Let your hearts rejoice

2 Nephi 9:30-54

This is what I consider to be part 2 of this chapter of Jacob's sermon. The first part explains the atonement and the promises for the righteous and this part...well, this part explains the consequences for the sinner.

It's strange to me to think about this. I try to imagine what it would feel like to really and truly not believe or understand that there are eternal consequences for bad choices. There are plenty of people like that in the world today and obviously Jacob thought that there were plenty of people like that in his congregation. He was very specific. He mapped out specific sins -- murder, adultery, idol worship -- the basic big 10. But he mentioned them all the same.This part of the chapter feels to me as if he almost can't believe he has to even go there.

47 But behold, my brethren, is it expedient that I should awake you to an awful reality of these things? Would I harrow up your souls if your minds were pure? Would I be plain unto you according to the plainness of the truth if ye were freed from sin?
48 Behold, if ye were holy I would speak unto you of holiness; but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a teacher, it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin.

But, being the positive and hopeful man and wonderful teacher that he is, Jacob can't avoid the other side of the coin -- the consequences of righteousness.

This is another concept that is more foreign to me than it should be. When I hear the word 'justice' I think of it as it applies to those being judged in a way that will have a negative outcome. Justice was served. So and so was punished. It's the same when I think of justice as it applies to the Gospel. But tonight, I thought of the other side of it. When justice is served to the righteous, as it will be, the righteous will receive their own set of consequences. Wonderful, glorious, unimaginable consequences.

46 Prepare your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the righteous, even the day of judgment...

We dwell so often on the consequences of sin. How often to we stop to talk about what the consequences are if we're as good as we can be? Wow. Not often. We lump 'the righteous' into a blob when we talk about the millennium or the second coming and I suspect, in our own heads, a lot of us may not count ourselves as a part of that blob. This is a tactic of the adversary. He would have us believe that "righteousness" is a vague, abstract state of being that we hope to attain, and that none of us could POSSIBLY be there now. Right?

Wrong. I love this verse:

41 O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; ...

The path is narrow and has a specific entrance (being baptized by one who has proper authority), but the path is there. It's as if he is telling us "Look! You're STANDING on it! Just walk!" I think I need to be slower to judge myself so harshly, or to think of myself as outside the blob. You're in the blob. I'm in the blob!! And Jacob, of course, tells us how to stay there.

52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day; and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.
53 And behold how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescensions unto the children of men...

Or, in other words "Pray always. Talk to Heavenly Father. Be happy. He will keep his promises."