Repentance Is God’s Gift to Us

“One of the terms we hear often today is that God’s love is ‘unconditional.’ While in one sense that is true, the descriptor unconditional appears nowhere in scripture. …

“God will always love us, but He cannot save us in our sins. Remember the words of Amulek to Zeezrom that the Savior would not save His people in their sins but from their sins, the reason being that with sin we are unclean and ‘no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven’ [Alma 11:37] or dwell in God’s presence. …

“From the Book of Mormon we learn that the intent of Christ’s suffering—the ultimate manifestation of His love—was ‘to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance’ [Alma 34:15]. …

“Repentance, then, is His gift to us, purchased at a very dear price.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Abide in My Love,” Ensign, Nov. 2016, 48.