I saw this quote from Elder Holland on a friend's Facebook feed today:
"...however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.
"Whether you are not yet of our faith or were with us once and have not remained, there is nothing in either case that you have done that cannot be undone," (April, 2012 Conference).
Then I remembered the scripture in Alma 39 where Alma tells his son about the "unpardonable sin." For a brief moment those ideas couldn't sit together in my head. After all, how can you commit an sin that cannot be forgiven and yet there is nothing the Lord cannot help us overcome?
As I thought, it struck me that the Lord uses the word "infinite" with great deliberateness to describe his atonement. He calls us to "repentance" with equal consideration. Bear with me a moment as I use some higher math to lay out my thoughts.
Most people I know are able to work through the concepts of order and arithmetic: bigger, smaller, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. They make sense and are easily visible in the world and in our lives. In higher math things become difficult, but not impossible - just more complicated symbols and shortcuts to explain what still boils down to basic arithmetic on grander scales.
But then there is the concept of infinity. It makes very little sense because we can't truly measure it. We can't apply the standard methods of arithmetic to fully analyze it (check out this video for an opportunity to boggle your mind: The Infinite Hotel Paradox). The importance of infinity is there is no number in the universe bigger than infinity because infinity goes on forever. It's foundation rests on the fact that the kindergarten exercise of counting can be continued without end - you just keep going.
This key idea of never ending makes both the earlier thoughts on sin and forgiveness possible - because they rely on two infinite motions in opposite directions. Christ's forgiveness has an infinite reach. He will never stop reaching out to help us and bring us home. If we change course (repent) by turning away from our sinful path and back towards God, the Lord has promised "worlds without end." The condition of repentance is our willful submission to God rather than our own selfish and immoral ambitions.
The only way to escape God's loving mercy is to never stop turning away from Him. By continuing indefinitely to defy God we remain out of the conditions of repentance. At some point "every knee shall bend" before the Lord and acknowledge Him as Jesus the Christ. But that doesn't mean all will be forgiven. We have choice and can continue to turn away as Lucifer does - actively fighting against the Lord and his truth. However, if we chose at some point to cease our rebellious ways and turn again to the Lord we will be forgiven and find peace.
As Elder Holland stated, "It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."