After carefully describing the dimensions of the dilemma, Alma declares the glorious truth that the solution is provided. There “is a law given,… a punishment affixed,” and “a repentance granted.” Thus, there is mercy. There is also justice because the law (which requires punishment) exists. Alma ties together this logical sequence by declaring it integral to Yahweh’s nature. Were it untrue, then “God would cease to be God,” an absurdity on its face. Alma’s argument, constructed carefully for Corianton, not only shows the logic of Yahweh’s plan, but also its centrality in Yahweh’s very nature. If Corianton believes in Yahweh, he must therefore believe in this plan.
The point here, of course, is to continue to clarify Corianton’s understanding of punishment in a plan of happiness. The typical Nephite apostasy did not deny Yahweh, but rather the Atoning Messiah. Alma has shown that Corianton’s belief in Yahweh requires him to accept not only the Atoning Messiah but also the required place of punishment for breaching Yahweh’s laws.
Alma has explained the necessary balance between the two great principles of justice and mercy. What he does not clearly delineate is why both must be there. It is one thing to say that there can be no mercy if there is no law, but we must understand that, even in the face of mercy, the law is not abrogated. Mercy never destroys the law, and mercy never obviates the necessity of obeying the law. Mercy only ameliorates the consequences of disobedience when we activate it by repenting.
To phrase this concept in greatest contrast, we have a commandment to “be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Of course, we fall short of obedience to that ultimate commandment. However, the fact that we do not reach the goal in no wise removes the goal. Mercy never says it will change the goal to “be ye therefore as perfect as you possibly can.”
If mercy doesn’t change the law, and if the law is still in effect, then what does mercy do? Mercy deals with the punishment that Alma has been talking about. Is that punishment a lake of fire and brimstone? Only as a symbol. The punishment for disobeying a law of God is that it distances us from him. Without the atonement, we would be in Alma’s fictional gap between the expulsion from the garden and the activation of the atonement. It is a hopeless state that we cannot change.
Mercy provides the ability to repent. Because repentance is necessitated by our sin, we sometimes view it negatively, as though repentance itself is a punishment. We think, “I sinned; therefore, I must go through the sometimes painful process of repentance.” True, repentance frequently involves emotional anguish, which is painful, and always involves change, which is also difficult. We might assume that repentance, anguish, and the struggle to change are the punishment. They are not. They are the healing, not the wound. When our physical body is wounded, we recognize that the wound caused pain, and that the pain continues during the healing process. Some elements of the healing (the cast that immobilizes a broken bone, for instance) are sometimes painful in themselves. That is the “pain” attached to repentance.
Repentance is one of the greatest of all miracles. Repentance is the principle that allows change. Any time we align our path more closely with God’s way, we are repenting. Repentance is the most amazing of positive influences, and no progress is ever made without it. Even taking the first, wavering step repents of standing still. (See “Excursus: The Principle of Repentance,” following 3 Nephi 18.)