6 March 2009
Thesis: The first principles and ordinances of the Restored Gospel form a tight unity which is a beauty to behold.
Latter-day Saints are familiar with the first principles and ordinances but are not always aware of the tight interconnections among them. To show those interconnections, each will be defined, then a discussion of each will follow. The definitions:
- 1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: Belief and trust in Jesus Christ unto willing and grateful obedience to the commandments He gives us.
- 2. Repentance: Replacing all acts of non-faith in Jesus Christ with acts of faith in Jesus Christ.
- 3. Baptism: Promising by covenant to gain and live full faith in Jesus Christ.
- 4. Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost: Being given the power to gain full faith in Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost.
- 5. Enduring to the end: Actually attaining full faith in Jesus Christ, culminating in charity and loving God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.
1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: Belief and trust in Jesus Christ unto willing and grateful obedience to the commandments He gives us.
Everyone in this world lives by faith in someone or something. That is because no human has enough sure knowledge to live by anything but faith. So the question then becomes, in what or whom should an intelligent person have faith? The world is full of candidates for this special allegiance, and many use the name of Christ. But it is not just the name of Christ in which we must have faith, but rather in Him. We make that faith real not just by believing but by keeping His commandments.
Our obedience to Christ must be willingly given. The purpose of our choosing is to form and build our character. Only by exercising our character in choice and action can we build that character.
Mere obedience is not enough. The devils obey Christ, but not willingly. We distinguish ourselves from the devils by giving our obedience willingly, even gratefully. We are grateful for the opportunity to do a real good for someone else made possible by our faith in Jesus Christ.
There are three sources of His commandments for those of us who are Latter-day Saints. The first is the scriptures, the four standard works. It is our opportunity to study them intently to discern what our Savior would have us do, then do those things. The second is the instructions given to us by those who preside over us in the priesthood authority of the Church: The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, our stake president, and our bishop. To pay special attention to their advice and counsel in general conference, stake conference, ward conference, and ward meetings is our second opportunity to show faith in Jesus Christ. The third opportunity is to hearken to the promptings of the Holy Spirit which we personally receive. When we have a particular problem to solve as to what to do, we may draw upon those three resources to know what our Savior would have us do. If we are diligent in seeking out the counsel from all three sources, we are very likely to know what our Savior would have us do, and thus be able to exercise faith in Him.
If in trying to be faithful we have used those three sources and are still in doubt as to what to do, and if further prayer and fasting do not help us to receive the answer we need, we must then act on our own, but carefully within the limits and boundaries given to us in our previous revelations as to the mind and will of the Lord from those three sources. For instance, if we think possibly, we must lie or steal to solve some problem, we know those things are clearly outside the boundaries of the counsel we have received, and thus should not be given a second thought. If we remember that all we do should be for the intent to bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ, just that will be a great help to us in making our decisions.
When the humble seeker after good is told of Jesus Christ and what He has done for them, the Holy Spirit bears witness that the message is true. Having previously received and honored the Light of Christ in choosing between good and evil, the seeker after the good recognizes the Holy Ghost as being also good, like the Light of Christ. Thus knowing that the spirit which brings that witness is a good spirit, such a one will accept the witness. Accepting that witness, one may then begin to put one’s trust in Christ by beginning to obey His commandments. The first commandment of the Savior to anyone is to repent.
2. Repentance: Replacing all acts of non-faith in Jesus Christ with acts of faith in Jesus Christ.
Repentance is the opportunity for each person to take charge of his or her life by becoming conscious of the reason for acting in each decision made. With each choice we can and should ask: Is this what my Savior, Jesus Christ, would have me do? As we begin to replace acts we know are not in accordance with His will with those that are clearly in obedience to Him, we have begun the process of truly repenting of our sins.
It is important to remember that there are counterfeit varieties of repentance. Perdition repentance is to recognize that an act is evil, in opposition to the instructions of Christ, and to do it anyway. Any covenant servant of Jesus Christ who continues in that path will wind up in perdition. When one is conscious of having done an act in opposition to the instructions of Christ and simply says “I’m sorry” without changing the action in the future, we have the telestial version of repentance. If the person continues in that path, they will wind up in the telestial kingdom eventually. If the person recognizes that he is doing wrong, makes a change he thinks is better, and is willing to make restitution for the wrong done, the person is among the honorable men and women of the earth and if he or she continues in that path only, will inherit the terrestrial kingdom. Only if the person consciously puts his or her trust in Jesus Christ and valiantly manages to obey His instructions and commandments does the person begin to qualify for a celestial reward. But most of us find ourselves working up through that progression. Hopefully we will all get to full and real repentance.
