God the Second: The Redeemer
09/05
“Everlasting covenant was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham’s record, are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the witness or Testator.” (Joseph Smith (TPJS, pg. 190)
(D&C 130:22; Abraham 3; A of F#1)
01 – “Jesus Christ is the central figure in the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that ‘the fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.’ (TPJS, pg. 121). Latter-day Saints believe that complete salvation is possible only through the life, death, resurrection, doctrines, and ordinances of Jesus Christ and in no other way.” (Daniel H. Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg. 724)
– Abraham 3:1-19 – NOTES –
Stars = Spirits (vs. 18-19) / Kolob represents Christ / Kokaubeam = Mankind
A. Christ is the nearest to God. (vs. 2) D&C 76:13, 25, 39
B. Christ has the name of God. (vs. 3) Exodus 3:12-15
C. Christ is the one to govern all. (vs. 3) Isaiah 9:6-7
D. Christ is in the likeness of God. (vs. 4) Abraham 3:24
E. Christ is the greatest of all. (vs. 16) D&C 19:18
F. Christ is the first creation of God. (Fac. 2:1) D&C 93:21
G. Christ is the holder of the keys of power. (Fac. 2:2) D&C 132:45
H. Christ is the light of all others. (Fac. 2:5) D&C 88:7-13
(D&C 78:20; D&C 95:17;)
02 – “Names applied to our Lord are numerous. Each has a differing shade of meaning and teaches some special thing relative to him and his work. But each refers to the same individual. Old Testament prophets refer to him as the Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Messiah, God of Israel, Jehovah, and so forth, all being names that identify the Only Begotten of the Father.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 306)
03 – “SON AHMAN. In two revelations to Joseph Smith (D&C 78:20;D&C 95:17), Jesus Christ referred to himself as ‘the Son Ahman,’ allowing the possibility that ‘Ahman’ may be a word meaning God, and one of the names of the Father. The name also appears in a compound place name, Adam-ondi-Ahman (D&C 116:1; D&C 117:8, 11). (Daniel Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg. 551)
04 - – “The first question is, ‘What is the name of God in the pure language?’ The answer says ‘Ahman.’ ‘What is the name of the Son of God?’ Answer, ‘Son Ahman – the greatest of all the parts of God excepting Ahman.’ ‘What is the name of men?’ ‘Sons Ahman,’ is the answer. ‘What is the name of angels in the pure language?’ ‘Anglo-man.’” (Orson Pratt, JD, 2: 342-343)
– Examples/Significance –
I Am - Exodus 3:12-15
The Way - John 14:6; 1 Nephi 8:20; 1 Nephi 12:17; D&C 3:1-2
The
Tree of Life - 1 Nephi 8:10-12; 1 Nephi 11:2-23;
The First and the Last - Psalms 119; John 14:6; D&C 93:24
(Isaiah 9:6; Mosiah 7:27; Mosiah 15:1-7; 3 Nephi 1:4; Ether 4:12; Mormon 9:12)
05 – “In 1916, the duly constituted heads of the earthly Church, who have the ultimate responsibility, under Deity, to interpret and promulgate the mind and will of the Lord to mortals, issued a document entitled The Father and The Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve. Therein are set forth, among other things, three distinct senses in which Christ is also known as the Father. These are:
1. He is the Father as Creator, the Father of the heavens and the earth.
2. He is the Father of those who abide in his gospel, the Father of all those who take upon themselves his name and are adopted into his family.
3. He is the Father by divine investiture of authority, meaning that the Father-Elohim has placed his name upon the Son, has given him his own power and authority, and has authorized him to speak in the first person as though he were the original or primal Father.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 63)
(John 5:30; John 17:3)
06 – “In one sense, it creates a slight distortion to focus on one member of the Godhead and discuss his characteristics in isolation from those of the other two, for Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in mind, one in purpose, and one in character. Most of what can be said of the Father is also true of the Son and vice versa.” (Daniel Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg. 548)
07 – “After generations of prophets had tried to teach the family of man the will and way of the Father, usually with little success, God in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.
