hearted or wrong-footed or hare-brained or mishandled. But every time we try to escape from the sins and temptations that do so easily beset us, we are repenting. And we don’t have to escape alone. We don’t have to repent all by ourselves before seeking to involve the Lord. The Lord loves us. That’s why He gave us repentance. That’s why He gave us a way out of our temptations. We are not helping ourselves or God by trying to hide from Him while we shamefully try to escape on our own. God knows the reality of our situation much more clearly and deeply than we do ourselves. He’s right there with us in the pit, and He knows where the best handholds are for us to climb out. He knows which links in our chains are weakest. He knows the schedules of the guards and He knows how to help us get past them. It breaks His heart watching us try to struggle on without Him, just as it breaks our hearts when we choose to cut ourselves off from Him out of shame and fear and pride. Christ already knows the full extent of our guilt - He felt it in His own flesh. He also knows the shining brilliance of our potential, and He will never give up on us until we have fully escaped from sin and temptation and become whole and happy and perfected in Him.
