Mosiah 25-26

Mosiah 25

Limhi and his people, and Alma and his people, are now safely rejoined with the main body of Nephites in the land of Zarahemla, governed by King Mosiah. Mosiah reads to all the people the record of Zeniff (which includes Zeniff leaving Zarahemla originally, then his wicked son Noah, then his good son Limhi—basically everything we just read from Mosiah chapters 9-24) and also the record of Alma and his people who broke off after Alma was converted by the preaching of Abinadi (who was burned at the stake by wicked King Noah). The Nephites are amazed at God’s blessings to these groups, like Limhi and Alma’s deliverance from bondage, and deeply saddened by the tragedies these people experienced.

But now they have a new start. The church is strongly organized in the land, and  the Nephites experience a period of great peace and prosperity.

Mosiah 26

Alma faces a new dilemma—many of the rising generation do not believe in God (they were not old enough to remember the powerful spiritual experiences the people have been through over the past decades), and they begin to influence many members of the church to commit serious sins. These church members are brought before Alma to be judged, but Alma doesn’t know what to do and tries to pass them over to King Mosiah to judge them. But Mosiah refuses to judge them because he is not the leader of the church, and passes them back to Alma.

So Alma approaches the Lord, pleading for guidance to handle this new wave of sinners in the church. He receives this answer:

 29 Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgresseth against me, him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed; and if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him also.

 30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

 32 Now I say unto you, Go; and whosoever will not repent of his sins the same shall not be numbered among my people; and this shall be observed from this time forward.

The Lord’s approach to sinners is simple—and relieving! If a man or woman is humble and sorry for their mistakes, and will work to repent—or change and not commit that sin anymore—the Lord will forgive them. But keep in mind—repenting doesn’t not just mean confessing or saying “sorry” and then continuing on with the bad behavior with no real intention or desire to change. But if a person sincerely is attempting to change their ways, the Lord will forgive them as many times as it takes, as long as they are sincere in their desires to change. How amazing that the offer is “AS OFTEN AS MY PEOPLE REPENT, I will forgive them.” It is never too late for any of us!

There is one more important requirement in order to receive forgiveness:

 31 And ye shall also forgive one another your trespasses; for verily I say unto you, he that forgiveth not his neighbor’s trespasses when he says that he repents, the same hath brought himself under condemnation.

How can we expect the Lord to forgive us of our mistakes if we don’t forgive others? It reminds me of the parable of the unmerciful servant who was forgiven of his enormous debt (equivalent to millions of dollars) by the king, but then the same servant went out and threw a man into prison who could not repay his debt of about $15 (see Matthew 18:23-25). We will always have more to be forgiven of than we have to forgive of others.

Alma takes this instruction from the Lord and confidently implements it.