John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
These seemingly insignificant 12 words containing 2 promises that could easily be overlooked as having very little practical consequence to those of us who feel we are already free and emancipated. But a closer review discloses a host of things we may never have considered before.
Truth makes an immense difference to those who are trying to live by it. Let’s take, for example, the truth about repentance.
Repentance Infers There is a God
If there was no God, there would be no right and no wrong. Good and evil would be meaningless. An ultimate judgment would pose no threat to our behavior. Justice and mercy would remain stillborn. Our daily lives would lack motivation, requiring neither a good or evil response to the plight of our fellow men. Our sole concern would be for ourselves, our needs, our survival.
Repentance Infers There is a Standard
There is a standard against which we are being measured and found wanting. We are responsible and will be held accountable for our actions. If we are failing, we can change. We can become better through the application of correct principles if we know them.
Repentance Infers a Current and Final Judgment
A current judgment reveals our line of trajectory. For instance, how we are doing? Where we are going? How well are we informed? How prepared are we for the final judgment? When we contemplate these answers, it provides more motivation for us to improve ourselves.
A final judgment is inferred because for what purpose would repentance, correction and a realignment to God’s will serve if in the end it made no difference? No one would suffer any penalty or gain any blessing for the extreme effort required to be obedient. The scriptures make ample references to the great and final judgment (Alma 40: 11- 14 being perhaps the most explicit), when all of us will, after we have passed from this life, stand before that God who made us, to be held accountable for our deeds in this life.
Repentance Infers Immediate Results
The way we affect others has a proportional and direct effect upon ourselves. This means if we change for better, the greater will be our influence on others to help them improve their lives too. And the more we help others, the greater the change for good we will experience in own lives. We need not wait until we receive the final judgment to receive blessings. They are unfolded to us the moment we bestow them upon others.
Repentance Infers We Can Change
We can change from being uninformed and evil to knowing truth and doing good. We can overcome the handicaps of ignorance and poverty through obedience to Christ. The majority of the world has not been taught the concept of repentance. Instead they know only the false practice of confession of sins to avoid the penalties their wrong doings would otherwise bring. There will be justice and compensation for all wrongs done by us, or to us by others. The solution to avoiding the penalties of sin is not just to confess them, but to repent of them and do them no more.
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Knowing the truth changes everything we need to understand about why and what we do. The closer to truth our knowledge is, the closer to Godlike behavior we will practice.
Truth will bring hope to all those who embrace it and freedom to all enslaved by ignorance. It can bring peace and understanding, both to us and to the world.
– Doug Garrett
