The Second Article of Faith

"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."

The Second Article of Faith is short and to the point. It simply states that we do not have to worry about the transgression that Adam committed, but we do have to worry about being punished for our own. We cannot escape our own punishment. There is no way around that. But what is this punishment that is mentioned? What exactly is sin? We must be completely aware of what these things are in order to understand.

In James 4:17 we read "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Sin is not doing good. Sin is willful disobedience to God's commandments. According to the Doctrine and Covenants we know that "God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance". God will not tolerate sin. Sin makes us dirty in a spiritual sense. If we are not clean we cannot be in the presence of God. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't want to stand in God's presence if I was not clean! We read in the scriptures about wanting to hide under rocks and mountains rather than stand unclean in God's presence. I completely understand that thought process.

The Lord said in Exodus "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." Being a teacher I often have students that move during the middle of the school year. Once they are gone I cross their names out of my grade book. When I do this I take a big fat tipped sharpie and cross out their name so that I can no longer read it, and I continue across the page, crossing out all of the grades they received while in my class. I imagine this happening with the Lord's book of us. When we sin and don't repent the Lord crosses our names out so that he can no longer read them. When a name is blotted out that person is no longer numbered among the people of God, the name is no longer on the records of the church - that person, by their own selfish and foolish decisions has cut themself off from the Lord. No one has made them do it except for themself. Even though that person has removed the Lord from their life, the Lord has not removed them from his love.

However, if we repent, its our sins that are blotted out. The sharpie crosses them out while our name remains readable. We are always known by the Lord. He will never forsake us, even when we have done the most horrible things. It doesn't matter if we have turned our backs on family members or indulged in addictions that pollute both the mind and the body - the Lord still knows us intimately. He knows our thoughts and our intentions. He is always looking out for us.

Remember, there are two types of sins - sins of ommission and sins of commission. Omission sins are those in which we fail do something we've been commanded to do by the Lord, such as paying tithing. When are asked to do something at work and we don't do it, we can be fired. It's the same concept. The Lord has given us a TO DO list. When we don't follow that list we are committing sins of omission.

The Lord has also given us a DON'T DO list. When we ignore that list and take part in doing those things we are then committing our sins of commission. The 10 commandments have a few "Thou shalt not" things to follow. Thou shalt not kill. Good advice, even if you don't follow the teachings of the Gospel. All of these things may seem blaringly obvious to many people, but to others - it just is confusing.

I always tell my kids that if they do what I or my wife tell them to do they will never go wrong. The same is true with the Lord. If we do whatever he asks to do or not do, we will never go wrong. Will we ever get hurt? Sure! Will we ever suffer? Of course! By doing whatever the Lord asks us to do will life be easier? NO! This may not seem like good reasoning to follow the Lord's commandments and abstain from sin, but look at the life of the prophet Joseph Smith.

One of the great things about this article of faith is that it also enforces the idea of free agency that we have all been given. Men will punished for their own sins. No matter what another person does I cannot be punished for their wrongs. We are each given our own agency to do as we please. What it all really boils down to is this - do we want to sin and be punished for it, or avoid the punishment and just abstain from sin? The choice is yours to make.