And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain.
Twice in this verse and again in verse 15 the king says that it has been all his people could do to repent and be forgiven. Is this not true for all of us? Can we ever really do anything more than throw ourselves on the mercy of Christ and his atonement? For all our intentions to do good, keep our covenants, and obey the commandments, we fail every day. In the final analysis, we can earn nothing for ourselves. Every effort, every good intention, every right choice only qualifies us for the gift of forgiveness and justification. The fact is, we must be forgiven, we must be pardoned, we must be saved. There is no other way into God's grace.
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