14 Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born
again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the
kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that
ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God,
who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse
from all unrighteousness. 15 Yea, I say unto you
come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind
you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show
unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a
covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him
this day by going into the waters of baptism.
16 And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the
commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto
him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal
life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me.
Alma 7:14-16 (Emphasis mine)
Christ is coming to take upon him the sins of the
world. Through Him, we can return to the
presence of God someday. Alma(2) tells
us to do this, we “must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye
are not born again, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
There must be an outward sign of our commitment. We must “be baptized unto repentance, that ye
may be washed from your sin.” This is
done so that we may “have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of
the world.”
Noel Reynolds discusses the importance of Alma(2)’s
teachings.
“The ideas of ‘turning’ and ‘coming unto me’ point to the covenantal
aspect of repentance as well. Not only must the repentant sinner cease sinning,
he must make a positive commitment to the Savior to keep his commandments, to
walk the straight and narrow path, as he comes unto Christ. This
covenant to remember Christ always, to take the name of Christ upon himself,
and to keep all of Christ's commandments, is part of this process of turning
and coming-and therefore a crucial element of repentance. This is the covenant that is
witnessed to God and all the world by the convert through the baptism of water.
Alma articulates this plainly to the Nephites in Gideon when he invites them to
‘lay aside every sin’ and ‘show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of
your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and
witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism’ (Alma 7:15;
cf. 2 Nephi 31:7, 13—14). It is in this simple sense that those who
repent "are the covenant people of the Lord" (2 Nephi 30:2)…
“In his later preaching, Alma would call upon others to ‘repent
and be born again’ (Alma 5:49) and be baptized that they ‘may be washed
from [their] sins’ (Alma 7:14). When taken by itself, this passage has
sometimes been read to indicate that baptism of water washes away sins, but the
context of the language of spiritual rebirth indicates clearly that it is the
Spirit or Holy Ghost that brings the remission of sins, a teaching consistent
with those of Jesus and Nephi. In this same context, Alma also teaches
that no man can be saved ‘except his garments are washed white … purified … cleansed
from all stain, through the blood’ of the prophesied Redeemer (Alma 5:21).” [1]
(Emphasis mine)
17 And now my beloved brethren, do you believe these
things? Behold, I say unto you, yea, I
know that ye believe them; and the way that I know that ye believe them is by
the manifestation of the Spirit which is in me. And now because your faith is strong
concerning that, yea, concerning the things which I have spoken, great is my
joy. 18 For as I
said unto you from the beginning, that I had much desire that ye were not in the
state of dilemma like your brethren, even so I have found that my desires have
been gratified.
19 For I perceive that ye are in the paths of
righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the kingdom of
God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths straight. 20 I perceive that it has
been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he
cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath
said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left,
or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is
one eternal round.
Alma 7:17-20 (Emphasis mine)
Alma(2) asks them if they believe his teachings? He answers the question that he knows they do
though “the manifestation of the Spirit which is in me.” He hoped they were in a state of
righteousness, unlike the people in Zarahemla.
His hopes were fulfilled.
He tells them they are on “the path which leads to the
kingdom of God.” God can only walk the
straight path. “[H]e cannot walk in
crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said.”
“Straight” is frequently used to describe paths in the Book
of Mormon.
“Wherever in the Book of Mormon there is an adjective other than the
word narrow defining a path or course … it seems always to be straight, never crooked. Nephi prayed for his
path to be ‘straight’ (2 Nephi 4:33). Jacob spoke of the way of man as being a ‘straight
course’ (2 Nephi 9:41). Alma the Younger spoke to his son Helaman of a ‘straight
course to eternal bliss’ (Alma 37:44), and he taught the people of Gideon that
Christ ‘cannot walk in crooked paths’ (Alma 7:20). Hence straight is an
important Book of Mormon concept in connection with the terms way, path,
and course. It is also biblical. In Luke 9:62 one finds the
analogy of the farmer's ideal of plowing in a straight line, which one can do
only by fixing his eye on the goal ahead. Going further back, we note that the
children of Israel were commanded, as mentioned earlier, to walk a straight
path (see Deuteronomy 5:32—33).” [2]
(Emphasis mine)
[1] The True Points of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds, Provo, Utah:
Maxwell Institute, accessed March 20, 2012.
[2] Straight
(Not Strait) and Narrow, John S. Welch, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed March 21, 2012.
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