Forgiveness doesn’t make you holy
The justice of God dictates that your eternal wellbeing be exclusively determined by how virtuous you have become.9 The sacrifice of Christ doesn’t violate his justice, but rather gives you the opportunity to separate yourself from the moral indictment of your past sins, providing you with sufficient reasons and means to improve so that God’s justice can result in your exaltation instead of abasement. In order to obtain better outcomes than you have, you must become better than you are.
All people are forgiven of the differences between them and God which they are unable to discern. For example, children are forgiven for the law that they are too young to be able to learn10 and understand.11 However, there is a difference between being spared the penalty of disobedience to what you don’t yet know and receiving the benefits of obeying what you don’t yet know. Being spared from death and hell is not the same as receiving eternal life.
The atonement frees you from the punishment of failing to live up to how Christ is beyond the limits of your understanding, but it doesn’t provide you with the blessings you would have if you were like Christ beyond the limits of how you understand him to be. Many Christians believe that God declares you righteous as long as you say you believe in Jesus, even if you don’t actually follow his example. You can’t be treated by God as if you were righteous without actually being righteous. This would be a lie.12 The gospel doesn’t magically transfer the blessings of Jesus’ righteousness to sinners. Rather, through the gospel, Jesus provides you with the opportunity to choose to be more like him, making a way for you to be forgiven of past sin and providing sufficiently persuasive arguments for you to choose to be better, thus meriting those blessings in your own right13
The Lord’s sacrifice provides the opportunity for you to learn more about and live up to how he is, but it doesn’t magically make you more like him than you choose to be.14 The idea that God treats sinners as saints simply because they say they believe in him, like him, or worship him, is an example of the extent to which Christians have replaced what Jesus taught with overtly pagan beliefs, in this case the idea that your affinity for an idol transposes its qualities upon you. Sheep gain the benefits of a shepherd by following his instructions, not by saying they like him. Believing that you become holy merely by expressing support for God is as ridiculous as believing that you will magically become a basketball star by wearing your favorite player’s jersey. Forgiveness from God doesn’t reward you with the blessings of obedience any more than it removes from you the temporal consequences of disobedience.
Moral forgiveness doesn’t exempt someone from the temporal consequences of ignorance. Forgiveness from God is a moral absolution, not a material miracle; it absolves you of the divine punishment your past sins would otherwise require, not the temporal consequences that those choices still carry. While you aren’t morally responsible for what you don’t know, you are still subject to the consequences of the laws that apply to your situation, even if you don’t know them.
God’s forgiveness makes you blameless, not holy. Blamelessness is not holiness.171 Holiness is a measure of how similar you are to God.172 You become holy as you learn what Jesus is like and live that way yourself.173 While an innocent person isn’t bad, they are only good to the extent they have become better than neutral. Forgiveness takes away the bad, but it does not substitute the good in its place! To be empty on the inside is much better than to be evil on the inside, but emptiness is not the same as goodness. Emptiness is an indication of preparation for becoming good, but it is not the same as being good. A plowed, weed-free field is not the same as one full of crops ready to harvest. His forgiveness can erase your slate, but it can’t refill it with better things—only you can do that by choosing better things over time. To become better requires learning and living better ideas than what were possessed or followed before.
Footnotes
- 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do. (3 Nephi 27:21) ↩
- 2. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18) ↩
- 3. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3) ↩
- 4. And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. (Mosiah 3:7) ↩
- 5. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10) ↩
- 6. ...eternal life...is the greatest of all the gifts of God. (D&C 14:7) ↩
- 7. And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. (D&C 88:32-33) ↩
- 8. ...be reconciled unto Christ, and enter into the narrow gate, and walk in the strait path which leads to life, and continue in the path until the end of the day of probation. (2 Nephi 33:9) ↩
- 9. [God] will render to every man according to his deeds. (Romans 2:6) ↩
- 10. For behold that all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law; wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing— (Moroni 8:22) ↩
- 11. But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me; (D&C 29:46-47) ↩
- 12. And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. (Ether 3:2) ↩
- 13. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32) ↩
- 14. Those who remain of the earth do so by following the example of the first Adam, choosing to rebel against God. Those who will become the sons of God will do so by following the example of the second Adam, completely subjecting themselves to God. And as we have taken upon ourselves the image of the earthy through birth, we must also take upon ourselves the image of the heavenly through repentance and sanctification. For this flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can decay inherit immortality. Behold, I tell you a mystery: Not all will sleep in death, but all will be changed by death. Some will only die in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised into immortality, and we will all be changed. Therefore, it is essential for the perishable to take upon themselves what is imperishable, for this mortal will put on immortality. When what is mortal takes upon itself immortality, the perishable who have taken upon themselves what is imperishable will experience what is described in the word: death will be consumed by victory. (1 Corinthians 15:48-54, Author’s Reflection) ↩