2 Nephi 1-5

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING OF CHRIST

In chapter 2 of 2 Nephi we learn something remarkable about Nephi's younger brother Jacob:  He had seen Jesus Christ personally in a vision--when he was very young!

"Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God...Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.  And thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory; wherefore thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh" (2 Ne. 2:2-4).

It's interesting that even though Jacob had seen the Lord himself, his father Lehi still wanted to teach him about Jesus Christ.

"Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.  Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered" (2 Ne. 2:6-7).

And here we find the reason why Lehi taught someone who already knew--to make sure that that someone understood how important it was to teach others:

"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

"Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved" (2 Ne. 2:8-9).

Jacob took the lesson to heart, and later wrote,

"For this intent have we written these things, that [our beloved brethren and our children] may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us" (Jacob 4:4).

RESURRECTED TO PERFECTION

As we pass through this mortal life, we receive wounds, we become ill, our bodies age, we get gray hair and stiff joints.  We slowly deteriorate from the day of our birth until the day we die.  But dying is not the end but the beginning, because Christ provided the way for us to be resurrected to perfection.

Alma taught,

“The death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.  The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; …

“Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame” (Alma 11:42–44).

So after the resurrection, all our diseases will be gone, all our wrinkles will be smooth, amputated limbs will be restored, minds will be young, and scars will just disappear.  Whether celestial, terrestrial, or telestial, all the inhabitants of heaven will have perfect bodies.

All, that is, except for one.  There is one resurrected person whose scars remain. 

As Jesus Christ hung on the cross he was taunted, "He saved others; himself he cannot save" (Matt. 27:42).  What the mockers did not understand was that Christ did not come to save himself; he came to save us.  In order to save us, he had to die.  In order to remove our scars, he had to be scarred.  And he chose not to remove those scars when he was resurrected.  Why?  So that we would know that he always remembers us.

"I [will] not forget thee, O house of Israel.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Ne. 21:15-16).

As Jesus also retains a scar in his side near his heart, we know that our hearts can be mended.  We all receive damage to our hearts here in this mortal existence, but another beauty of the atonement is that while our bodies are deteriorating, our spirits can become more perfect even before the resurrection.  The sins we commit, the wounds inflicted on us by others, the mistakes we make, even the knife wounds in our hearts as great loss comes to us, can all be healed as we travel through life by the power of the Atonement.  If we continually come to Christ, our spirits will become purer, younger, freer while our bodies become more scarred, aged and immobile.  The key is to choose daily to come to Christ.

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGENCY

Lehi explained in beautiful simplicity the importance of agency to our Heavenly Father's great plan for us.  (See 2 Ne. 2:11-30.)  Jacob had experienced a lot of opposition in his life, but his father explained that opposition is necessary; otherwise there would be nothing to choose.  Indeed this entire earthly existence was begun because of a choice.  It had to be so.

Why would God command Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil when clearly He wanted them to, so that His children could be brought to the earth and experience their mortal probation?  Why didn't He just tell them to take it?  They would have done it!  They were really obedient people!  But to command Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and fall from His presence would go against His very nature:

"Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying, Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.  But he saith, come unto me all ye ends of the earth..." (2 Ne. 26:25).

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love" (John 15:10).

"And if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life" (D&C 14:7).

So, you see, God could not issue a commandment that would push Adam and Eve away from Him.  Keeping his commandments always brings his children closer to Him, eventually leading to eternal life, not to a temporary and fragile existence in a fallen state far from His presence.  So a commandment had to be issued to Adam and Eve to avoid the tree of knowledge.  They had to choose for themselves to take the step away from God and into mortal life.

Remember that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew no opposition.  It wasn't until after their encounter with the devil that the Father put enmity between mortal man and Satan.  (See Gen. 3:15.)  So they did not know that someone could be evil and that someone could lie to them until after they took the fruit.  Fortunately, they were not the only ones lacking knowledge:  The devil did not know that he was actually pushing Adam and Eve in the direction that the Lord wanted them to go but could not command them to go, when he tempted them with the fruit. 

And so, once opposition and knowledge entered into the scene with agency, the plan of the Lord could progress.

