Every choice you make brings you closer or further from God. Each time you choose to follow the example of what you believe Jesus would feel, think, or do in your place, you become a better person, and will more easily perceive and choose subsequent decisions that more closely align with his example. Rebellion from God begins to affect you the moment you engage in it. Every time you turn away from God, you make future and larger rebellion easier. Each time you choose to deviate from his example, you become a worse person, and will more easily perceive and choose worse things in the future. You can repent of sins you slip back into,1 but it becomes more difficult and carries a greater penalty with each repeated transgression.
The Lord does not continuously extend mercy to those who refuse to obey him.2 The consequences of sin come to you if you do not repent, and they can be eternal.3 To turn away from God after obeying him is a terrible offense that carries penalties so severe that it is better not to be born.4
Footnotes
- 1. Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me. (Mosiah 26:30) ↩
- 2. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. (Romans 11:22) ↩
- 3. And it shall come to pass, because of the wickedness of the world, that I will take vengeance upon the wicked, for they will not repent; for the cup of mine indignation is full; for behold, my blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not. (D&C 29:17) ↩
- 4. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:20-22) ↩