Why Would He Want Us Back?

Jesus Christ will never break up with his people. Yet he will allow them to break up with him. That's allowing them their agency. He knows they won’t find a better Cause so if they do choose to go away from him, they will bring greater adversity into their lives in the long run. It will only be a matter of time experiencing relationships with other Causes before they come back. For some people it takes more time and experience than others.

“And my people are bent to backsliding from me” ~Hosea 11:7

“Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” ~Jeremiah 8:5

“Yea, for thus saith the Lord: Have I put thee away, or have I cast thee off forever? For thus saith the Lord: Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? To whom have I put thee away, or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Yea, to whom have I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” ~2 Nephi 7:1

“For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” ~2 Nephi 15:25

“Yea, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God…” ~Mosiah 27:31

It's Like a Marriage
In the scriptures the relationship between Jesus Christ and his people is sometimes compared to a marriage. Jesus Christ is the husband and the house of Israel (his people) his wife.  Therefore the “breaking up” metaphor.

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son” ~Matthew 22:2

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.” ~Matthew 25:1

Why Would He Want Us Back?
The Savior has made a covenant with his people that he will never give up on them and he will always allow them to repent—to come back and reestablish the relationship. You would think that he would be repulsed by people who basically go out and cheat on him. The house of Israel ends up “playing the harlot” on many occasions throughout history. Why then would he even want her back? Most men would say, “Good riddance.” Most men wouldn’t stand for such unfaithfulness in their wife.

“The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.” ~Jeremiah 3:6

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” ~Hosea 14:4

“Nevertheless, for my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off. For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, yea, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called, for I am he; I am the first, and I am also the last.” ~1 Nephi 20:9-12

The Trial of Our Faith
Even though the relationship between us and Jesus Christ is like a marriage, it is not exactly like a husband and wife who physically see and interact with each other everyday. The relationship is based on Faith. We don’t see him right here in front of us. We don’t have the blessing of his continuous physical presence. Most of us need to rely on accounts of him recorded in the scriptures. We see what kind of husband he is through the recorded interactions between him and his people throughout history. Others have seen him. Those who knew him when he was physically on the earth are vital witnesses to us of who he was and still is. Those who have seen him in vision are equally vital witnesses.

But most of us who are striving to develop a relationship with him need to rely on his spiritual presence. That is, we need to incrementally come to know who he is spiritually, not what he looks like physically. We do this by becoming more aware of when he is speaking to us. We need to become familiar with his voice and learn how it feels when he is spiritually near us. It’s a lot like the Hot and Cold game many of us have played in Primary. When we come to identify his spiritual presence, we are required to fix our Faith on it, depend upon it, trust in it, and never doubt.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” ~Proverbs 3:5-6

“…and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” ~Matthew 1:23

Listen: “Emmanuel” by Amy Grant

Part of the reason I think he puts up with our “cheating” and still wants us back is that he understands that we’re just figuring out what it means to belong to him. We’re not sure who he really is and what our covenant relationship with him means. We don’t completely understand that this spiritual relationship is as powerful as it is. We don’t have a full knowledge of Him and his Causehood as compared to the physical and temporal Causehood of others. And usually when we doubt, it seems like we’re just doubting ourselves, our own heart, and not Him. It’s all so tricky. And the presence of Satan and his minions make it even worse. We just need time to work it all out. How many amazingly valuable people in history have turned their lives completely around given time and experience with adversity? Alma, the elder.  Alma, the younger.  Sons of Mosiah.  Amulek.  Zeezrom. Paul. Peter. Probably all of Jesus' disciples. These kinds of people are actually my favorite kinds of people.

What is Heaven Anyway?
What are we imagining heaven to be? I know for me, I could be in the most luxurious, exotic paradise that the world has to offer, pampered by spa treatments, warm beaches with sparkling turquoise water, and an Izzy on the rocks within arm’s reach but if I’m not with someone I totally admire and empathize with and vice versa, I am far from being satisfied. That kind of “paradise” doesn’t even come close to my heaven. But if I am in my house, washing a pile of dishes, and I’m having a spiritual conversation with my Savior, and he’s teaching me about something I never even fathomed before, which is causing my heart to swell in waves of unspeakable Joy, because it’s helping me resolve some conflict that has been eating me alive, I am completely and utterly satisfied. That is where heaven is at for me.

Listen:  “Paradise” by Coldplay
AND

The spiritual presence of the Lord and his people is where heaven is at. It is Joy. It is the eternal reward that happens right now when we are keeping His commandments or trying to with all our hearts. This is about living with a Husband who never will cheat on us AND being protected from those who do.

Listen:  “Afterlife” by Switchfoot

The Power of His Presence
During Jesus’ life on earth, when he told people that their sins were forgiven, he was basically saying, “You can come back into my spiritual presence with the non-cheaters (our covenant relationship). Even though you have to deal with cheaters out there in your physical environment, you have this spiritual world of non-cheaters that you can rely on.”  The Pharisees said, “Who can forgive sin, but God alone?” They were all offended, saying he was usurping God’s authority, but more importantly their own authority. They went around telling people who could be in their synagogues and who couldn’t (blind man from birth). They made the church their church instead of God’s church. 

What Christ was saying when he forgave their sins was that they could once again be in His spiritual synagogue, His spiritual church, kingdom, and presence.  So if we're willing to repent, get back on track, and stop trying to cheat, then he wants us back. We are valuable assets to his kingdom. And he and his kingdom are valuable assets to us.

“Yet Jesus and His disciples, with no touch of scorn or exclusiveness, sat down with [the outcasts of society] at the feast…A charity so liberal caused deep dissatisfaction, on two grounds, to two powerful bodies—the Pharisees and the disciples of John. To the former, mainly because this contact with men of careless and evil lives violated all the traditions of their haughty scrupulosity; to the latter, because this ready acceptance of invitations to scenes of feasting seemed to discountenance the necessity for their half-Essenian asceticism.” ~Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ (pg 270)

“Our Lord’s words were constantly a new revelation for all who heard them, and if we may judge from many little indications in the Gospels, they seem often to have been followed, in the early days of His ministry, by a shock of surprised silence…It was only in their secret thoughts that they silently mused and questioned, ‘Who is this, who forgiveth sins also?’ Jesus knew their inward hesitations…He gently sent away the woman who had been a sinner with the kind words, ‘Thy faith hath saved thee: go into peace.’ And to peace beyond all doubt she went, even to the peace of God which passeth all understanding, to the peace which Jesus gives, which is not as the world gives.” ~Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ (pg 240)

“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;” ~D&C 19:16-17