Jacob 6:5-6 -- On Mercy, Death, and Hearts

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.
Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die?"
Jacob 6:5-6


I like this reminder/encouragement. In asking "why will ye die" it reminds us that any permanent sort of death is a choice, since Christ overcame death and sin. Physical death is temporary for everyone... we will all be resurrected because of his great gift, but an even better gift is ours to accept or reject, and that is the overcoming of spiritual death.
Christ paid the price for our sins so that, in his mercy, we don't recieve a full dose of restoration/karma for all the things that we repent of. We also don't lose the capacity to return to God immediately upon sinning... that decision is delayed until resurrection and judgement, giving us the time and the space that we need to change and learn as well as we can to overcome our own flaws. As God tells us in D&C 82:27 though, judgement will eventually catch up with us if we don't repent: "And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God."

Our judgement will be as merciful as Christ can make it, but mercy cannot rob justice (Alma 42:25), which for us basically means that we can't just do whatever we want and expect Christ to change us into good beings that we never chose to be. We are given agency and this life is our chance to choose to be whoever we want to be. At the judgement day that choice will have become permanent, and whatever we have chosen will return to us... or really just basically who we have become (including hard hearts if that is what we choose) will be formalized as our choice of what kind of afterlife we want.

So, today, let's not harden our hearts. Instead, let's soften them and be humble and willing to repent and change and listen to God's advice... let's begin now to live the way that we want to be always, before we harden our hearts and our selves into someone we don't want to be, and don't have the will anymore to change.