AGENCY

"In years past we generally used the term free agency. That is not incorrect. More recently we have taken note that free agency does not appear in the scriptures. They talk of our being 'free to choose' and 'free to act' for ourselves and of our obligation to do many things of our own 'free will'. But the word agency appears either by itself or with the modifier moral: 'That every man may act in doctrine and principle … according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment' (D&C 101:78). When we use the term moral agency, we are appropriately emphasizing the accountability that is an essential part of the divine gift of agency. We are moral beings and agents unto ourselves, free to choose but also responsible for our choices..." (D. Todd Christofferson, "Moral Agency," Ensign, June 2009).

Satan thought that knowledge would be Adam and Eve's undoing.  But knowledge is of God.

"The beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it pours knowledge into our souls and shows things in their true light. With that enhanced perspective, we can discern more clearly the choices before us and their consequences. We can, therefore, make more intelligent use of our agency..."  (ibid.).

We have to remember always, though, that when you choose one end of the stick (choice) you also choose the other (consequence).

"Freedom of choice is the freedom to obey or disobey existing laws—not the freedom to alter their consequences. Law, as mentioned earlier, exists as a foundational element of moral agency with fixed outcomes that do not vary according to our opinions or preferences" (ibid.).

Because we have opposition (things to choose between), law to link choices with consequences, and the power to choose, we can exercise agency and participate in God's great plan for our progression.

"It was necessary in God’s plan for our future happiness and glory that we become morally free and responsible. For that to happen, we needed an experience apart from Him where our choices would determine our destiny. The Fall of Adam provided the spiritual death needed to separate us from God and place us in this mortal condition, as well as the physical death needed to provide an end to the mortal experience...

"[But] if our separation from God and our physical death were permanent, moral agency would mean nothing. Yes, we would be free to make choices, but what would be the point? The end result would always be the same no matter what our actions: death with no hope of resurrection and no hope of heaven." (ibid.)

And so it was necessary that we have a Savior.

OUR SPIRITUAL BANK ACCOUNT

When I'm running my bank card at a checkout counter in a store, I wait for the card to process, and then I see a message flash on the screen:  "Approved."  I like being approved.  This experience often makes me think of the "pearly gates."  I imagine myself at the door of heaven, swiping a spiritual "bank card" and seeing that happy message:  "Approved."  But last night at the temple, I realized I had it wrong.  I am going to get to the entrance of heaven, the veil, and I am going to discover that I have "insufficient funds" in my spiritual bank account.  This is going to happen to you, too.  We are going to be asked to show identification--our glory and power--and we will have to answer that we do not have any.

Yet.

And here is the beauty of the Atonement: When we come unto Christ and admit that we do not have what is needed to enter that glorified existence, all we will have to do is ask, and it will be given to us through the power symbolized by those scars on Christ's hands and wrists--the Atonement!  If we repent continually, if we keep our covenants faithfully, and if we come to Christ and ask, the deficit will disappear, the glory will be bestowed upon us, and the veil into the Celestial Kingdom will part.

"...And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God" (Isaiah 62:2).

Returning to our opening scripture, we can see that even the great prophet Jacob, despite his righteousness, despite personally seeing Jesus Christ in vision, despite later enduring to the end, fell short and could only be saved the same way we will:  through the Atonement.

"Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God...Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer."

As Christ, then, retained his scars so we could see proof that He remembers us always, we would be wise to remember those scars as well and daily and hourly make choices of obedience and repentance that will bring us greater spiritual progression, until that final day when Christ reaches out His hand and we feel those scars for ourselves.

As Lehi counseled,

"And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit" (2 Ne. 2:28).

If we do so, at the end of our lives we can say, as did Lehi,

"I have chosen the good part" (2 Ne. 2:30).


(For more on agency, see my Young Women's lesson, "Forks in the Road," available at this link.)

(For the wonderful talk by Brad Wilcox mentioned in the reader's comment below, "His Grace is Sufficient," follow this link.)

