Thesis: There is but one celestial law. It is Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many scriptures suggest the singular aspect of celestial law (e.g., D&C 130:21–22, D&C 132). Apparently this singular aspect is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to explain why there can be but one celestial law and to detail certain consequences of that singularity.
Fundamental to this discussion is the following image of the universe. There exists a God who is morally perfect, omnipotent and omniscient. His work is to bless His children, sharing fully His exaltation with as many of them as share completely His perfect devotion to righteousness and truth. Learning to be fully righteous in the context of truth is the process of salvation made available by God to the mortals of this earth. Righteousness is the process of securing the maximum benefit and blessing for all beings other than one’s self.
The key factor in mortal probation is then the decisions for action which each person makes. Man has agency to affect the other beings; his choice is to affect them righteously or unrighteously. There are no human decisions which affect only the agent, so every choice is a moral choice, for or against righteousness. The moral decisions of daily life are the crux of our problem.
If righteousness is maximizing the benefit and blessings of beings other than one’s self, what opportunities for righteousness does a human being have? One might desire righteousness, but this does not make one moral, for the desire of itself achieves nothing for others. Desire is a necessary condition for righteousness, but not a sufficient condition. To it must be added the knowledge and power necessary to enact in the reality of the universe the maximal benefit and blessing of all other beings. The point is that no human being has within himself the opportunity to be righteous. It follows further that only a god can be righteous.
Let us examine as a paradigm example the moral problem of the father of a family. Every desire he entertains, every thought he thinks, every word he utters, every act he performs affects the welfare of his wife and each of his children. Not only are there many direct effects but also many indirect ones, for each choice has involvements for a man’s spirituality. His spirituality governs his knowledge, physical and priesthood power, and the purity of his desires. If he wishes to be a righteous father, he must think and act to achieve the maximum blessing for his family. This means he must understand all the possibilities there are for thought and action. He must further understand how his enactment of each of those possibilities would affect each member of his family, not only now, but in its eternal ramifications. He must choose that act which will redound to the maximal eternal benefit of each person involved. Then he must have the power to perform that act, quite possibly a performance far exceeding any mortal strength or ability. Again it becomes obvious that only a god could do all these things.
Is every man then doomed to unrighteousness? Indeed, every natural man is so doomed; no matter what he does, no matter what his desires, he cannot maximize the benefits of those around him. Because he is fallen, he is captive to Satan, to unrighteousness, to impotence, to misery. His only hope is to have outside help.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of that outside help. It is the promise that those who will come unto Christ will receive the blessing of a god who will purify their desires and make the omniscience and omnipotence of deity available to each person. The Gospel is the promise of righteousness.
To accept the Gospel, a person must admit that he is unrighteous and demonstrate a hunger for righteousness. He must turn away from what he now sees are sins and trust in the mercy and grace of Christ for both forgiveness and direction. As he accepts baptism, he covenants with the gods never again to be self-willed, but that he now submits his heart, might, mind and strength to the guiding power of Jesus Christ. If he truly completes that covenant he is given the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which brings him the possibility of fullness of the mind and will of Christ.
Under the influence of the Holy Ghost, before or after baptism, a person can exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is to, a) hear the word of Christ, through personal revelation, b) believe that word of Christ, and c) enact that word or instruction from Christ. Faith is not general, it is specific. A person is faithful relative to particular choices. If he always obeys the instructions of the Savior, he is faithful. But he must choose anew, with each decision and each act, to carry out the will of Christ.
Instruction from Jesus Christ brings to a mortal the opportunity for righteousness. Christ has pure desires, and desires only righteousness. He is omniscient, knowing what acts are and will be of maximal benefit, both now and eternally. And the Savior is omnipotent, having the power to carry out any act necessary to fulfill all righteousness. As the Savior instructs a person, that person receives direction that enables him to choose to act righteously, to participate in maximizing the blessings of every and all other beings. Not only instruction comes from Christ, for as the hearer of the word believes that word with all his heart, he receives the power to carry out that choice. Thus may a man on the earth do a righteous act.
But did we not say that no man of himself can be righteous, and that only a god could act righteously? Indeed we did. For one of the grand keys of salvation is to understand that when a person renounces his selfish desires, yields his heart and mind to the Savior and begins to act on faith in Christ, he ceases to be a natural man, an independent person. As a reborn faithful covenant servant of Christ he is now a “member,” a part, of the Church, which is the “body” of Christ. As each person becomes faithful to Christ, each becomes, as it were, a new toe or a new finger to the Savior, extending His dominion, His power, in the universe. Thus when any of us becomes righteous, it is not our righteousness, but it is the righteousness of Christ which we receive and of which we partake. As we become one with Him, He becomes our mind and our heart, and we are the obedient muscle or limb, helping to carry out the grand design of the gods for the blessing of the whole universe. As we are steadfast in faith, we may grow in power until we are as Christ, equal with Him in purity, knowledge and power, thereafter to work eternally with and under Him in the endless quest for righteousness is the universe. Man then cannot be righteous of himself, but he can become godly by becoming part of God until he has grown to a fullness and is a god.
