Moroni 8:25

And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins;

To receive full forgiveness of our sins and to have them remitted or canceled from our account requires obedience on our part. Christ has already paid the price. The cost of our ransom has been covered by his atoning sacrifice. He is prepared to set us free whenever we qualify. To which commandments must we be obedient to become eligible to be ransomed and released from guilt? Repentance and baptism. While the Lord gives us many commandments to guide our lives and teach us how to live as he lives, the two things we must do for forgiveness and justification are repent and receive baptism. The doctrine is simple enough for an eight-year-old to understand.

Moroni 6:2-3

Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins. And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end.

The qualifications for baptism are a broken heart (godly sorrow), a contrite spirit (humility), repentance, taking the name of Christ (faith in Christ), and a willingness to serve (endure) to the end. These principles are the same through the ages because they are eternal. Only one way leads to salvation, and that is through Christ, his doctrine, his gospel, and his covenants, which we make through ordinances. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Ether 11:8

And the people began to repent of their iniquity; and inasmuch as they did the Lord did have mercy on them.

Even a people doomed to destruction and in the death throes of their final struggles can repent and find mercy. Surely those of us who are at least trying to live righteously will receive mercy as well.

Ether 2:15 - Part 2

And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him. And the Lord said unto him: I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man; wherefore, if ye will sin until ye are fully ripe ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And these are my thoughts upon the land which I shall give you for your inheritance; for it shall be a land choice above all other lands.

God is merciful and forgives sins. Jesus commanded his disciples to forgive seventy times seven, and surely the Father keeps his own commandments, so he is pretty patient with sinners. Nevertheless, he apparently has a limit to his patience. Though he is infinite, he is not infinitely patient. We can reach a point in our willful, rebellious, intentional sinning that the Lord stops inviting us and enticing us to turn to him. He does not close the door on our possible repentance, but it will be much more difficult for us to recognize and turn from our sins when his Spirit is withdrawn from us. Far better is it for us to repent daily, even though we remain weak, than to think we can postpone our repentance to the last minute. If we wait for the last minute, we will likely miss that minute and slip past the grasp of mercy completely.

Ether 2:15 - Part 1

And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him. And the Lord said unto him: I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man; wherefore, if ye will sin until ye are fully ripe ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And these are my thoughts upon the land which I shall give you for your inheritance; for it shall be a land choice above all other lands.

This says something about the nature of our prayers. Though we may pray daily, if our prayers are perfunctory repetitions lacking in humility, sincerity and real intent, they do not please the Lord, and we have need to repent. Prayer is not to give orders to God like a short-order cook, but to seek his will and receive instruction at his hand.

Mormon 9:6

O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.

Even the most rebellious, wicked and unbelieving can turn around. Right up to the last day they can come to themselves and seek the Lord. The pure miracle of the Christ's Atonement is that it can make even the worst of sinners spotless, pure, white, and thoroughly clean. We do not have to appear before our Father stained with our sins.  Christ holds out boundless hope for everyone. No one is lost  who will come to him and have faith in him.

Mormon 7:5

Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.

As Mormon writes his final words to the posterity of a destroyed civilization, the shares a powerful lesson with a promise. He tells his readers to "come to a knowledge of [their] fathers," thus echoing the commandment to "remember", which appears often in the Book of Mormon. Remembering means not only knowing who our fathers were, but also knowing what they knew. In other words, it is to regain the knowledge the fathers had about God, Christ, and the Plan of Salvation, which was lost through apostasy. It is to discover again what we should have known all along. Once the knowledge is restored, we can recognize our sins and repent, believe in Christ, and accept him as our Savior. That is Mormon's whole purpose and his labor of love.

Mormon 5:11

For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus.

Because the Nephites willingly and intentionally turned away from Christ, he could do nothing for them. He cannot embrace those who do not want to be embraced. I do not understand why anyone would not want to be clasped in the arms of Jesus. To be warm and safe in his arms is the most comforting experience I can imagine. I make lots of mistakes and fail constantly to live up to the life I know I should live, but I repent when I realize my mistakes. And so I have hope in Christ.

Mormon 5:2

But behold, I was without hope, for I knew the judgments of the Lord which should come upon them; for they repented not of their iniquities, but did struggle for their lives without calling upon that Being who created them.

Just as Mormon could not forsake his people, even though he had no hope for them, God never forsakes his children, even when they refuse to repent. He loves all his children eternally and wants every single one to return to him. To paraphrase Elder D. Todd Christofferson, God's love is eternal but not unconditional. The word "unconditional" does not appear in the scriptures. What we read there is that we must repent, keep the commandments, and love God and our fellow man. Otherwise, the mercy of Christ's Atonement can have no effect on us, and justice must take effect. God's love will not save us if we do not qualify for mercy. He knows the end from the beginning, and so he knows how the test of mortality will turn out for each of us, but he never gives up and never walks away. We may turn our backs on him, but he does not turn his back on us.

Mormon 2:15

And it came to pass that my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God, and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And thus three hundred and forty and four years had passed away.

The day of grace is never passed for those who sincerely wish to repent. No sin is so severe, so deep, and so frequently repeated that it is beyond the reach of Christ's Atonement. Nevertheless, if we do not avail ourselves of Christ's merciful gift through repentance, he will not force his mercy upon us. If the day of grace is passed, it is because we choose to deny grace, and we refuse to ask for forgiveness. If we refuse mercy, the only alternative is justice.

3 Nephi 24:7

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But ye say: Wherein shall we return?

