The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the “good news” of how to be saved. It is simple to understand. But living it is not simple and many souls are frustrated and fail to live it because they do not know the techniques of living it, which are numerous and not so simple.
The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ
First we must know who we humans are. We are the literal children of a good Heavenly Father, born as spirit children to Him long ago. Our Father in Heaven sent one of His sons to organize the earth, this earth, for His children to live on and enjoy. Our Father and His special Son, Jesus Christ, put plants, animals, and people on this earth, but they also put evil spirits on this earth. These evil spirits tempted the first people on earth, Adam and Eve, to disobey our Father, and thus fall and become mortal. Because we humans are now mortal, we do wrong things and we will die. Father sent His special Son, Jesus Christ, to become a mortal also. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, doing no wrong, and was able to suffer the pains of justice for all the wrongs (sins) the rest of us have done or will do, and to die for us that He might have the power to resurrect each of us from the grave. Another of Father’s children is a messenger, called the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, sent to earth to tell mortals about Father and how to be saved by Jesus Christ from doing wrong things. To be saved is to become like Christ and not sin.
To become like Christ and be forgiven by Father of our sins, we must do five things:
- do faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
- repent of all the wrongs we have done.
- be baptized by immersion to declare that we will live a life of faith in Jesus Christ.
- receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of those who have power to give it.
- endure to the end, our goal, which is to become like Christ.
To do faith in Jesus Christ is to trust Him so much that we firmly believe in Him and to do all He asks us to do. We can believe in Him because the Holy Ghost assures us that Christ is real, is alive, and wants to save us from doing wrong things. But just believing is not faith in Christ. Faith is also learning what Christ wants us to do, and doing those things. He is able to help us stop doing wrong things and do only good things for others through the pure love that He gives to all who really believe in Him.
To repent of all the wrongs we have done is to study our own lives and actions and to compare what we do with what Christ would have us do. Where we find differences, we repent by changing what we do to match the pattern of all Christ would have us do, which is to begin to act just as He did as a mortal. The goal of repentance is two-fold: to repair damage done to others and to gain a new character, remade in the image of Christ. Repentance is the first-fruit of true faith in Christ.
To be baptized by immersion by one having true authority from Christ is to publicly make the promise that we will take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, will always remember Him, and will obey all the commandments He give to us.
To receive the Holy Ghost we must have the laying on of hands by one who has authority, then pray and seek earnestly to have the Holy Spirit be our constant companion and guide. The Holy Ghost is willing to be our constant companion and guide if we do and say and feel the things He tells us to do and say and feel. To receive the Holy Ghost is the baptism of the spirit.
To endure to the end is to obey the Holy Spirit until we become a new person, remade in the image of Christ Himself, no longer sinning, then to maintain that faithfulness until we die.
The most difficult step of the five parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to endure to the end. To do so takes all of our attention until we deliver all of our heart, might, mind and strength unto Christ to do only His will and to bless all those around us through the pure love that comes only from Him. When people fail to keep their covenant of baptism and fail to endure to the end, it is often because they do not know how to do it. The following are clues gleaned from the scriptures (the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) as to how to endure to the end.
Clues for Living and Doing the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ
Clue one: Be humble. Our Savior said emphatically: “And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.” (3 Nephi 11:37–38) The opposite of being as a little child and humble is to be proud. The proud think they have things figured out and they don’t need to be saved. But those who are humble know they need all the help they can get, and are willing to receive the Holy Ghost and to learn to be obedient to Christ through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.
Clue two: Let your heart guide you rather than your mind. We need to use our minds, but our hearts, not our minds, should be the controlling factor in our decisions. The most important thing we can ever gain in mortality is a pure heart. This pure heart is attained as a gift from God. A pure heart is one that has learned to be selfless, thinking only of others and how to further their welfare. God has sent confusion and seeming conflicts to distract those who depend first on their minds. He does this because God is most interested in helping His children to love each other. Love is not a rationally achieved thing. It is the gift of God to all who learn to love God and to obey Him in the works of righteousness with all of their hearts. The works of righteousness are doing good deeds for our neighbors under God’s direction. In sum: One cannot learn rationally how to keep the first two great commandments to love God and neighbor. Such success comes only by purifying our desires, our hearts, then obeying God in all the works of righteousness. Laman and Lemuel could not serve God because they were trying to do it rationally. Nephi said to them: “Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder.” (1 Nephi 17:45) We feel with our hearts, not with our minds.
Clue three: Always pray first. Nephi tells us: “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Nephi 32:9) It is so easy not to begin each task with prayer because we think we know already what to do. That is a form of pride. We need to remember that we are nothing without Christ. (John 15:5) Praying first is one measure of our humility.
Are there others? Of course. The scriptures are full of them. That is what many General Conference talks are about. That is what the better Sacrament Meeting talks bring to us. And that is what the Holy Spirit does, to bring those “others” to us in our time of need. When we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do all that He tells us to do, we will then become whole, holy, truly saints (sanctified ones). And then we will not only be forgiven, (sanctified), but we will have learned to keep the whole law of God, and thus be just persons (justified).