Having shown how faith in Christ is the only possible way to righteousness, it remains to show how true faith is always a particular and immediate response to personal revelation, and never the mere application of a general rule, even if the rule originally came from the Savior.
Human action is always particular. We act at specific moments in particular places. No two environments for action are ever exactly the same, as are no two successive states of any given human participant. Every time we act, we act uniquely in a unique circumstance.
Human understanding, on the other hand, is general. Historically, humans have sought the greatest possible generalizations of mind by which to appreciate their universe, and have sought for general maxims of conduct. This generalization is necessitated by the overwhelming complexity of the “given-ness” of any moment of experience and the possibilities for action thereunto appertaining. Since we as humans cannot deal with the totality of the reality which confronts us, we artificially simplify, and thus falsify, the universe. We create our own mental version of the universe; believing ourselves to have grasped the “essence” of the situation or circumstance. The frequency of error and the inability to deal with total possibility for action both witness the temerity of supposing we truly “understand” what goes on and what we are doing. This limitation of understanding is further witness to the necessity of faith in Christ.
Let us now see why human application of general maxims for conduct, no matter how worthy the maxims, do not yield righteous action. Let us take for an example the maxim, “Always tell the truth.” This maxim by inference warns us that telling untruths is not good, but it is not very helpful in giving us positive direction and instruction. Our first problem is: What is the truth? Do we know it? Only rarely are we in possession of the truth about anything. Secondly, truth is always very particular, being a description of an actual state of the universe. But language is always general, and thus a necessarily false representation of some particularity. We salve our consciences by supposing that our generalizations are really true, but they turn out to be true not of the real world but of our personal, general, imaginary world-construct. Then we justify ourselves by saying, “I did the best I knew.” That may be, but righteousness does not come from a man doing the best he can in a falsified, imaginary universe. A final plea might be, “There is no better way!” And here the lie is truly manifest. There is a better way. It is to say only that which Jesus Christ instructs us to say, that is, to apply the one celestial law, and act only on faith in Jesus Christ. He will tell us what to say to accomplish the most good, and what we say will not only indicate truth, but will convey the particularity of truth by means of the Holy Spirit, and will be moral, besides. More often than not, He will likely have us remain silent, saying nothing being the better course.
Or perhaps we desire to “Love our neighbor.” Shall I take my partial and false mental image of my neighbor with my faulty understanding of his problems and their solutions and pretend that of myself I can decide and do a good thing for him? The self-righteousness of the blind, impotent, impure human being, though perhaps commendable in intent, is a monstrous perpetration of evil in the universe. It can be forgiven if it is done in ignorance of a better way. But if self-righteousness is deliberately chosen by rejecting the way of Christ, it can only be the way of madness, an act totally inconsistent with the desire for righteousness.
For in this world, Jesus Christ is our unique access to that purity and omniscience which makes possible the telling of truth and loving our neighbor as acts of true righteousness, meeting the particularities of time, place and circumstance which are the reality of any life situation. Nor will yesterday’s revelations or someone else’s revelations do. To be righteous, I must act immediately here and now as the Savior instructs me here and now through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit thus becomes the nerve channel through which Christ, the head, commands me, the willing member of His body, how to act to do real good.
Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the law of the celestial order.
Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only basis of righteous action.
Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ always a particular and immediate response to a particular, immediate revelation.
Corollary 1: All gospel principles are but facets of the celestial law.
If there is but one celestial law, does that mean that there is but one celestial principle? In a qualified way the answer is “yes.” The qualification is that it is useful to separate out many gospel principles for the purpose of full intellectual comprehension of the nature of faith. But operationally each principle must be seen as an enactment of faith in Christ, not existing independently.
To show how principles are facets of the celestial law, let us take several gospel principles as examples, demonstrating how the living of each principle is actuated only as faith in Jesus Christ:
Repentance: The Greek root of the word “repentance” when translated literally means a “change of mind.” To repent is to stop thinking and deciding in the manner that leads us to do evil, and to turn to the Lord letting Him guide our thinking, feeling and deciding by the direct moment-to-moment influence of His Holy Spirit, which is the same thing as faith in Jesus Christ.
Sacrifice: The word “sacrifice” means “to make holy.” In ancient times animal sacrifice was required. But it was not the burning animal that made the one who sacrificed holy; rather it was the immediate and direct obedience to the instructions of God that made the one who sacrificed holy. Such obedience is faith in Christ. The modern sacrifice required is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The broken heart is our sorrow for sin, our acceptance of the Savior’s warning that we must repent. The contrite spirit is a willingness to accept the revelations of the Lord and to live by them. Again, this is faith in Jesus Christ.
Consecration: The word “consecrate” also literally means, “to make holy.” Sacrifice makes the sacrificer holy, whereas consecration is the occasion whereby one makes or sets apart another person or some object or ability as holy. Thus it is the opportunity of a servant of Christ to reserve his time, his strength, his possessions, even all he has as things holy unto the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is the functional consequence of this consecration? It is that the person who has consecrated will then use his time, his strength, his possessions, all he has, only as the Lord directs. This is to say, he will seek the counsel of the Lord through the Spirit as to how to spend his time and strength, how to deploy his possessions. If he uses all he has through acts of faith in Jesus Christ, he is indeed living the principle of consecration; and vice versa.