This is God's promise throughout the scriptures. When we turn to him, he turns to us. It is just that simple.

3 Nephi 23:5

And whosoever will hearken unto my words and repenteth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Search the prophets, for many there be that testify of these things.

Salvation is free but not without stipulations and qualifications. We must learn and obey the commandments, receive the ordinance of baptism, and continually repent if we want salvation. It is not hard or complicated to understand, but it takes a lifetime and beyond to do it. The promise, however, is worth every effort.

3 Nephi 20:9

Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard.

The end result of our partaking of the sacrament should be a filling by the Holy Spirit. If we make the covenants of the sacrament with sincerity, full purpose of heart, and real intent, we are promised to have Christ's Spirit. The Holy Ghost is the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ. It can come to us immediately, even as it did for the multitude who were in Christ's very presence.

According to the words of the sacramental prayer, we only have to be willing to make and keep the covenants. If we are willing at that moment, then in that moment we can be filled with his Spirit.

Now, the vicissitudes of life and the realities of mortality may break down our wills and thwart our desires, and chances are that we won't make it through the day without stumbling in our determination, and we may find ourselves withdrawn from the Spirit by degrees. We know we are going to fall from grace again, and God knows it. Nevertheless, in that precious moment, we can be filled.

The Lord will take whatever opportunity we give him, however brief and fleeting, to give us a taste of the spiritual banquet he has in store for us, in the hope that his gift will taste sweeter than the worldly satisfactions of the natural man. He is anxious for us to break the cycle of habit, weakness, and temptation and to turn to him. For every tiny step we take in his direction, he runs to us and takes us in his arms and cheers us on. He weeps for us when we lose our grip and stumble in the wrong direction, but if our heart is right, he knows we'll be back soon. And so he waits anxiously while we grope our way back to the sacrament table again and start over. He is so pleased when we try, even though we both know we will fail. The victory of mortality is in the trying. God blesses us when we try.

3 Nephi 18:29

For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him.

Let's be clear: no one is worthy to partake of the sacrament. We come to the sacrament table in introspection and repentance, acknowledging that we failed to keep our covenants perfectly during the preceding week. We renew our covenants of the sacrament weekly because weekly we fall short of our desires to be faithful and righteous. Therefore, to partake worthily does not mean to be without sin but to be without hypocrisy. We partake worthily when we truly want to keep the covenants we make and are willing to strive to be obedient. The point of the sacrament is not to be perfect but to have the intent to become perfect through the continuous atonement of Christ.  Jesus warns his disciples about those who partake of the sacrament for show or to be socially acceptable or to hide rebellion and intentional sins. For such, the sacrament is a curse rather than a blessing. If one does not intend to keep the covenants, it is best that he not pretend to make them in the first place. For the rest of us, we just have to keep trying.

3 Nephi 9:13

O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

With repentance and conversion comes spiritual healing. Christ can heal our pains and sorrows. He can heal the damage we have done to ourselves and to others and the damage that others have done to us. He can heal it all because he understands it all because he has suffered it all.

3 Nephi 5:3

Therefore they did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms, and did serve God with all diligence day and night.

Despite their seesaw history, the Nephites were capable of outstanding righteousness. They needed miracles and signs on the one hand and near annihilation on the other to finally see the light. Nevertheless, the point is that they repented. An entire population -- every living soul -- repented and was converted. It was as if the Millennium had already begun for them. It may have been a Camelot -- one brief shining moment -- instead of a city of Enoch, but they proved to themselves that they could do it with faith, humility, and a genuine desire to follow the Lord. If it was not impossible for the Nephites, it is not impossible for us today. That is the testimony this chapter leaves for us. We can overcome the world with the power and gifts of God if we live for them.

Helaman 15:7

And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them.

Note the sequence of events in this verse. We do not change our hearts and then repent. We repent first, and then our hearts are changed for us by God .

Helaman 15:3

Yea, wo unto this people who are called the people of Nephi except they shall repent, when they shall see all these signs and wonders which shall be showed unto them; for behold, they have been a chosen people of the Lord; yea, the people of Nephi hath he loved, and also hath he chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them.

Because God loves us, he does all he can short of taking away our agency to get us to repent and come to him. Ideally he sends us specific correction through personal revelation from the Holy Ghost.  To get us to the point where we can hear his voice through the Spirit, he may send general correction through his servants the prophets. When we don't listen to the prophets, he may send us correction through personal and general trials and afflictions. As I have said many times, not every trial is the result of sin, but unrepented sins will surely bring affliction of one kind or another. As I have also said before, afflictions are not punishments. They may be tests, opportunities to grow, or wake-up calls, but God is generally not in the punishment business. Eternal justice will deliver punishment. God's whole work is to try to save us from justice, if we will let him.

Helaman 14:30

And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

We can earn our punishment, but we cannot earn our redemption. Redemption comes as a gift for which we qualify through repentance. Justice, on the other hand, will come upon us if God does nothing to stop it. We choose justice or mercy. Mercy is the result of Christ's atonement, which we must choose to accept. If we do not choose mercy, we get justice by default.

Helaman 13:38

But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.

Christ offers the grace of his atonement to all, but he does not offer it forever. It is free, but it is not without terms and conditions. A condition of redemption is that we must repent before it is too late. Only God knows the statute of limitations on repentance for each of us. We must repent before we find ourselves in the situation where a prophet tells us it is too late. If we repent continuously, we need not worry. But if we put off repentance when we know it is needed, we play a very dangerous game, a game with eternal consequences.