Christ died not to save indiscriminately but to offer repentance. We rely “wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save”¹⁹ in the process of repentance, but acting to repent is a self-willed change. So by making repentance a condition for receiving the gift of grace, God enables us to retain responsibility for ourselves. Repentance respects and sustains our moral agency: “And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.”²⁰ – D. Todd Christofferson, “Free Forever, To Act For Themselves,” Ensign (CR) November 2014