In my scripture study, I recently came across the phrase “faith unto repentance”. This phrase is used in Alma chapter 34 when Amulek is teaching about faith and repentance. He invites the people to “exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you;”. I have read this verse many times before, but I didn’t take the time to ponder it and understand what it means.
Amulek teaches that we have “faith unto repentance” when we “call upon his holy name”. This seems like a pretty simple thing to do, but I found some further explanations in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures. The prophet Moroni teaches “that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name” (Helaman 3:27). There are numerous scriptures that talk about having “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” and turning to the Lord in sincerity.I have a note on my phone from a meeting where someone said “Faith in Jesus Christ is understanding that He has the power to change you and repentance is taking action on that.” To me, this is the perfect description of having faith unto repentance. As we develop our faith in Jesus Christ, we come to understand the power that He has to change our lives and we can use the gift of repentance that He has given us.
On my mission, one of the main things that we taught people was about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are 5 steps or parts of the gospel - faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. These are practices that we are meant to continue throughout our lives, and we do that by renewing our baptismal covenant by partaking of the Sacrament and continually striving to grow our faith and repent. I find it interesting that when Jesus taught His gospel in the Americas after His Resurrection, He emphasized faith as the first principle. I don’t think we can accomplish any of the other steps until we have faith and the desire to act on that faith. I want to think about how faith leads to repentance and how I can have faith unto repentance. How has having faith unto repentance blessed you?
Always have hope,
Colby
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