Old Testament Lesson #4 "Because of My Transgression My Eyes are Opened"

(Moses 4; 5:1-5; 6:48-62)

(Photo from 40 Naturally Beautiful Photos of Trees)

Enoch taught, "Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe" (Moses 6:48).  But Lehi taught, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).  Both men were prophets; both taught the truth.  The Fall of Man was the result of the greatest dilemma ever known, and resulted in the greatest paradox ever known.

THE GREAT DILEMMA
In the Garden of Eden, our Heavenly Father gave Adam and Eve two commandments, the first of which could only be kept by breaking the second.  He commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth, and then he commanded them to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which provided the fruit that would change their bodies to a mortal state, giving them the ability to procreate.  In this paradise, we find the only situation ever in which God issued a commandment that He really wanted disobeyed.

In order to find the reason God created this dilemma, we need to understand three things:

• First, the characteristics of God--specifically what He cannot do and still be God;
• Second, what the plan was for God's children;
• Third, who Adam and Eve really were.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD

First, a little tip:  I recommend that you choose a particular color of pencil and as you study the scriptures, you mark the characteristics of God in that color.  I use yellow because it makes me think of the sun, the Celestial Glory, and all that.  (Credit for this idea goes to Jerry Wilson, former instructor at Logan LDS Institute.)  If you haven't done this before, you may be surprised to learn many things about God that Satan still does not know.

For our purposes today, we are going to discuss specifically some of the things that God cannot do.

1. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13). "For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil" (Alma 5:4). God will never command us to do something that will bring us misery. Neither can he create an environment that has evil in it. This is what Satan does.
2. "The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught" (D&C 3:1).  God cannot fail.
3. "The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance" (Alma 45:16). Nothing unholy can be in His presence.
4. "For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled" (Moses 4:30).  Any consequence God pronounces will come to pass because God cannot retract his words.

GOD'S PLAN FOR HIS CHILDREN

"And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them" (Abr. 3:24-26).

If the point of the whole plan was to test man by how he chooses to obey or disobey God, the vital component of that plan was the agency of man.  There are four elements necessary for agency:

1. Laws
2. Opposites
3. Power to choose
4. Knowledge

(Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 26)

This is where we hit up against the great dilemma.  When God created the earth, it was perfect.  This is because God only makes good things.  "And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and behold, all things which I had made were very good" (Moses 2:31), or, to use Abraham's words: "And the gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed" (Abr. 4:18)

So where would the opposing choices come from, if everything God makes is good and obeys?  It was necessary that the state of the world be changed so it would have good and evil, virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, health and sickness, but God could not do that and still be God.  Someone else would have to cause that to happen.

"And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter" (2 Nephi 2:15).  The fruit of the Tree of Life was eternal life, life like God and with God (1 Ne. 15:36); the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was death, first spiritual (a separation from God) and then physical.  "And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Moses 3:16-17).

God needed Adam and Eve to partake of that tree to gain knowledge and to become mortal and have children and put the great plan into play.  So why didn't He just command them to partake of the tree?  Because God only commands us to do things that bring joy.  "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3).  Eating the fruit of the tree would plunge Adam and Eve into a world of pain and sorrow.

He also would not command someone to do something that would separate them from Him. "He inviteth all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none..." (2 Ne. 26:33).  Partaking of the fruit of the second tree would make Adam and Eve unholy and unable to remain in God's presence, the type of spiritual death that is mortal life.  But it would also allow them to keep the first commandment, the command to begin mortality for all the spirit children of God.

Of the four elements of agency, only three existed in the garden for Adam and Eve. They had rules, they had opposition, and they had the power to choose, but they did not have knowledge before they partook of the tree.

God therefore provided them a warning by way of the commandment. He told them what the consequence of eating the fruit would be, so that they could make an informed decision despite having no knowledge themselves.  Since His words are always fulfilled, when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, there was no possibility that the Fall would not occur.  At the same time, He provided them an encouragement to break the commandment by reminding them, "thou mayest choose for thyself".

