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The fruit of true repentance is forgiveness, which opens the door to
receive all of the covenants and ordinances provided on this earth and
to enjoy the resulting blessings. When a repentant soul is baptized, all
former sins are forgiven and need not be remembered. When repentance is
full and one has been cleansed, there comes a new vision of life and
its glorious possibilities. How marvelous the promise of the Lord:
“Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I,
the Lord, remember them no more.” The Lord is and ever will be faithful to His words.
"Finding Forgiveness" Richard G. Scott General Conference April 1995
"None Were with Him" Jeffrey R. Holland General Conference May 2009
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"We Believe in Being Chaste" David A. Bednar General Conference April 2013
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"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time" Quentin L. Cook General Conference October 2008
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"Redemption" D. Todd Christofferson General Conference April 2013
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"The Atonement" Boyd K. Packer General Conference October 2012
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"The Atonement" Boyd K. Packer General Conference October 2012
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The great
Atonement was the supreme act of forgiveness. The magnitude of that
Atonement is beyond our ability to completely understand. I know only
that it happened, and that it was for me and for you. The suffering was
so great, the agony so intense, that none of us can comprehend it when
the Savior offered Himself as a ransom for the sins of all mankind.
It
is through Him that we gain forgiveness. It is through Him that there
comes the certain promise that all mankind will be granted the blessings
of salvation, with resurrection
from the dead. It is through Him and His great overarching sacrifice
that we are offered the opportunity through obedience of exaltation and
eternal life.
"Forgiveness" President Gordon B. Hinckley General Conference October 2005
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The
loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not
comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour …
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and
shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with
me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those
things that please him”?
With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not
forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in
all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to
His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering.
Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete
as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from
Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence.
It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the
Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong
nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us,
all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to
be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only
physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the
divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly,
hopelessly alone.
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Should choices be wrong, they can be
rectified through repentance. When its conditions are fully met, the
Atonement of Jesus Christ,
our Savior, provides a release from the demands of justice for the
errors made. It is wondrously simple and so incomparably beautiful.
"How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life" Elder Richard G. Scott General Conference April 2012
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Our success is never measured by how strongly we are tempted but by
how
faithfully we respond.
We must ask for help from our Heavenly Father and
seek strength through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. In both
temporal and spiritual things, obtaining this divine assistance enables
us to become provident providers for ourselves and others.
"Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually" Robert D. Hales General Conference April 2009
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From the Atonement of the Savior flows the soothing salve that can heal
our spiritual wounds and remove guilt. However, this salve can only be
applied through the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
repentance, and consistent obedience. The results of sincere repentance
are peace of conscience, comfort, and spiritual healing and renewal.
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Think of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane during the Atonement
process, suffering agony so great that He bled from every pore.
His cry to His Father included the word Abba.
This might be interpreted as the cry of a son who is in
distress to his father: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
I testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all of the
trials and hardships that any of us will encounter in this life. At
times when we may feel to say, “Hope you know, I had a hard time,” we
can be assured that He is there and we are safe in His loving arms.
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The Savior’s suffering in Gethsemane and His agony on the cross redeem
us from sin by satisfying the demands that justice has upon us. He
extends mercy and pardons those who repent. The Atonement also satisfies
the debt justice owes to us by healing and compensating us for any
suffering we innocently endure.
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If you have made no mistakes, then you do not need the Atonement. If you
have made mistakes, and all of us have, whether minor or serious, then
you have an enormous need to find out how they can be erased so that you
are no longer in darkness.
“[Jesus Christ] is the light and the life of the world.” As we fix our gaze on His teachings, we will be guided to the harbor of spiritual safety.
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No
matter what our transgressions have been, no matter how much our actions
may have hurt others, that guilt can all be wiped out. To me, perhaps
the most beautiful phrase in all scripture is when the Lord said,
“Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I,
the Lord, remember them no more.”
That
is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement: to take
anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an
experience so that at the end of their life, they can go through the
veil having repented of their sins and having been washed clean through
the blood of Christ.
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