“To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim, speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do, this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, November 2003, pg. 70-71)
08 – “He did nothing of himself. He wrought miracles and performed a good work on the earth; but of himself he did nothing. He said, ‘As I have seen my Father do, so do I. I came not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.’ We must come to the conclusion that the Son of God did not suggest, dictate, act, or produce any manifestation of his power, of his glory, or of his errand upon the earth, only as it came from the mind and will of his Father.” (Brigham Young, JD, 6:96)
09 – “Let us consider the gospels. They are the account of the life of the Lord. The gospels tell of him. He is the Son of God. God was, in Christ, manifesting to the world the nature and kind of being that he is. It is life eternal to know the Father and the Son and to become like them. We know the Father by coming to an understanding of the Son. The Son is the revealer of God. No man cometh unto the Father except by him or by his word. We want to know the Father and the Son, and the chief account is in the gospels.
“Would it surprise you if I said that there is more knowledge and doctrine about the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus in the four gospels than anywhere else in all the Standard Works?” (Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign, April 1975, pg. 70-71)
(John 4:24; John 10:30; John 17:3, 21-22; 1 Nephi 9:6; 2 Nephi 2:24; Mosiah 4:9; D&C 88:7-13; Moses 7:36)
10 – “The vital and dynamic message of Mormonism is that there is a personal God in the heavens. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He has not abated his power-he has not surrendered his sovereignty; he has not diluted his love; he changes not; and his plans never fail. We bear witness that his chief executive officer in the creation and direction of the affairs of this and other worlds is Jesus Christ the Lord, the Redeemer of the World, the Son of the Father.” (Hugh B. Brown, CR, October 1962, pg. 43)
11 – “God is the only supreme governor and independent being in whom all fullness and perfection dwell; who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient; without beginning of days or end of life; and that in him every good gift and every good principle dwell; and that he is the Father of lights; in him the principle of faith dwells independently, and he is the object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings center for life and salvation.” (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, 2:2)
12 – “[W]ithout the knowledge of all things, God would not be able to save any portion of his creatures; for it is by reason of the knowledge which he has of all things, from the beginning to the end, that enables him to give that understanding to his creatures by which they are made partakers of eternal life; and if it were not for the idea existing in the minds of men that God had all knowledge it would be impossible for them to exercise faith in him.
“Let the mind once reflect sincerely and candidly upon the ideas of the existence of the . . . attributes in the Deity, and it will be seen that, as far as his attributes are concerned, there is a sure foundation laid for the exercise of faith in him for life and salvation. For inasmuch as God possesses the attribute knowledge, he can make all things known to his saints necessary for their salvation;” (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, 4:11, 17)
13 – “Let it not be assumed, however, that the fact of God's foreknowledge as to what would be under any given conditions, is a determining cause that such must be. Omnipotent though He be, He permits much that is contrary to His will. We cannot believe that vice and crime, injustice, intolerance, and unrighteous domination of the weak by the strong, the oppression of the poor by the rich, exist by the will and determination of God. It is not His design or wish that even one soul be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ So also, it is not God's purpose to interfere with, far less to annul, the free agency of His children, even though those children prostitute their Divine birthright of freedom to the accomplishment of evil, and the condemnation of their souls.” (James E. Talmage, Improvement Era, September 1915, pg. 951)
