Mercy's Claim

Although we sin because of influences that reside in our subconscious minds, we are still responsible to make things right. We are agents to ourselves, (see Moses 6:56), which is somewhat of an odd phrase. An agent is someone who represents someone else and acts on their behalf. To be an agent to yourself, or to act on behalf of yourself, seems to be a strange idea, unless you consider the part of you that is the agent to be your conscious self and that your conscious self acts as an agent on behalf of your entire being, conscious (which is 5% of you) and subconscious (which is 95% of you). The conscious part of us is responsible for what happens in the subconscious. When subconscious forces push us to sin or to do evil, the conscious part of us may make efforts to repair the evil that has been done. This process is called repentance and first requires faith in Christ, because it is a joint effort between us and Christ to heal and repair the sin that we commit. The great prophet-teacher Amulek explained how this works:

14) And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.

15) And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

16) And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption. (Alma 34:14-16)

Again, this drama of evil desires, justice, remorse of conscience, faith, repentance, mercy, and peace of conscience is all internal. The forces of justice and mercy already exist within us because the Spirit “is given to abide in you … and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment” (Moses 6:61). The Nephites who listened to and responded to King Benjamin’s sermon give us a good example of this drama playing out:

1) And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

2) And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men. 

[The justice of God had caused them to feel some sort of remorse of conscience, which they described as “the fear of the Lord” and also viewing “themselves in their own carnal state”; they didn’t want to feel that way, so they took action so that Christ could help make them feel good again] 

3) And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them. 

[Note that they asked for the atoning blood of Christ to be applied to them and then it was applied by means of the Spirit of the Lord]

The scriptures hint at reciprocity of action between the penitent soul and mercy. On one hand, “mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement” (Alma 42:23), as if mercy actively reaches out to claim the penitent. On the other hand “whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins” (Alma 12:34), as if the penitent must actively reach out to claim mercy. In a revelation to Joseph Smith, the Lord talked about himself as “Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I Am, whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins” (D&C 29:1). Because the Lord identified mercy with his arm, this imagery of the Lord reaching out to us with his arm of mercy and us reaching out to grab hold and claim that mercy is apt. This reciprocity of action where the Lord offers a gift and we actively receive it is explained in this verse from the Doctrine and Covenants – “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.” (D&C 88:33). Moroni explained it this way – “And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift” (Moroni 10:30). The symbolism of this reciprocity of action is captured when we take the sacrament. The Deacon extends his arm holding the tray of bread or water as if he was Christ extending his arm of mercy and then we reach out with our own hand to lay hold on the gift offered.

The Cause of the Children of Men

As explained in a previous post, Christ pleads our cause, and our cause is both our motive for not keeping the law and the ensuing legal dispute that the justice of God brings against us. Let us look at our cause as being our motive for our actions.

The scriptures talk about the mind and the heart, which are our mental and emotional cognition and processes. The mind is our consciousness, or conscious mind, and the heart is our subconscious. Nephi understood that we have a subconscious part of our psyche and he spoke to his own subconscious, calling it by the names of ‘soul’ and ‘heart’, with his conscious mind, as if he were trying to program his subconscious mind – “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.” (2 Nephi 4:28). Nephi may have learned this method of speaking to the subconscious from the Psalms. A few of the Psalms speak to the subconscious, such as this one – “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1).

We can also think of the conscious mind as our will power. Psychologists and other scientists have found that the subconscious mind controls between 85 and 99 percent of our behavior, while the conscious mind or our will power only controls the remaining 1 to 15 percent. This is what one scientist has said about the will power of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind:

“In contrast to the power of the conscious mind, the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful an information processor. Also, as neuroscientists emphasize, the conscious mind provides 5% or less of the cognitive activity during the day. Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of our behavior is directly derived from the subconscious. Hence the use of the word ‘power’ in the concept of will power, it takes significant effort for the conscious mind to keep tabs on the subconscious behavior. Positive thinking is primarily effective if the subconscious supports the conscious intention.” (Mind over Genes: The New Biology, by Bruce Lipton)

 What this means is that our cause, or our motives for action, are perhaps 95% subconscious. We may not even consciously understand all of the reasons for our behavior, including our sinful behavior. This is what Emeritus Seventy Elder Enzio Busche said about this concept:

