Punished for Our Own Sins

Article of Faith #2: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

While reading these scriptures through the lens of the second Article of Faith, some things really hit me differently.

Normally this passage in Nephi amazes me that a prophet of God would think himself a “wretched man.” This time I felt the words he spoke sounded like deeply fervent prayer. It seemed to me as though he was pleading with the Lord to save him from his weaknesses and praising Him for all the goodness He has bestowed upon him.

Keeping the commandments was the thing that stood out to me in Moses. Adam and Eve had been kicked out of the Garden but still looked to the Lord for guidance. When they received commandments, they obeyed and taught their children.

Something was also cleared up for me regarding the offerings of Cain and Abel. Cain was a gardener. Abel kept sheep. Cain gave the Lord some of what he produced with his labors. So did Abel. I always wondered why the Lord was so unhappy with Cain’s gift. Then it hit me. It wasn’t because he didn’t like the gift. It was because what they were giving the Lord was the “offering” of worship. God had commanded them to “offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord” for their worship. God was unhappy with Cain because he basically made a mockery of a sacred ritual.

Because we are going to be punished for our own sins, we need to do as Nephi and look to the Lord and pray fervently. We also need to do as Adam and Eve and obey the commandments.

References:

2 Nephi 4:16-35

Moses 5:1-27

Jesus was Terrified and Astonished

The suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane is a story with which most everyone in the world is familiar. We know this is where he took upon him the sins and sorrows of the world. We know that three times he went to his apostles, whom he had asked to "watch with me," and found them sleeping. We know this is the place where Judas betrayed him.

With all we know about this event, it is impossible for our finite minds to comprehend what it all really entailed. I gained some profound insights into the experience Jesus had through my study this week.

Sin affects our whole being; mind, body, and spirit. Something I had never considered before when thinking about the Atonement, was that this was something Christ had never experienced. He was perfect and had never sinned.

“And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.”

Mark 14:33

 Not only was he taking on the sins of everyone, he was partaking of the experience of sin for the first time.

 “The Greek word translated as “sore amazed” means “terrified surprise or astonishment.”[1]

Sin was such a new and unexpected thing for Jesus, a shock to his perfect body and spirit, it literally terrified him. 

Think about that!! 

Jesus Christ was terrified by the experience of sin.

What does this tell us about how we should react to sin? Why are we able to sin without being terrified?

I read some very interesting things in my study and wanted to share them with you; though a bit long, well worth the read.

“Being perfect, Jesus did not and could not know what sin felt like. He did not have the experience of feeling the effects of sin—neither physically, spiritually, mentally, nor emotionally. Not until Gethsemane, that is. Now, in an instant, he began to feel all the sensations and effects of sin, all the guilt, anguish, darkness, turmoil, depression, anger, and physical sickness that sin brings. All of this the Savior felt and much, much more.

“The shock to the Savior at this moment must have been overwhelming. Because he was perfect, he was also perfectly sensitive to all the effects and ramifications of sin on our mental, emotional, and physical makeup. His makeup was such that it could not tolerate sin or its effects, just as our systems cannot tolerate poison, disease, extreme heat, cold, dehydration, or a hundred other harmful substances and conditions. More significantly, as Mark describes for us, the experience Jesus had of finally comprehending sin as well as the feelings that issue from sin were absolutely surprising to him. He had never experienced these sensations. Not only did it surprise him but it terrified him. For the first time in his eternal existence, the God of heaven and earth was experiencing the terrifying feelings associated with sin. Jesus felt something in Gethsemane he had never known before.  Perhaps that is the full meaning of Alma’s words that the Son of God, the Messiah, would be born as a mortal so that ‘he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people’ (Alma 7:12; emphasis added).

“Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: “Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined!” (Ensign, May 1985, 72-73).” [2]

How much more do we now understand this plaintive plea: "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou will."(Mark 14:36)

Beautifully summed up by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:

"In that most burdensome moment of all human history, with blood appearing at every pore and an anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sought Him whom He had always sought—His Father. “Abba,” He cried, “Papa,” or from the lips of a younger child, “Daddy.”