14 – “There is no part of creation, however remote, into which God cannot penetrate; through the medium of the Spirit the Godhead is in direct communication with all things at all times. It has been said, therefore, that God is everywhere present; but this does not mean that the actual person of any one member of the Godhead can be physically present in more than one place at one time. The senses of each of the Trinity are of infinite power; His mind is of unlimited capacity; His powers of transferring Himself from place to place are infinite; plainly, however, His person cannot be in more than one place at any one time. Admitting the personality of God, we are compelled to accept the fact of His materiality; indeed, an ‘immaterial being,’ under which meaningless name some have sought to designate the condition of God, cannot exist, for the very expression is a contradiction in terms. If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of definite proportions and therefore of limited extension in space. It is impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than one space of such limits; and it is not surprising, therefore, to learn from the scriptures that He moves from place to place.” (James E. Talmage, AF, pg. 38-39)
15 - "The Holy Ghost as a personage of Spirit can no more be omnipresent in person than can the Father or the Son, but by his intelligence, his knowledge, his power and influence over and through the laws of nature, he is and can be omnipresent throughout all the works of God. Thus when it becomes necessary to speak to us, he is able to do so by acting through the other Spirit, that is, through the Light of Christ. (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:40)
(Matthew 3:16-17;Matthew 17:5;JST John 1:1-3, 18;3 Nephi 11:7;D&C76:22-24;D&C 93:15;JS-H 1:17)
16 – “All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses and all the prophets. He is the God of Israel, the Holy One of Israel; the one who led that nation out of Egyptian bondage, and who gave and fulfilled the law of Moses. The Father has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:27)
17 – “There is nothing clearer or plainer than this. We pray to the Father, not the Son; but according to the laws of intercession, advocacy, and mediation, our answers come from the Son. Reference to nearly every section in the Doctrine and Covenants bears this out. None, therefore, need to suppose, as is found in the prayer books of sectarianism, that it is proper to pray to either Christ or the Holy Ghost” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 335)
(Matthew 3:17;Matthew 17:5;2 Peter 1:17;1 Nephi 11:16-33;D&C93:15, 21;JS-H 1:17)
18 – “Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh, and which body died on the cross and was afterward taken up by the process of resurrection, and is now the immortalized tabernacle of the eternal spirit of our Lord and Savior.” (James R. Clark; Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund, The Father and The Son; A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve, Messages of the First Presidency, 5:23-34)
19 – “We believe absolutely that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, begotten of God, the first-born in the spirit and the only begotten in the flesh; that He is the Son of God just as much as you and I are the sons of our fathers.” (Heber J. Grant, Millennial Star, Jan. 5, 1922, pg. 2)
20 – “If Abraham reasoned thus-If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly; hence, if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 373)
21 – “The
22 – “One of the great questions that I have referred to that the world is concerned about, and is in confusion over, is as to whether or not his was a virgin birth, a birth wherein divine power interceded. Joseph Smith made it perfectly clear that Jesus Christ told the absolute truth, as did those who testify concerning him, the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherein he is declared to be the very Son of God. And if God the Eternal Father is not the real Father of Jesus Christ, then are we in confusion; then is he not in reality the Son of God. But we declare that he is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh.
“Mary told the story most beautifully when she said that an angel of the Lord came to her and told her that she had found favor in the sight of God, and had come to be worthy of the fulfilment of the promises heretofore made, to become the virgin mother of the Redeemer of the world. She afterwards, referring to the event, said: ‘God hath done wonderful things unto me.’ ‘And the Holy Ghost came upon her, is the story.’ ‘and she came into the presence of the highest.’ No man or woman can live in mortality and survive the presence of the Highest except by the sustaining power of the Holy Ghost. So it came upon her to prepare her for admittance into the divine presence, and the power of the Highest, who is the Father, was present, and overshadowed her, and the holy Child that was born of her was called the Son of God.