Unity: The servants of Christ are always united, or they are not His servants (D&C 38:27). The power that unites them is that glory which is given only by God (John 17:22), but is given by God to all who come unto Him (3 Nephi 12:1). The agent or medium of that glory that makes unity possible is the Holy Ghost. True followers of Christ act in harmony and unity, for each has Christ as his head. Support of the priesthood authority, general or local, is always a delight, because the one supporting has the constant assurance of the Spirit that those over him are indeed appointed by and acting under the Savior. As each person acts, faithful to the instructions of Christ through His Spirit, the whole Church acts in concert. Those who lack that Spirit cannot fully cooperate. They “stand away” from the priesthood authority over them, which is the meaning of the word “apostate.” Thus unity is but faith in Christ.
This same procedure could be followed for every gospel principle. To live each or any is to exercise true faith in Jesus Christ. “But without faith it is impossible to please him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Corollary 2: The function of lesser laws is to sharpen our consciousness of sin.
The Savior has given many rules or laws in addition to the celestial law. Two particular types may be readily distinguished. The first type is generally known as the law of Moses and has its focus on the ten commandments. The second type is exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount.
The law of Moses was given to the children of Israel because of their rebellion and wickedness. They had rejected the celestial law in rejecting the Gospel and thus had rejected the Lord. But the Lord in His mercy yet gave them a law of performances and ordinances. The performances and ordinances had a single focus: to point their minds towards Jesus Christ (Jehovah) and His righteousness. Every sacrifice was a type of the atonement of Christ. Every moral prescription witnessed that there is a right and a wrong to human action. This law might be seen as a minimum threshold of divine law, obedience to which paves the way for the reception of higher law.
A higher set of laws is found in Matthew, Chapter 5, and is there specifically contrasted by the Savior with the law of Moses. He said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love you enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43–44). This higher law is obviously more demanding, more difficult to live.
Both of these types of laws, though they are different from each other, have a common essence which they share with all laws other than the celestial law. Their essence is that they are generalizations. They prescribe typical action. And they are all incomplete, for they do not provide enough specificity to enable the doer of the law to know when he is doing what is required. How should he love his enemy? How should that love be manifest this morning, this afternoon? But one thing we can know from these laws: we can see that ofttimes our lives do not accord with them, for we plainly see when we do not love our enemy.
The prime value of most law is negative. It does not enable us to be righteous, but does convict us of sin. The higher the law, the easier it is to see that we are thus convicted. Our conscience smites us with greater range and force in reading the Sermon on the Mount than when reviewing the ten commandments. This difficult but overwhelmingly important idea is the burden of much of Paul’s discourse in Romans, for only as we see this point can we see the overwhelming importance and beauty of the celestial law. “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That sin hath reigned unto death, even so much grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20–21).
Even the celestial law itself is essentially negative. It is also general and leaves the hearer without specific instruction. But it has the grand difference that it points the mind of the hearer to the grace of Christ. To say “Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” convicts those who do not, “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). He who will not accept the grace of Christ, no matter what law he thinks he tries to fulfill, is sinning. But if he will turn to the Lord and humbly submit to the will of Christ as received in immediate personal revelation through the Holy Ghost (which revelation is the gift or the grace of Christ) then he is exercising faith in Christ. He is in the way of righteousness. He can be perfected. And there is no other way. (2 Nephi 31:20–21)
The agency of man is then a simple matter. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit with them do not have agency in the Gospel sense. The agency of those who do have the Spirit with them is a choice between submitting to the will of Christ through the Spirit, on the one hand; or to do anything else, on the other hand. Every act of an agent is then a choice between righteousness and sin, between following the Holy Spirit and yielding ourselves to the lusts of the flesh.
“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. And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.” (2 Nephi 2:28–29)
Corollary 3: The most intelligent act a person who desires righteousness can perform is to act on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
From what has been said before, we have seen that the only access to righteousness human beings have is to have the mind and will of Jesus Christ. If intelligence is defined as goal-oriented action, and if one’s goal is righteousness, then only in Christ can the goal be attained.
But some do not know of Christ. Their actions, though hopefully oriented towards righteousness, cannot be righteous, for they are not free. The Lord is not unmindful of their plight; He has promised that they will have the opportunity to exercise faith. “Yea, blessed are they who shall believe on your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins. … And blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:2,6). Those who do not know of Christ need to hear the word of God. “So then faith cometh by the hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Then, knowing the word of God, they can act intelligently to fulfill all righteousness.
For those who love righteousness and know the good word of God, there is then only one act which is intelligent. Their lives consist of humble daily obedience to Christ. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
The great gift of God the Father to mankind is His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only through faith in Him may we tread the way of righteousness. Only when we receive Him as the Truth may He set us free. Only as we live and hope and die in Him can we have eternal life. For there is but one law that suffices to salvation: Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).