THE GOSPEL
When I was a young teenager, I was somewhat overwhelmed with
the seemingly unending list of commandments from God that my teachers taught on
Sundays. I did not know or understand much
about the atonement and actually thought to inherit the Celestial Kingdom would
be super difficult because of the sheer quantity of commandments. I am embarrassed to admit that I figured the
Terrestial Kingdom would not be that bad after all. To not just give up, I
decided to start a project to read the standard works and list each commandment,
principle or attribute that is mentioned.
With that list, I could then maybe sort it out and zero in on compliance
to all the commandments.
My project failed because the list became too long and
convoluted. Take DC 4 for example, the
list of attributes we are required to be is huge. Also, many of the stories in the scriptures teach
more than one gospel principle which frequently is not apparent until the
reader is open to receive that principle.
However, over time I came to realize the gospel is not that
difficult. Yes, we should do our best to
internalize good attributes and live the commandments, but the basics are
simple. Nephi teaches this in his great
sermon on the doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31.
Joseph Smith taught the same thing in the Fourth Article of Faith. Christ repeatedly described the key to
salvation as baptism and then enduring to the end.
5 …except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
1When therefore
the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John,
3 Now the Lord knew this, though he
himself baptized not so many as his disciples… (JST John
4:1, 3)
9 Behold, I am the law, and the
light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for
unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life. (3 Nephi
15:9)
13 But he that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matt 24:13)
On earth we have a wide variety of experiences as we learn
and grow becoming more like our Father in Heaven. The lessons are never ending as we exercise
our new ability to choose for ourselves in a world where opposition exists –
good, evil, joy, sorrow, health, sickness, love, pleasure, pain, adversity,
work, heart break, etc. These
experiences and growth are a major purpose for us in this life. In my studies, I have come to the conclusion that,
as we learn and grow with our bodies in this fashion on earth, the gospel
requires our performance in 3 areas to achieve salvation:
Faith:
·
Accept and Develop Faith in Jesus Christ as the
Savior and Redeemer
·
Repentance
Accept the Saving
Ordinances:
·
Baptism and confirmation to receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost
·
Receive the Priesthood
·
Temple Endowment
·
Temple Sealing
·
Weekly Partake of the Sacrament
Obedience:
·
Enduring to the end – meaning to do your best to
keep all the commandments
This list is not a step by step checklist, but must be
viewed as an ongoing lifestyle involving our constant use of all the steps; for
example, living specific commandments while enduring to the end involves
looping back to faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, partaking of the sacrament
and regular temple attendance. The most
important commandment for each individual is probably the one that the
individual finds most difficult to live.
We all have our Achilles Heel. These weaknesses vary and are specific to the
individual, but God has promised, through the power of the atonement, that particular
weakness can become strengths to us. The
atonement is truly amazing; especially in that enduring to the end is good
enough, as compared to strictly perfecting ourselves with each commandment
during our sojourn on earth.
In addition, I have observed that a few commandments
regarding our treatment of others are emphasized and reemphasized in the
scriptures by the prophets and, therefore, we probably ought to pay particular
attention to making it a priority to live these commandments. These all relate to Love of Others and were
discussed in the previous Zone Conference:
Love of Others:
·
Compassion
·
Service
·
Forgiving and nonjudgmental
·
Give of your substance
In the following few weeks, I will discuss these attributes
of Love for Others in more detail.
President Robinson
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