“Men who deny this, or who think that it degrades our Father, have no true conception of the sacredness of the most marvelous power with which God has endowed mortal men-the power of creation. Even though that power may be abused and may become a mere harp of pleasure to the wicked, nevertheless it is the most sacred and holy and divine function with which God has endowed man. Made holy, it is retained by the Father of us all, and in his exercise of that great and marvelous creative power and function, he did not debase himself, degrade himself, nor debauch his daughter. Thus Christ became the literal Son of a divine Father, and no one else was worthy to be his father.”(Melvin J. Ballard, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, pg. 166-67)
(D&C 29:36;D&C 76:25;D&C 88:115)
23 – “He, in the nearness of His relationship to the Father, seems to occupy a position that no other person occupies. He is spoken of as His well beloved Son, as the Only Begotten of the Father-does not this mean the only begotten after the flesh? If He was the first born and obedient to the laws of His Father, did He not inherit the position by right to be the representative of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world? And was it not His peculiar right and privilege as the firstborn, the legitimate heir of God, the Eternal Father, to step forth, accomplish and carry out the designs of His Heavenly Father pertaining to the redemption, salvation and exaltation of man? And being Himself without sin (which no other mortal was), He took the position of Savior and Redeemer, which by right belonged to Him as the first born. And does it not seem that in having a body specially prepared, and being the offspring of God, both in body and spirit, He stood preeminently in the position of the Son of God, or in the place of God, and was God, and was thus the fit and only personage capable of making an infinite atonement?” (John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, pg. 135-37)
(Moses 1:32-35; D&C76:22-24)
24 – “But when it came to placing man on earth, there was a change in Creators. That is, the Father himself became personally involved. All things were created by the Son, using the power delegated by the Father, except man. In the spirit and again in the flesh, man was created by the Father. There was no delegation of authority where the crowning creature of creation was concerned.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 62)
25 – “Jesus Christ is the Creator and Redeemer. He is the Lord of the whole universe. Except for his mortal ministry, accomplished on this earth, his service and relationship to other worlds and their inhabitants are the same as his service and relationship to this earth and its inhabitants.” (Marion G. Romney, Improvement Era, November 1968, pg. 46, 48)
(Moses 4:21; Moses 5:5-8; Jacob 7:11; Mosiah 13:33; Alma 34:5-15; Helaman 8:13-22)
26 – “The first and most central theme of the Book of Mormon is that Jesus is the promised Messiah, our Lord and Redeemer.” (Ezra Taft Benson, TETB, pg. 49)
27 – “As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ we proclaim that He truly is the Savior of all [and] … indeed the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Promised Messiah. No message is more significant than the one He brought. No event is of greater importance than His atoning sacrifice and subsequent resurrection. And no mortal tongue can express sufficient thanks for all that Jesus has done for us.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1993, pg. 93)
(Ether 3:15-16; D&C 77:2; D&C 131:7-8)
28 – “The true God exists both in time and in space,
and has as much relation to them as man or any other being. He has extension,
and form, and dimensions, as well as man. He occupies space; has a body, parts,
and passions; can go from place to place-can eat, drink, and talk, as well as
man. Man resembles him in the features and form of his body, and he does not
differ materially in size. When he has been seen among men, he has been
pronounced, even by the wicked, as one of their own species. So much did he
look like man, that some supposed him to be the carpenter's son. Like man, he
had a Father; and he was ‘the express image of the person of the Father.’ The
two persons were as much alike in form, in size, and in every other respect as
fathers and sons are of the human race; indeed, the human race are his
offspring, made in his likeness and image . . . after the image of his person.”
(Orson Pratt, The
29 – “The spirit of man consists of an organization, or embodiment of the elements of spiritual matter, in the likeness and after the pattern of the fleshly tabernacle. It possesses, in fact, all the organs and parts exactly corresponding to the outward tabernacle.” (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, pg. 125 )
(Matthew 16:24; Luke 18:22; John 21:22; 2 Nephi 31:5-16)
30 – “The Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation (Matthew 5:13-14) clarifies that coming unto Christ is the only way back to the presence of the Father. That is why the Savior’s invitations to us include: ‘Come, follow me’ (Luke 18:22), ‘Learn of me’ (Matt. 11:29), ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6), ‘I have set an example for you’ (3 Ne. 18:16), and ‘Be … even as I am.’” (3 Ne. 27:27). (W. Jeffrey Marsh, Ensign, January 1999, pg. 16)
31 – “If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 308)
(Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:9; 3 Nephi 12:48)
32 – “We are accustomed to saying that the Atonement
took place in
(Matthew 17:1; 1 Nephi 11:16-33; Mosiah 7:26-28)
33 – “The only begotten Son of God in this world came in it primarily to die. He is spoken of in the scriptures as the ‘Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’ The meaning of this is that he was chosen to his mission as Redeemer of a fallen world, even before the foundations of the earth were laid. His great mission is twofold. First, to redeem all men from death irrespective of their obedience or disobedience, their willingness to keep his commandments, or their rejection of those commandments, and this is done because since Adam, all men have been innocent of the cause of death in the world. Therefore they are redeemed from its consequences irrespective of their belief or lack of belief in the Son of God. Secondly, he came into the world to save all men from the consequences of their own sins if they are willing to repent.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Restoration of All Things, pg. 283-84)