"This is such a personal moment it almost seems a sacrilege to cite it. A Son in unrelieved pain, a Father His only true source of strength, both of them staying the course, making it through the night—together."[3]

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[1] Verse by Verse The New Testament, Ogden and Skinner, pp 579-599, (emphasis added)

[2] ibid

[3] The Hands of the Fathers, Jeffrey R. Holland, April 1999 Conference, (emphasis added)

Do You Importune?

Ask, seek, and knock. (Luke 11:9-10) 

We have all heard these verses a hundred times. I learned something interesting studying the parable in verses 5-8, when the neighbor, because of his “importunity” was able to wake his friend.

Importunity – the active verb importune means “to request with urgency; to press with solicitation; to urge with frequent or unceasing application.” …

God wants us to pray, plead, implore, and importune – specifically, frequently, and sincerely. …

Don’t give up or despair, keep asking. …

Joseph Smith said: “Come to God [and] weary him until he blesses you.”[1]

I never thought it would be a good thing to “importune” the Lord with things that I wanted. I guess I likened it to a pleading, whiney child, begging until they wear down the parent who caves merely

to 

stop

the

incessant 

pleading.

Unlike weary parents, God won’t give in and give us whatever we ask for, however, he will bless us with what he sees fit to bless us with.

If you look at the JST* on vs. 5, it says “And he said unto them, Your heavenly Father will not fail to give unto you whatever ye ask of him.”

Importune your Father in Heaven. 

He will bless you.

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[1] Ogden, Skinner, Verse By Verse The New Testament, pp 388-389

* Joseph Smith Translation, King James Version

Can Faith Alone Save Me?

Becoming Project Week 2

My goal this week was to study some verses I identified on Faith in the second half of the New Testament.

James 2:14-17

14.  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?

15.  If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food,

16.  And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17.  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

If we want our faith to be alive, we have to act. We must add works to faith. What does that mean? How can we know if our works are sufficient to keep our faith alive in Christ? I found this:

“We hear much about benchmarks. A benchmark is “a standard of excellence [or] achievement … against which similar things [are] measured or judged.”¹⁰ There are four benchmarks that can help each of us know if our personal faith in Christ is being “made perfect” by our works. These benchmarks are:

1.      The choices we make

2.      The devotion we exhibit

3.      The obedience we practice

4.      The service we give”[1]

Ok, these are great benchmarks, but still, what is it we are supposed to be doing to meet these benchmarks? Peter seems to have answered the question well.

2 Peter 1:5-8, 10

5.      And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6.      And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7.      And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8.      For if things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10.  … for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall

Although this lays it out fairly clearly, I thought it would be beneficial to make sure I really understood all these terms that are supposed to be added to faith. So, I turned to the inter-webs and got me some definitions.

First we need to be diligent in our faith:

Diligent: characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort.

The word energetic is interesting. While steady and earnest connote the turtle, slowly and determinedly plodding along, the word energetic indicates to me a frame of mind that has an excitement for the effort being made.

To faith we first add virtue:

Virtue: morally good behavior or character.

Then we need to add knowledge:

Knowledge: the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association.

This suggests to me the need to continually study the scriptures and the words of the prophets, and gain experience by living in a way that this knowledge dictates.

Next we need to add temperance:

Temperance: moderation in action, thought, or feeling: restraint.

Next comes patience:

Patience: bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint; not hasty or impetuous; steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity.

Yes, patience—easier said than done. My dad used to joke that he prayed to God for patience and God sent him six children. I guess we have to exercise patience while developing patience.

After patience we add godliness:

Godliness: believing in God and in the importance of living a moral life.

This definition surprised me. I thought godliness meant behaving like God. I read that the word godliness is translated from the Greek word for “piety,” which means “the quality of being religious or reverent.” Knowing this, adding godliness seems much easier than I had initially thought.

