Lessons on the Book of Mormon 2020
Lesson No. Sixteen
The True Knowledge of Jesus Christ Instills a Desire to Become Like Him
The Great Jehovah of the Old Testament Is Jesus Christ of the New Testament, and under the direction of His Father, He created the earth (See The Living Christ – The Testimony of the Apostles) – These truths are not understood by most Christians. But it is essential to our eternal salvation to know who Jesus is and what He did. The best place to learn these truths is in the Book of Mormon:
“For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles…
“And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things for the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary…And even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him and shall crucify him. And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men” (Mosiah 3:5-10).
Abinadi was convicted of blasphemy and executed for teaching that Jehovah would come to the earth and live as a man – When an expedition was sent to find the Nephites living in the land of Lehi-Nephi they discovered king Limhi and his people were in bondage to the Lamanites. (See Mosiah 7:1-24)
King Limhi explained that the Lord had suffered them to be in bondage because of iniquity, and because, “a prophet of the Lord [Abinadi] have they slain…who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ. And because he said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of God, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth. And now, because he said this, they did put him to death” (Mosiah 7:26-28, emphasis mine).
Jesus was convicted of blasphemy and crucified for claiming He was Jehovah and He came to earth as the Son of God – The Jews considered Jesus to be only the carpenter’s son. It was blasphemy and Jesus was worthy of death for claiming to be the Son of God: “And Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou has said…Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death” (Matthew 26:62-66).
Many people reject Christ by denying His Godhood – Like the Jewish leaders, they deny Jesus’ divinity. For them Jesus was a great teacher or thinker, but not the Son of God. They see Him only as a man. By denying His Godhood they also reject the belief that He inherited from his Father divine attributes, and therefore, He could atone for individual sins and bring to pass a universal resurrection.
Many people reject Christ by denying His Manhood – Like king Noah and his priests, these people do not believe that the great Jehovah, the Lord Omnipotent, would condescend to come to the earth and live as a man. (See Mosiah 7:26-28; 17:8) They deny that Jesus experienced all the tests of mortality, including family life. To them it is blasphemous to believe that the great Jehovah, the Lord Omnipotent, would come to earth to live as a man and experience mortality in every way, just as other men do.
The devil wants to separate man from God as far as possible - Satan wants us to believe that we cannot know God, and we certainly cannot approach Him in prayer as a child would approach his father. “For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray” (2 Nephi 32:8).
The devil wants to put as much distance and difference between man and God as possible.
Our Father and His Son Jesus Christ want us to understand the true relationship between man and God – Each of us “is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny” (The Family – A Proclamation to the World). Jesus and Abinadi both taught the true relationship between man and God. They taught that man and God are of the same family differing only in the degree of our maturity and perfection.
A true understanding of these doctrines draw us near to our Heavenly Father and to His Beloved Son Jesus Christ, and instills in us a desire to become like Them.