I was planning to write this entry anyway, but then the bishop asked us to write a memo on obedience. So this is what he’s going to get.

For a long time I have why obedience is so important. It cannot be because sin will keep us out of Heaven. The idea sounds plausible, until we recall that Christ can forgive us of any sin we may commit (with one ¿rare? exception). In fact it cannot be otherwise. If our (willful) disobedience could keep us from the Lord’s presence eternally, then none of us would be saved. Even if we were allowed to sin before we were ’converted’ we would still not make it. We as humans are constantly returning to sin even when there is no excuse. Joseph Smith gives us the perfect example of this in D&C 3:5-10. It is from this scripture that I first began to understand the true power of the atonement. For all practical purposes it can purge us of any sins that we commit. Even those committed in ’cold blood’. Even extremely grievous and terrible sins. In this sense the atonement is infinite—it is capable of anything.

To understand the gravity of sin we must look at where the atonement breaks down. As powerful as the atonement is it does have its limits.

Christ cannot give us back lost time, for example. If one spend years in sin, one will have spent those years suffering and Christ can’t (or won’t) turn back time so that we can spend those years in righteousness. However, to me this does not seem to warrant the emphasis placed on sin. After all, I would be willing to suffer all my life if I knew I would be saved. I think many others would as well. We need to look farther to understand the import of obedience.

The answer, at least the only answer that I have found, is in 2 Nephi 2:7.

Behold, he offereth himself a scrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

From this it is easily seen that a broken heart and a contrite spirit are absolutely necessary for our salvation. This is one of the few times in the scriptures that a restriction is placed on the atonement. It must therefore be of great importance to us, and we ought to have it in mind as we contemplate obedience. I do not claim to understand why it must be this way, only that I believe it is.

This truth is, in my opinion, the reason that obedience is essential. Any single sin taints us and prevents us from being with the Lord, but what is more important is how sin affects our desires. We can repent of any individual sin, but that same sin, by its very nature causes us to lose our desire for the things of God. It makes us desire more sin. It decreases our desire to repent. C.S. Lewis teaches in Mere Christianity:

…every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all you life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature…

When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. … Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.

This is what we believe as Latter Day Saints as well. Our goal is to become like God someday. To do this we must make choices that cause us to be more like him, rather than less. Sin will ultimately keep us from the Lord’s presence, not by making us filthy, but by causing us to lose the desire to be there. That is why obedience is important. If we are not obedient we won’t want to be saved. It is also why our Christian friends don’t place as much emphasis on obedience. They simply don’t have same vision that we do. They don’t understand that we are eventually meant to become like our heavenly father. The lack of this simple truth prevents them from ever understanding the true seriousness of sin. It is not merely a debt that has to be paid or filth that must be washed off (though these analogies are not without merit). It effects a change in our very souls that is not so easily undone.

Another thing that we can learn is that grudging obedience does no good. In fact it may be worse, if we allow our grudge to smolder into a hate for deity. Does this give us license to commit sin unless we “really want to be obedient”? No, I don’t think it does, for the very reason that committing the sin will cause us to sink farther into the pit of wickedness. For this reason, keeping the commandments grudgingly may be the wiser course of action. This means that we should keep the commandments we don’t want to, not to become better, but to keep from getting worse. This sounds rather silly even as I write it, but it may be true.

What then can we do to be more obedient? I think if we can do nothing else, we should desire to be obedient. If we cannot do this then we are in serious trouble indeed, and ought to seek help. I believe the desire to do good can work within us, much like the desire to believe mentioned by Alma (Alma 32:27). In our quest for obedience we must always remember that we are human and prone to error. There will be times when we are disobedient. We must not let these affect our attitude. We must not become discouraged. This is what Satan desires. He has no weapon more effective. Instead we must pick ourselves up, and continue on in the strait and narrow path that leads to eternal life.