34 – “The mission of the Savior and of His Church is to offer to all the human race the sublime privilege of regaining the presence of the Father and of entering into His rest.” (John A. Widtsoe, Priesthood and Church Government, pg. 31)
(D&C 20:1)
35 – “April 6, 1973, is a particularly significant date because it commemorates not only the anniversary of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation, but also the anniversary of the birth of the Savior, our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.” (Harold B. Lee, CR, April 1973, pg. 40)
36 – “The name of Jesus Christ and what it represents has been plowed deep into the history of the world, never to be uprooted. Christ was born on the sixth of April. Being one of the sons of God and His only Begotten, his birth is of supreme importance.” (Spencer W. Kimball, CR, April 1975, pg. 3-4)
37 – “The day [April 6, 1833] was spent in a very agreeable manner, in giving and receiving knowledge which appertained to this last kingdom-it being just 1800 years since the Savior laid down His life that men might have everlasting life, and only three years since the Church had come out of the wilderness, preparatory for the last dispensation.” (Joseph Smith, HC, 1:337)
(Isaiah 61:1; 1 Peter 3:18-20; D&C 138)
38 – “Did not this good and true Shepherd forego repose
after the glorious but awful Atonement in order to establish His work among the
lost sheep, disobedient in the days of Noah? (1 Pet. 3:18B20.) Did He not
then visit still other lost sheep in the
39 – “On one significant occasion, Jesus took a text from Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isa. 61:1)’, a clear announcement of a divine plan to rescue the lost battalion to which we all belong.” (Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, April 1987, pg. 6)
(1 Corinthians 15:20-22)
40 – “No other single influence has had so great an impact on this earth as the life of Jesus the Christ. We cannot conceive of our lives without his teachings. Without him we would be lost in a mirage of beliefs and worships, born in fear and darkness where the sensual and materialistic hold sway. We are far short of the goal he set for us, but we must never lose sight of it; nor must we forget that our great climb toward the light, toward perfection, would not be possible except for his teachings, his life, his death, and his resurrection.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, June 1971, pg. 34)
41 – “He was buried in a borrowed tomb and on the third day rose from the grave. He came forth triumphant, in a victory over death, the firstfruits of all that slept. With his resurrection came the promise to all men that life is everlasting, that even as in Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive. (See 1 Cor. 15:20B22.) Nothing in all of human history equals the wonder, the splendor, the magnitude, or the fruits of the matchless life of the Son of God, who died for each of us.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, November 1984, pg. 51B52)
(John 5:27, 22-23, 30; Mormon 3:20;
42 – “I testify that with unimaginable suffering and agony at an incalculable price, the Savior earned His right to be our Intermediary, our Redeemer, our Final Judge.” (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1999, pg. 27)
(John 4:25-26; D&C 20:19)
43 – “We do not worship the Son, and we do not worship the Holy Ghost. I know perfectly well what the scriptures say about worshiping Christ and Jehovah, but they are speaking in an entirely different sense-the sense of standing in awe and being reverentially grateful to him who has redeemed us. Worship in the true and saving sense is reserved for God the first, the Creator....
“There is no other way, no other approved system of worship.” (Bruce R. McConkie, BYU Speeches of the Year, 1981-82, Our Relationship with the Lord, pg. 98)
44 – “Where shall we find a prototype into whose likeness we may be assimilated, in order that we may be made partakers of life and salvation? or, in other words, where shall we find a saved being? for if we can find a saved being, we may ascertain without much difficulty what all others must be in order to be saved. We think that it will not be a matter of dispute, that two beings who are unlike each other cannot both be saved; for whatever constitutes the salvation of one will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved; and if we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be, or else not be saved. We ask, then, where is the prototype? or where is the saved being? We conclude, as to the answer of this question, there will be no dispute among those who believe the bible, that it is Christ: all will agree in this, that he is the prototype or standard of salvation; or, in other words, that he is a saved being. And if we should continue our interrogation, and ask how it is that he is saved? the answer would be because he is a just and holy being; and if he were anything different from what he is he would not be saved; for his salvation depends on his being precisely what he is and nothing else; for if it were possible for him to change, in the least degree, so sure he would fail of salvation and lose all his dominion, power, authority and glory, which constitute salvation; for salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses and in nothing else; and no being can possess it but himself or one like him.” (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, 7:9)
45 – “Come worship the Lord! How is it done? Perfect worship is emulation. We honor those whom we imitate. The most perfect way of worship is to be holy as Jehovah is holy. It is to be pure as Christ is pure. It is to do the things that enable us to become like the Father. The course is one of obedience, of living by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, of keeping the commandments.
