All About Christ

In this post, I'm combining a number of passages. I love this chapter, where Nephi prophesies with "plainness" about Christ.  There is a bunch of prophesy about when Christ was born and came to earth, and how he was treated then.  Remember that this was prior to Christ's mortal life. Nephi testified all about the crucifiction, burial, and resurrection.  He testifies some more about the atonement and how it is the only way to get back to heaven.

The first passage I want to quote really reminds me of my mission.  When we would stop and talk to people, there were some who would say something like "I've been saved", or they would say that we were wrong to say that we have to try hard to live the commandments and live good lives, because that takes away from being saved or that it says that Christ's grace is insufficient.  This was this scripture that I would reference or at least paraphrase.

"For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23)

I love this because I think it points out one key thing.  We will never make it on our own. We need to teach and testify of Christ and his atonement because we are imperfect and can't get to heaven on our own (no matter what we do), but at the same time, I don't think it makes much sense to think he will say "I gave you all these commandments, but who cares if you follow them, as long as you accept me as your personal savior". How would we fulfill the purpose of this life, to gain experience, and knowledge, and ultimately the opportunity to grow and progress?  I think this would be difficult.  However, knowing that if we try hard, we STILL can't make it, we are provided with the grace of Christ to close the gap. That makes way more sense to me.

"And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled.

For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments." (2 Nephi 25:24-25)

The entire purpose of the law of Moses was to point to and teach people about Christ coming, and his sacrifice for man. There is a stark contrast between Nephi's people following the law of Moses compared with the Jews that "kept" the law of Moses at the time of Christ. Nephi and his people knew that the law of Moses was just that: a primer.  It's whole intent was to teach people about Christ and His mortal mission.  Nephi taught his people to look to and believe in Christ. Yet Christ was often accused and criticized for not keeping the law of Moses (as defined by the Jews of His time). I think this is a good lesson for today regarding the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.  If we are really in tune with the spirit, we can understand the right way to go, and it can teach us the right principles about that situation.

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26)

Even though they followed the law of Moses, so they perfomed animal sacrifice and all of that, they knew that remission of their sins came only through the atonement of Christ.  They made sure that they knew where to go for that help.  I think it's important as a parent, husband, neighbor, coworker, etc, that I follow this example. Not that I'm going to go around cramming this down everyone's throats, but this is the MOST important information anyone could possibly have, to know that Christ made an atonement for each of us. So all of our talk, action, and joy can and should be centered around that central theme.

"And now behold, my people, ye are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not;..." (2 Nephi 25:28)

I think we are all stiffnecked to some degree, or in other words, we are all sinners, and so we need this message.  The plainer the words, the more to our condemnation if we don't follow. We can't really just say "I didn't understand", because it has been explained very clearly to us. The right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not. The ONLY way is to believe in Christ and deny him not.

I am far from perfect. I am working on it. I do know that Christ lives. I know that He is our Savior, and that He loves us enough to go through something as unimaginable as the atonement for us. Without him, we are lost, both physically AND spiritually, and we would never make it back to our Heavenly Father. I love the Savior for all He has done for me, and I want to be a better example, so that people, especially my kids, can see Him through me.  I've got a long ways to go for this, but I can try to get closer every day.