The Worst Kind of Sin

One final thought from Elder Cornish before I move on. While warning us against sin in general, he took a moment to say specifically what the worst kind of sin was:

And the worst kind of sin is premeditated sin, where one says, “I can sin now and repent later.” I believe that this is a solemn mockery of the sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ.

While we talk about the power of the Atonement and God's willingness to forgive sin, we should be careful not to think that we can get away with abusing that power. God gave us the Atonement so we could have a chance to become better, not so we could perpetually live in sin. God wants to save us from our sins, but even He can't do that unless we forsake them, or at least try to forsake them.

Willingly committing sin with the understanding that we can just repent of that sin later is counterproductive. Repentance means change. If we truly want to change, why not try and start today? Why persist in the sort of behavior that you'll want to change later? Most sinful behavior is habit-forming (Heck, most behavior of any kind is habit-forming), so it is foolish to reinforce the habit of sinful behavior just before trying to break that habit.

Also, it doesn't work. God's not interested in lip service. Saying "Please forgive me" is not enough to constitute true repentance. We have to actually want and try to change. We have to actually want to try to stop engaging in sinful behavior. Actions speak louder than words.

I understand that some people struggle with sin. Some people want to repent, but are already caught in the habit of sinful behavior. I believe that as long as a person genuinely wants to repent and are trying to repent, then they are actually repenting. There is a big difference between slipping up and giving in. It's a matter of heart. Trying to forsake sin and failing is very different from trying to sin and get away with it.

We are not going to get away with sin. God is not so easily fooled and God's Atonement will not be mocked. The Atonement covers all true repentance, not the phony repentance of premeditated sin. It is always possible to repent, but for repentance to be effective, it must be sincere and genuine. We must not make the mistake of thinking that we can sin and repent later. That doesn't work, and it certainly isn't going to work out very well for us.