ADAM AND EVE WERE NOBLE AND GREAT CHILDREN OF GOD

God allowed Satan to enter the garden and tempt Eve.  He had not created Satan to be evil, but Satan had agency in the premortal existence like everyone else, and he had chosen evil.  Satan did not understand Heavenly Father's plan and thought that he (Satan) had the ability to mess it up. Heavenly Father, however, is omnipotent, and knew what Satan would do. He is also always successful and knew His plan would be implemented, albeit unknowingly, by Satan.  Satan entered the garden, approached Eve when she was alone and unable to counsel with her husband, and he appealed to her divine nature: "And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; for as God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Moses 4:10-11).  Did Eve want to be like her Heavenly Parents?  Absolutely!  So she partook of the fruit.  Then she found Adam and gave it to him.

When Heavenly Father asked Adam whether he had partaken of the fruit, Adam gave the right answer:  "The woman thou gavest me, and commandest that she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat" (Moses 4:18).  God had married them and commanded them to be bound together (Moses 3:24), and Adam honored that eternal covenant, even at the loss of paradise.

When God asked Eve what she had done, she simply told the truth: "The serpent beguiled me and I did eat" (Moses 4:19).  Who was cursed for this disobedience?  Only Satan.  "Because thou hast done this thou shalt be cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life" (Moses 4:20).

Both Adam and Eve had chosen what the Lord wanted them to choose, and both were blessed.  Eve was blessed to be able to bear children.  "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Moses 4:22).  The Hebrew word translated as "sorrow" in this passage refers to "pain," not "sadness."  "Multiply" means repetition, not an increase in intensity.  So Eve was promised that she would pass through the pain of childbirth many times (Camille Fronk Olson, Women of the Old Testament, p. 16).  This was exactly what she wanted, and what God wanted.  In addition, she was blessed to desire her husband, bringing joy to her marriage and her life.  And she was blessed to have her husband "rule over her."  This meant he had a "governing responsibility to provide for, to protect, to strengthen and shield [his] wife" (Pres. Hinckley, Ensign, Nov. 1991, p. 99).

Eve was also given the great blessing that she and her children would always be more powerful than the devil.  Speaking to Satan, God said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; and he shall bruise [or crush] thy head, and thou shalt [only] bruise his heel" (Moses 4:21).  Eve's children would have an enmity, a natural aversion to evil: they would always be warned against it.  Never again would the devil have power to completely fool anyone as he did Eve.  The ability to discern evil is a divinely bestowed blessing which every mortal being possesses through the Light of Christ.  And although Satan would be allowed to tempt mortal men, they would always have the ability to resist or overcome that temptation.  "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able" (1 Cor. 10:13).  Infinitely multiplying the ability to conquer Satan, the Savior's Atonement would negate all errors and failings and sins for any of the children of men who would simply repent and call upon His name.

Adam was blessed to have the earth cursed for his sake (Moses 4:23).  This would give him the opportunity to learn and grow through the necessity of working.  "Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality.  There is simply no substitute under the heavens for productive labor.  It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements" (Pres. Hinckley, Standing for Something, p. 80).

After the Fall, Adam stated, "Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God" (Moses 5:10).  Why would he say that?  The result of partaking of the tree was death, both spiritual and temporal, just as God had said it would be!  Eve's statement explains:  "And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient" (Moses 5:11).  The key to the joy lies in the word "redemption."

THE JOY OF OUR REDEMPTION

Let's return to the opening quote from Adam's fourth-great-grandson Enoch: "Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are shut out from the presence of God." But now let's add the next sentence: "But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent" (Moses 6:48-50).  Having entered into mortal life by partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Atonement of Jesus Christ provided the way that men could also partake of the Tree of Life, which is the love of God manifest in His Atonement.  The fruit of this tree sanctifies us for eternal life (see 1 Ne. 11).  As the prophet Alma taught, the way to partake of it is simple (although not easy):  "Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life" (Alma 5:62)

Despite the "misery and woe" which surround us on this fallen earth, through the Atonement we can repent and be redeemed. As we live in a state of redemption by continual repenting, we can become "at one" with God more and more of the time, experiencing more and more joy even in our earthly estate, until in the end we are finally redeemed to a fullness of joy. "And the Lord showed Enoch all things, even unto the end of the world; and he saw the day of the righteous, the hour of their redemption, and received a fulness of joy" (Moses 7:67). 

Which leads us right back to Lehi's statement:  "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).