The Weekly Parable

Innocence is a trait or condition that we typically associate with babies and very young children. Newborns have a distinct scent unlike anything else in the world that I’ve experienced. It wears off over time, so I call it the smell of innocence. Because don’t we (usually gradually) lose our innocence eventually?

What if someone told you that you could reclaim your innocence? Would you believe that person?

In one sense, innocence can mean naivete, but that’s not the definition I mean. I’m referring to innocence in the eyes of law—having committed no offense to said law. The sense meant by the saying “innocent until proven guilty.”

Benjamin, the ancient prophet and king, may have been thinking of this innocence when he taught that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, adults can become like children:

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).

Other words the scriptures use to describe this innocence are guiltless and blameless:

• “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
• “And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, … only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:21).
• “And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants” (Mosiah 4:26).
• “Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?” (Alma 5:27).
• “And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world” (3 Nephi 27:16).
• “And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end” (Mormon 7:7).

The Parable of the Brick Wall came together when I was thinking about how Jesus didn’t just pay the penalty of our sin; when we repent and He extends His mercy, He makes us as if the sin had never happened in the eyes of “the justice of the Father” (3 Nephi 27:17). He makes us new. 

It wasn’t enough for Lloyd, the owner of the shop whose wall was vandalized, to have the graffiti painted over or ground off. He wanted the wall restored to what it had been. That’s what our Redeemer intends for us—a restoration to innocence in the eyes of Father in Heaven. It’s possible because He has the power to make it come to pass.

This doesn’t mean we lose what spiritual progress we’ve gained since we were innocent and naive children. In a way, we can both have our cake and eat it too; we can become guiltless and clean through the merits and mercy of Christ while continuing to grow in knowledge, faith, charity, and other Christlike attributes. This is His plan and His desire.

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