“How do we worship the Lord? We do it by going from grace to grace, until we receive the fulness of the Father and are glorified in light and truth as is the case with our Pattern and Prototype, the Promised Messiah.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 569)
(Isaiah 12:10; Ezekiel 24:24; Hosea 12:10; 2 Nephi 11:4; Jacob 4:4-6; Mosiah 3:15; D&C 124:12-13; Moses 6:63)
46 – “...all the ancient prophets and all righteous men who preceded our Lord in birth were, in one sense or another, patterns for him.
“A prophet is one who has the testimony of Jesus, who knows by the revelations of the Holy Ghost to his soul that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In addition to this divine knowledge, many of them lived in special situations or did particular things that singled them out as types and patterns and shadows of that which was to be in the life of him who is our Lord.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 448)
47 – “...if we had sufficient insight, we would see in every gospel ordinance, in every rite that is part of revealed religion, in every performance commanded of God, in all things Deity gives his people, something that typifies the eternal ministry of the Eternal Christ. (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg.378)
48 – “It is wholesome and proper to look for similitudes of Christ everywhere and to use them repeatedly in keeping him and his laws uppermost in our minds.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, pg. 453)
As the only Perfect Person to sojourn on this planet, there is none like Him!
In intelligence and performance, He far surpasses the individual and the composite capacities and achievements of all who have lived, live now, and will yet live!
He rejoices in our genuine goodness and achievement, but any assessment of where we stand in relation to Him tells us that we do not stand at all! We kneel!
Can we, even in the depths of disease, tell Him anything at all about suffering? In ways we cannot comprehend, our sicknesses and infirmities were borne by Him even before these were borne by us....
Can those who yearn for hearth or home instruct Him as to what it is like to be homeless or on the move?...
Can we really counsel Him about being misrepresented, misunderstood, or betrayed? Or what it is like when even friends falter or go a fishing?
Can we educate Him regarding injustice or compare failures of judicial systems with the Giver of the Law, who, in divine dignity, endured its substantive and procedural perversion?
And when we feel so alone, can we presume to teach Him who trod the wine‑press alone anything at all about feeling forsaken? Do we presume to instruct Him in either compassion or mercy?...
Can we excuse our compromises because of the powerful temptations of status seeking?...
Can we teach Him about enduring irony?...
Can we lecture Him on liberty, He who sets us free from our last enemies‑‑‑sin and death?...
Can those who revere human freedom yet complain about human suffering ever achieve real reconciliation except through His gospel?
Can those concerned with nourishing the poor advise Him concerning feeding the multitudes?
Can those who are concerned with medicine instruct Him about healing the sick?
Or can we inform the Atoner about feeling the sting of ingratitude when one's service goes unappreciated or unnoticed?
Should those concerned with lengthening the lifespan offer to enlighten the Resurrector of all mankind?
Can scientists, whose discipline brings the discovery of the interweavings in the tapestry of truth, instruct the Tapestry Maker?
Should we seek to counsel Him in courage? Should we rush forth eagerly to show Him our mortal medals‑‑‑our scratches and bruises‑‑‑He who bears His five special wounds?...
Indeed, we cannot teach Him anything! But we can listen to Him. We can love Him, we can honor Him, we can worship Him! We can keep His commandments, and we can feast upon His scriptures!
(Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1981, pg. 8-9)
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