Regret and “godly
sorrow” for sin.
Not all who recognize
that they are engaged in wrongdoing or in sin show remorse or sorrow for their
mistakes. But sorrow and contrition are a necessary part of truth repentance.
Pure repentance
results from pure regret for the wrong done. Genuine regret results from a
sense of the essential wrongfulness of the act, not from the distress caused
the wrong doer. Sorrow because of personal discomfort occasioned by a
sinful act is what Paul calls the “sorrow of the world that worketh death.” The
case of the rich young man who takes to gambling, and discovers that he is
losing the respect of his neighbors, and is moved by this loss of friendship to
put away the cards is an example of the “sorrow of the world.” It does not
result in real reformation. For exchanging one pleasure for another is not
repentance. True repentance is inner transformation and outward reformation.
Genuine inner
transformation comes only from “godly sorrow” for sin. When the wrong doer’s
sorrow for his sin is caused by his sense of the inherent wrongfulness of his
act and its offense to the God of holiness, his sorrow is “godly sorrow” and
results in complete inner purification and outward reformation.
--Nephi Jensen
Liahona, the Elders’ Journal
30:278
Such regret and godly
sorrow is the “broken heart and the contrite spirit” of which Jesus spoke and
is included in the meaning of the Beatitude where he said, “Blessed are all
they that mourn ,for they shall be comforted.” (3 Nephi 12:4.) Genuine sorrow for wrongdoing opens the way
for the “action” steps of repentance which follow. To the Nephites Jesus said:
And ye shall offer
for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh
unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire
and with the Holy Ghost . . . Behold, I have come unto the world to bring
redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin. Therefore, whoso repent and
cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the
kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up
again; therefore, repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved.
--3 Nephi 9:20-22
(Wendell O. Rich, Our
Living Gospel [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964], 99-100)