The Savior Wants to Forgive

I had just finished skimming through Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s April 2011 General Conference talk, The Divine Gift of Repentance, when I decided to take a look at the visiting teaching message for July—which just happens to be, “ Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Forgiving and Merciful”. I read through that, and then I did a quick search on LDS.org about forgiveness—and one of the things that popped up in the search results was a link to “The Savior Wants to Forgive,” a General Conference talk by Elder Craig A. Cardon. And just that title hit me and I knew that sentence is something the Savior wants all of us to know—He WANTS to forgive. It’s not just that He is kind of willing to, or He’s honor-bound to do so if we repent because of divine law, or anything like that. He WANTS to forgive—so much that He was willing to pay the price for our sins so that we could repent. He doesn’t give forgiveness grudgingly; He gives it willingly, joyfully, eagerly. Indeed, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He is standing, watching, and runs to meet us with open arms when we come to Him seek forgiveness. No matter how unworthy we may feel, or how frustrated we may get with ourselves as we sin again (does it drive you nuts that you’re an imperfect human being? It makes me absolutely crazy mad sometimes that I am! It would be so nice to perfect!), that is NOT how Jesus feels. He knows us and loves us and He rejoices in our repentance. He does make us go through the repentance process, which can definitely be painful, but that is a sign of His love for us. As Elder Christofferson said, “Without repentance, there is no real progress or improvement in life…Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it.” Being able to repent—and then to receive the forgiveness that Christ so willingly gives us—truly is a gift. Let us remember that the Savior truly WANTS to forgive us—every single time, again and again and again.