Can they?

An interesting question was asked in Sunday School this week.

We were asked, Can people outside the Church and without the ordinances and covenants of baptism and confirmation receive forgiveness and the influence of the Atonement? As I thought about the question, I realized that all too often we as members of the Church think that people outside the Church can't be happy. We think sometimes that they have no access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that without baptism that they can't repent or change, that they are sinners. Regardless of the intention of the teacher, I felt like they were looking for a no with the question, that we were supposed to think that those who have not been baptized don't have access to the Atonement. Don't get me wrong, I understand completely the need for ordinances and authority. I just think that there's room to give people the benefit of the doubt even though (or because) they are in different circumstances than we may be. 

The question still stands: Can they receive forgiveness and access to the Atonement?

I say yes.

I say that if "they" don't have access to the Atonement then neither do I.
I say that the Lord is a God of mercy who is happy to forgive and if we reach out to Him, whether we are baptized or not, He will reach back to us.
I say that Saul was a man whose life was entrenched in sin, blasphemy, and he was an accomplice in the murder of Stephen. I dare say that the Atonement of Jesus Christ reached this man before he was baptized.
I say that if the Atonement cannot heal and save those who are currently outside of the covenant of baptism— I dare to say that if I let myself believe that, then I must also believe that the Atonement cannot heal and save me.

The benefit of the doubt is that it is blasted away by the truth. Smithereens. The truth will leave no remnants of doubt, provided we accept that truth.

And yes, whoever you are, Christ's Atonement, His suffering, and His death and resurrection were for you. Whoever you are.

"You're pretty hard on yourself"

I had just handled a situation with a neurological disorder, a roommate, and some paramedics as best I thought I could. But, I was reviewing the events in my head and drawing conclusions from what I had perceived: I was pretty impatient with her... I shouldn't have said that... Why did I get upset with her? I'm working on this whole "be humble" thing and it's definitely not working right now... Why can't I get it to work? Why can't I make these changes? Why can't I—

"You're pretty hard on yourself," I heard from the passenger seat. Great friends tend to know the best time to say things like that.


It's hard to forgive yourself. I find that I am my harshest critic. I perceive more of my mistakes than anyone else does. It's pretty easy to be hard on yourself and not give yourself the benefit of the doubt.

I've been studying grace since then, and I've been finding that it's perfectly okay to give yourself the benefit of the doubt. It's good to recognize your weaknesses and great to take them to the Lord (12:23-29). The Lord wants to work with us and walk with us, and that's exactly the point that helped me let go of my own faults and be more concerned with what the Lord thinks of me and what He wants and where He wants to go. Moses had this pretty figured out (Exodus 33):

 13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found ^agrace in thy sight,^bshew me now thy ^cway, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is ^dthy ^epeople.

 14 And [God] said, My ^apresence shall go with thee, and I will give thee ^brest.

 15 And [Moses] said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

 16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou ^agoest with us?

If God's not going to go there, then I shouldn't either. He teaches in Ezekiel that if I repent, that my sins should not be mentioned to me anymore. That includes me; I should not mention my sins to me once I repent. God forgets my sins and challenges me to do the same. He invites me to do the same. He wants me to do the same.

The benefit of the doubt is that we know where it comes from. God forgets my sins, I can forget them, Satan doesn't forget them. Satan will throw doubts at me because he cannot forget that I have sinned and that I have repented. I know that doubts don't come from God. Self-doubt doesn't come from God. If I can't forgive myself, those feelings don't come from God. God forgives me, and I can forgive me too.

Repentance

repent |riˈpent|
verb [ no obj. ]feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin: the priest urged his listeners to repent | he repented of his action.• [ with obj. ] view or think of (an action or omission) with deep regret or remorse: Marian came to repent her hasty judgment.


God commands us to repent of our sins and leave them behind. Why is that so hard? Do we like having sins? Do we just not understand the seriousness of sin and its effects? Do we ever think we don't have anything to repent of?God promises us that if we repent, we can be cleansed of all our sins. That's what the Atonement of Jesus Christ did for us. It's hard to repent, though. We're human, we're prideful, we don't like to be wrong, and worst of all, it hurts to change.
This is where that whole benefit of the doubt thing comes in. We spend far too much time thinking that we can fix things on our own without the help of an omnipotent and omniscient God, our Father. We think that it's okay to hide things and just try and get the little pieces back together after we've broken something. We doubt the Lord of all creation who has promised us, "Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me" (Book of Mormon, Mosiah: 26:30). If He makes a promise, He will keep it. We have to give Him the benefit of the doubt. The benefit this time is that if we are willing to give our doubt to Him, then He will do away with it. If we trust Him and repent, He will forgive us and fill those dark corners with light.