Talk 1/12/2025

         In Sunday school last week an interesting discussion arose about the nature of the God who we are supposed to use as an example for our conduct and character. As you know, in the scriptures we are admonished to be the kind of person that God the Father and our Savior Jesus Christ are.

Pres. Nelson has said: “To reach your highest destiny, emulate the Savior. He proclaimed, “What manner of men ought ye to be? … Even as I am.” (3 Ne. 27:27.) Our loftiest hope is to grow in spirit and attain “the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children.” (Eph. 4:13–14.)” (Self-Mastery, October 1985, Russell M. Nelson.)

In our Sunday School discussion it was pointed out that there are examples in the Scriptures where the Lord, acting either as Jehovah of the Old Testament and as Jesus Christ the leader of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acted harshly. Even in the “latter-days” the Lord has sometimes needed to be very stern and sometimes harsh with people who needed it. We are all familiar with many of the instances in the Old Testament when Jehovah orders the destruction of a people or city both by natural disasters and military action. Words like “wrath,” and “vengeance,” and “judgment” are often employed to describe what Jehovah plans to do or does to a person or a group that are not keeping the commandments or who are mistreating the Lord’s chosen people. We know that the God who did these things is Jehovah, and that Jehovah of the Old Testament is our Savior Jesus Christ.

So the question is, what example are we to follow as we try to be like Jesus so we can be worthy and comfortable some day to enter the Celestial Kingdom and be with Jesus and Heavenly Father. I think that the answer to this question is obvious but the explanation for why that is the answer isn’t quite as obvious  

I think the person we all should try to be like is Jesus Christ of the New Testament. That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, especially if you have read President Oaks’ talk for Priesthood and Relief Society today?   Specifically, we should follow the example of Jesus when He was teaching the “Highter Law” as found in the Sermon on the Mount. Examples of such Higher Law teachings are turning the other cheek, giving your coat and your cloak, going the extra mile, giving to those in need, loving your enemy, and praying for those who despitefully use you. By contrast, the old, “lower law” of Moses in the Old Testament included such things as “an eye for an eye,” and to hate and kill and resist and curse your enemies. So, the deity we should try and be like is the Savior Jesus Christ when he was teaching us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek.

Another good place to find the attributes of the Higher Law is in the scriptures that describe the “pure love of Christ,” also known as “charity.” In Moroni chapter 7:45 we learn that “charity” “suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

 

In D&C 121 we read of the following characteristics of “charity” in the exercise of the priesthood: “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile.” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-43).

Another good list of Higher Law attributes is found in D&C 4:5-6, which is often memorized by departing missionaries: “And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.”

The New Testament Jesus was as we are now – a mortal, human being, trying to do the best he can under mortal conditions while dealing with mortal people. Except for a couple of calculated cleansings of the rabble in the Temple, the Mortal Jesus was not a person of wrath, vengeance, or violence. The example he set for us as His mortal brothers and sisters was in things like getting baptized and healing and teaching and, of course in the completely selfless act of the atonement, sacrificing everything for us, His brothers and sisters.

It would be very inappropriate for us to be vengeful or violent and try to justify our actions by saying we were just following Jehovah’s example and the scriptural mandate to be like Him. We are not now as Jehovah was when he was acting as the God of the Old Testament. He was then God Jehovah. We are not now as Jesus is as he reestablishes His restored Church in the Latter Days. Jesus in most of the scriptures is acting as Jehovah, the God of the universe. He was and is a little rough at times, but we should always remember that Jehovah/Jesus acts the way He does because He loves all His children, and He is always working to bring about the exaltation and eternal life of all the Father’s children. Jehovah does what He does to help us keep His commandments and honor the covenants we have made so that we can some day return to live with Him in the Celestial Kingdom. We do that, for our part, by acting like he taught us to act in the New Testament. If we learn to live the Higher Law and achieve the Celestial Kingdon, then and only then will it be appropriate for us to begin to act like God because we will then, at some point, be learning to be gods! If we are in Heaven, training to become gods, it may be appropriate for us to act in an Old Testament manner at some point, but not before then and certainly not in this life.

Thus, in this life, the example of the Savior that we should try to follow, and the godly person we should try to be like, is the Jesus we read about in the New Testament in the Sermon on the Mount and not the Jesus who finds it necessary at times to be a stern Jehovah. We are blessed in the Church to have many righteous, Christ-like leaders and members whose examples we can also follow.

One final thing, when we are trying to be like Jesus we run into this scripture: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” 3 Nephi 12:48. Just before Jesus said this He said: “Therefore those things which were of old time, which were under the law, in me are all fulfilled. Old things are done away, and all things have become new.” 3 Nephi 12:46-47. This reinforces what has been said above about the Higher Law replacing the “Lower” Law of Moses. Some people seem to get hung up on the idea that we can only be like Jesus if we are perfect, as He is.

Pres. Nelson reminded us in October 2022 that we are not expected to become flawlessly “perfect” in this life. He said: “Now, overcoming the world certainly does not mean becoming perfect in this life, nor does it mean that your problems will magically evaporate—because they won’t. And it does not mean that you won’t still make mistakes. But overcoming the world does mean that your resistance to sin will increase. Your heart will soften as your faith in Jesus Christ increases. Overcoming the world means growing to love God and His Beloved Son more than you love anyone or anything else.” (Overcome the World and Find Rest, October 2022, General Conference)

As Moroni said at the end of the Book of Mormon: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.” Moroni 10:32.

That is how we do it: Try the best we can to think Celestial and follow the example of Jesus in the New Testament, and then rely on Christ’s grace to fill in the rest. That will make us “perfect in Christ,” and as it says in D&C 121:45, “then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God, …”

In the name …