Now we add brotherly kindness. This one wasn’t so easy. Being a term and not one word to define, I had to do a little searching. After reading multiple commentaries on this term, I found one explanation: 

Brotherly kindness: after godliness (being religious or reverent), we have to add brotherly kindness so that your godliness isn’t sullen or morose, but kind and courteous.

But this seemed to be the main consensus:

Brotherly kindness: a love of those who are Christians.

Which makes the following virtue, charity, all the more important:

Charity: benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity.

We aren’t supposed to keep our good works just within the Christian community. We need to behave this way toward all humanity; exactly as Jesus would do.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone showed brotherly kindness to all of humanity?

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[1] Bishop Keith B. McMullin, Faith and Worksin a Secular Society, BYU CES Fireside Address, Nov. 5, 2006

The Ultimate Irony - Again

“One of the ultimate ironies of eternity is that the adversary, who is miserable precisely because he has no physical body, invites and entices us to share in his misery through the improper use of our bodies.” [1]

I love this talk. I blogged about it a couple weeks ago. 

Although this statement was applied more to acting as if in a disembodied state by overuse of technology and being in the false world of virtual reality, it is amazing how it can be applied to so many ways in which Satan tries to get us to misuse our bodies.

I was trying to explain to my friend what it is like to be a compulsive eater and be eating something all the while knowing that you don’t want it, that it doesn’t even taste good anymore, and you just keep reaching for more. This talk came into my head. This is my disembodied state.

Aha moment!

This is one of the ways that Satan is trying to get me to misuse my body.

Another one of Elder Bednar’s restated points is that we are to act and not be acted upon. In those “disembodied” moments of compulsion, I feel acted upon. 

I feel out of control. 

Not in control. 

Helpless and hopeless.

Herein lies my struggle; to be present enough in times of stress or distress to stay present, and not be acted upon.

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[1] Elder David A. Bednar, “Things as They Really Are,” CES Fireside for Young Adults, May 3, 2009, Brigham Young University-Idaho

An Ephiphany

Someone commented on a class discussion board about this quote from Elder Holland:

We do not have to be a herd of demonically possessed swine charging down Gadarene slopes toward the sea to understand that a body is the great prize of mortal life, and that even a pig’s will do for those frenzied pre-mortal spirits that rebelled, and to this day remain dispossessed in their first, unembodied estate.

Elder Holland goes on to quote James E. Talmage:

We have been taught … to look upon these bodies of ours as gifts from God. We Latter-day Saints do not regard the body as something to be condemned, something to be abhorred. We regard [the body] as the sign of our royal birthright. We recognize… that those who kept not their first estate… were denied that inestimable blessing…. We believe that these bodies… may be made, in very truth, the temple of the Holy Ghost…”

During the course of writing my response, I had an epiphany. 

Elder Holland has a way of saying things that really get the point across. Growing up we always heard our body is a temple. Working as an ordinance worker in the temple gives this statement greater significance. 

I bet you could ask any temple worker to show you the contents of their pockets and, aside from some lip balm and breath mints, they would have some sort of fluff or string or small piece of paper in there. I have buffed scuffs with the bottom of my slipper. Picked up a wayward kleenex and who knows how many pieces of fluff and strings in my time.

Something occurred to me regarding what we put into our bodies. 

This is the epiphany! 

Only those who have recommends - those who are worthy - are allowed to enter into the temple. Those who don't have them, aren't allowed access. I need to regard what I put into my body in the same way. What foods and amounts are "worthy" of going into my temple?

I found it really interesting that one of the Provident Living Plan suggestions was addiction -  and more specifically, relating to me - compulsive eating disorders.

This whole temple analogy testified to me that focusing on this addiction of mine is not only a way to learn how to overcome an addiction and to further sanctify myself, but is also teaching me how I should really view myself and how I should treat my own physical tabernacle.

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Reference:

Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2001