D&C 20:29-31

Listening to a little bit more information on this section has given me a little bit more perspective, so I want to go back through and discuss a little bit more about some concepts. First, going back to verse 19, DJR says that the doctrine here is, “Heavenly Father is the only being we should worship. (Christ always directs us to worship the Father. We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. We reverence, love and respect the Savior, but in the strict sense of verse 19, we do not worship Him.) I’ve thought about this recently because I was taken off guard by something I heard in the most recent general conference. In the beginning of his talk entitled, “Preserving Agency, Protecting Religious Freedom,” Elder Robert D. Hales said, “This is Easter Sunday: a day of gratitude and remembrance honoring our Savior Jesus Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection for all mankind. We worship Him, grateful for our freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and our God-given right of agency.” And in the beginning of his talk entitled “Thy Kingdom Come” Elder Neil L. Andersen taught, “We are a very large worldwide family of believers, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have taken His name upon us, and each week as we partake of the sacrament, we pledge that we will remember Him and keep His commandments. We are far from perfect, but we are not casual in our faith. We believe in Him. We worship Him. We follow Him. We deeply love Him. His cause is the greatest cause in all the world.” I guess we could look at the different definitions of worship, I can’t find any right now, but I guess getting caught up in definitions and all that would be counter-productive, and DJR is right, in all things the Savior points back to the Father. We’ve talked about some of the concepts in verse 20, and verse 21 teaches, “wherefore, the Almighty God gave his Only Begotten Son, as it is written in those scriptures which have been given of him.” I really like DJR’s explanation because, again, it’s a concept that I’ve questioned before as well. He says, “Some people get confused with the phrase ‘Only Begotten Son’ because they realize that all of us are spirit sons and daughters of Heavenly Parents. They wonder how Jesus can be the ‘Only Begotten’ when it is clear that we are all begotten spirit children of God. The answer is simple. The complete phrase is ‘the Only Begotten of the Father, in the flesh.’ Jesus is the only one born into a mortal body, begotten of the Father, in the flesh. In other words, the Father is the literal father of Christ’s mortal body. President Heber J. Grant explained this as follows: ‘We believe absolutely that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, begotten of God, the first-born in the spirit and the only begotten in the flesh; that He is the Son of God just as much as you and I are the sons of our fathers.’” I’ve always wondered about the whole “Only Begotten of the Father” thing because it makes it sound like Heavenly Father loves Jesus more than he loves us, which makes me sound really petty because he has every right to love Jesus more, and honestly, I know that Heavenly Father doesn’t love Jesus more than us, I know that he loves us just as much as he loves Jesus, but this is a good explanation. 20:29-31 - We’ve gone through a lot of the concepts in the other verses over the last couple of days, DJR says that the doctrine in verse 29 is “No one can be saved except through Jesus Christ.” He continues, “Verses 20 and 31, next, deal with the doctrine of justification and sanctification. There are many ways to approach and define both of these words. We will intentionally keep it simple for our purposes here… Perhaps one of the simplest ways to envision being ‘justified’ is to think in terms of computers. When we are typing a document, and want to ‘justify’ the left margin, we do the proper key strokes or the correct mouse click and the left margin is lined perfectly. If we choose to ‘justify’ both margins, and give the computer the proper commands, both the left and right margins are lined up in perfect harmony with the rest of the document. Applying this analogy to ourselves, as members of the Church we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we follow His prompting faithfully, throughout our lives, we will gradually be ‘justified’ or lined up in harmony with the requirements for exaltation. This will allow us to fully qualify for the cleansing and purifying ‘blood’ (atonement) of Christ, by which we are ‘sanctified.’ ‘Sanctified’ can be defined as being cleansed from sin and made pure and holy, fit to be in the presence of God in celestial glory. Thus, ‘justification’ comes by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and being lined up in harmony with God, through the grace of (help of) the Savior. Additionally, one of the functions of the Holy Ghost, who is also known as the ‘Holy Spirit of promise,’ is to ratify and approve all covenants, etc., which we enter into with God. When we qualify for our covenants to be ‘sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise,’ it if another way of saying that we are ‘justified.’” It’s interesting wording “justification” especially if we take it to mean “lining up” with God. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “all covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, in which men must abide to be saved and exalted, (that) must be entered into and performed in righteousness so that the Holy Spirit can justify the candidate for salvation in what has been done… An act that is justified by the Spirit is one that is sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, or in other words, ratified and approved by the Holy Ghost. This law of justification is the provision the Lord has placed in the gospel to assure that no unrighteous performance will be binding on earth and in heaven, and that no person will add to his position or glory in the hereafter by gaining an unearned blessing. As with all other doctrines of salvation, justification is available because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, but it becomes operative in the life of an individual only on conditions of personal righteousness.” Interesting, that seems kind of complicated. Continuing, DJR says, “’sanctification,’ as mentioned above, means to be made clean, pure, holy, and fit to be in the presence of God. It is to have our sins remitted, through the atoning blood of the Savior, in other words, to have our ‘garments… made white through the blood of the Lamb.’ In summary, the Holy Ghost prompts us and guides us as we strive to follow the teachings of Christ. As we follow His promptings, we are ‘justified,’ lined up in harmony with Christ, which allows us to be ‘sanctified’ or cleansed from sin through His Atonement. Ultimately, our lives, covenants, promises, etc., can thus be ratified, approved, and sealed by the Holy Ghost, who is also known as the Holy Spirit of promise (or the Holy Spirit who was promised by the Savior to His disciples and who came to them on the day Pentecost). Through being justified and sanctified, we will be allowed entrance into exaltation in the celestial kingdom.” The IM quotes President Brigham Young as teaching, “I will put my own definition to the term sanctification, and say it consists in overcoming every sin and bringing all into subjection to the law of Christ. God has placed in us a pure spirit; when this reign predominant, without let or hindrance, and triumphs over the flesh and rules and governs and controls as the Lord controls the heavens and the earth, this I call the blessing of sanctification… All the Lord has called us to do is to renovate our own hearts, then our families, extending the principles to neighborhoods, to the earth we occupy, and so continue unto we drive the power of Satan from the earth and Satan to his own place. This is the work Jesus is engaged in, and we will be co-workers with him. Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates. Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin. I think we shall more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death.” Don’t really understand that, but I’m going to have to think about that.