 

“This war [for righteousness and truth] is a war that has to be fought by all of Heavenly Father’s children, whether they know about it or not. But without a keen knowledge of the plan of salvation, and without the influence of the divine Light of Christ to bring us awareness, this war is being fought subconsciously, and therefore its battlefronts are not even known to us, and we have no chance to win. Wars in the inner self that are fought subconsciously, with unknown battlefronts, lead to defeats which also hurt us subconsciously. These defeats are reflected in our conscious life as expressions of misery, such as a lack of self-confidence, lack of happiness and joy, lack of faith and testimony, or as overreactions of our subconscious self, which we see then as pride, arrogance, or in other forms of misbehavior—even as acts of cruelty and indecency.” (Truth is the Issue, General Conference 1993 - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/10/truth-is-the-issue?lang=eng)

Elder Busche also said that “without Christ, this war within us is lost.” Christ works with our subconscious and conscious minds, or with our hearts and minds. He knows everything about our subconscious selves, much of which we don’t even understand ourselves. He is the advocate of our conscious motives and our subconscious motives. The subconscious heart is the battleground where the devil often fights against us and God “and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.” (Moroni 7:12). Jesus told the Nephites during his post-resurrection visit to them that the devil “stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger” (3 Nephi 11:29).

Our subconscious hearts are not negatively affected solely by the devil. We are told about “the pride of your hearts” (Mormon 8:36), the “fears in your hearts” (D&C 67:3), and advised to “let not thine heart envy” (Proverbs 23:17). Pride, envy, fear and anger can cause our heart to not be “right in the sight of God” (Acts 8:21). These negative emotions and attitudes, along with “the influence from the other part of me, ‘the flesh,’ with its selfish desires and foolishness”, which are contrary to “the original ‘real me,’ the child of God, in its innocence and potential”, (Truth is the Issue) can motivate and cause us to commit sin.

In addition to subconscious negative emotions and attitudes and the subconscious desires of the body, our hearts can be detrimentally affected by the poor lifestyle choices of our ancestors – “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation” (Numbers 14:18). The devil also seeks to negatively influence entire cultures at the national or societal level – “for Satan is abroad in the land, and he goeth forth deceiving the nations” (D&C 52:14). He also seeks to negatively influence cultures at the family level, which gives him power to deceive us – “And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.” (D&C 93:39). Our societal and family cultures have a direct impact on our subconscious, as well as conscious, motives for our behavior. The devil and his servants may also get into our hearts, causing all kinds of damage. Aaron, one of King Mosiah’s sons who went on a mission to convert the Lamanites to the Lord, taught King Lamoni’s father the gospel. His response to hearing the gospel was to ask “what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day?” (Alma 22:15). The old king of the Lamanites recognized that he had a wicked spirit or devil dwelling in his breast or subconscious mind and wanted it removed. Part of Christ’s mission is to “cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.” (Mosiah 3:6).

Christ’s saving knowledge includes knowledge about all of these negative influences on our subconscious motives. To summarize, these detrimental subconscious influences, or desires to do evil within our hearts, include persistent negative emotions and attitudes, the desires of the flesh, ancestral curses, mainstream culture, and evil spirits. These forces and desires are not a product of the true, divine nature of our spirits. The apostle Paul explained the inner struggle between his innate, good nature and the forces of sin this way – “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Romans 7:17). (Note that he describes sin as if it were an intelligent entity or force that causes wrong action as opposed to the wrong action itself.) The intelligent force of sin gets into us early in life – “And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.” (Moses 6:55). These evil influences are also described as the evil treasure of our hearts – “and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil” (Luke 6:45).

Not every subconscious influence on our behavior is negative, detrimental, or evil. “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good” (Luke 6:45). It is possible to have a heart that is right before the Lord (see D&C 39:8). A heart that has negative influences in it may be healed by the power of Christ, because he was anointed specifically to “to bind up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1) and to heal “all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). Christ defends us because the reasons that we commit sin are often subconscious and not a product of the true, divine nature of our spirits. Through a combination of his power and our faith and repentance, we may experience a mighty change in our hearts so that we have no more desire to do evil (see Mosiah 5:2). Remorse of conscience is removed and replaced with joy and “peace of conscience” (Mosiah 4:3).