1/19/14 Review

1/19/14 – Teachings of the Presidents of the Church – Joseph Fielding Smith

Chapter 2 – Our Savior, Jesus Christ

President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “Let it be uppermost in your minds, now and at all times, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who came into the world to lay down his life that we might live.  That is the truth, and is fundamental.  Upon that our faith is built.” He also said, “…all things are concentrated in and around the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world.”

President Smith declared that “I couldn’t be a special witness of Jesus Christ if I didn’t have the absolute and positive knowledge that He is the Son of God and Redeemer of the world.”

Question to ponder:  As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we are also to stand as special witnesses of Him.  Do we possess the positive knowledge that He is the Son of God and Redeemer of the world?

President Smith testified of the Savior to his sons while they were serving full-time missions for the Church.  He testified to his reflections and of the things he learned while reading the scriptures, of the mission of the Lord, what he did for him, personally, and he stated that he could not be untrue to the Savior.  The Savior loves us with a perfect love and we must love Him in return. 

His sons recounted the following:

“[Once] as I sat alone with my father in his study, I observed that he had been in deep meditation.  I hesitated to break the silence, but finally he spoke. ‘Oh, my son, I wish you could have been with me last Thursday as I met with my Brethren in the temple.  Oh, if you could have heard them testify of their love for their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!’ And then he lowered his head, and tears streamed from his face and dropped to his shirt.  Then, after many seconds, without as much as raising his head, but moving his head back and forth, he said, ‘Oh, how I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!’”

Questions to ponder:  Who is Jesus Christ?  Who is He to you?  What characteristics does He have?

President Smith said,

“We know that salvation is in Christ, that he was the Firstborn Son of the Eternal Father; that he was chosen and foreordain dint he councils of heaven to work out the infinite and eternal atonement; that he was born into the world as the Son of God; and that he has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

We believe with perfect surety that Christ came to ransom men from the temporal and spiritual death brought into the world by the fall of Adam and that he took upon himself the sins of all men on condition of repentance.”

What do we learn from this quote? 

Who is Heavenly Father in relation to Jesus Christ, and who are they both to us?

We know through modern revelation that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate personages, but are one in purpose.  We are spirit sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven.  Jesus Christ is the son of Heavenly Father in the spirit and in the flesh, the Only Begotten in the flesh.  He is our elder brother.  We become the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ through His Atonement and through our covenants and obedience to Him. 

“The scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ is both the Father and the Son.  The simple truth is that he is the Son of God by birth, both in the spirit and in the flesh.  He is the Father because of the work he has performed….The savior becomes our Father, in the sense in which this term is used in the scriptures, because he offers us life, eternal life, through the atonement which he made for us.  In the wonderful instructions given by King Benjamin we find this:  ‘And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.´ [Mosiah 5:7; see also verses 8-11.]”

Question to ponder:  What does it mean to take upon the name of Christ? 

In Moroni 9:25 we read:  “My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto ^adeath; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and ^blong-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your ^cmindforever.”

Questions to ponder:  What are some specific ways we can pattern our lives after the life of Jesus Christ?  When we follow His example, how might we influence the lives of others?  What are some specific things we can do to be more like the Savior?

President Smith said, “We must believe in Christ and pattern our lives after Him.  We must be baptized s He was baptized.  We must worship the Father as He did.  We must do the will of the Father as He did.  We must seek to do good and work righteousness as He did.  He is our Exemplar, the great Prototype of salvation.”

President Smith made this simple, yet powerful statement concerning the Savior:  “I pray that we may all walk in His footsteps and keep his commandments so that we may be like Him.  This is my desire.  I hope it is yours.”