One of the first fruits of repentance is acceptance of baptism.
3. Baptism: Promising by covenant to gain and live full faith in Jesus Christ.
As we allow ourselves to be immersed in the waters of baptism by one having true priesthood authority, we are making three promises to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: 1) That we are willing to take the name of Jesus Christ upon ourselves. 2) That we will keep all of the commandments He gives us. 3) That we will always remember Him.
We begin the process of taking the name of Christ upon us in baptism itself, whereby we are known disciples of Christ, those who are learning His ways and trying to be like Him. With every deed of faith we continue to witness for Jesus being the Christ. As we take upon ourselves the priesthood of God and administer blessings to others in our callings and opportunities, we further receive His name and glorify it. In receiving our temple endowments we receive more of the name of Christ upon us. And when we are sealed as couples in the temple in holy matrimony, we receive the final installment of His name. As our life of faithful service then unfolds, our faithful acts bring continuing glory to the name of Jesus Christ as others see our good works and glorify God.
By promising to keep all of the commandments our Savior gives us, we dedicate our lives to the service of our fellow beings in His behalf. Our labor will then be a ministry of bringing hope to the forlorn, succor to the needy, instruction to the ignorant, kindness to those ill-used by others, and above all reassurance that there is a God who cares deeply about each one of them. Our life dedication is then to tread the pathway of turning evil situations (things not as good as they could and should be) into good situations (things that are as good as they should and could be). To comfort a mourner, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to give employment to the unemployed: these sorts of challenges will become our daily path and accomplishments.
By remembering Him always, we dedicate ourselves to the path of faith and repentance, always seeking His will and the carrying our of His will in every act. By this constant remembrance we neutralize the temptations of the adversary who tries to get us to forget who we are and what we are supposed to be doing. By striving consciously always to remember Him, we prevent ourselves from being diverted into the meaningless and subversive pastimes of our culture. Every hour of every day becomes a challenge to be humbly met and gratefully overcome as we press steadily along the path of faith in Jesus Christ.
Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and must be followed by the baptism of the spirit through the laying on of hands.
4. Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost: Being given the power to gain full faith in Jesus Christ.
The gift of the Holy Ghost is the right to the constant companionship of that special being. Everyone who is confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has this gift. But not everyone has the constant companionship of that being. That right to have the companionship is but an option, and we can exercise that option by praying intently for the actual companionship of the Holy Spirit and by carefully treasuring and obeying any whispering we receive from that holy companion. The more humble and obedient we are, the more we will enjoy specific promptings from that companion. The more proud and rebellious we are, the less we will feel His presence and help. We get to try it both ways to see which way pleases us more. For, having come this far, we are agents unto ourselves, and will enjoy whatever measure of faith in Jesus Christ or faith in anything or anyone else that our heart desires.
As we begin to enjoy that constant companionship, we also become aware that the power of the evil spirit to tempt and try us begins to increase. The more mighty we become in the Holy Spirit, the greater will be our temptations from the evil spirit. And this is by design. For our Father knows that we must remain free to grow into the stature of Jesus Christ. Only in strength of freedom can we come to be what Jesus is and do what He does, which is our goal. It is as if we are standing on the middle of a teeter-totter. On one end is the Holy Ghost, and on the other end is Satan. As long as the weight of the two is equally balanced, we in the middle are free to control the teeter-totter. So as the power of the Holy Ghost grows in our life, so does the power of Satan grow to tempt us even more strongly. Thus the greatest saint has the capability of becoming the greatest sinner. But the opposite is not true. If we yield to Satan and do his will (which is the temptation to do our own will instead of the will of the Savior), the power of the Holy Ghost subsides. The more we pursue selfishness over faithful obedience to Christ, the less of the companionship of the Holy Ghost we enjoy, until at last we are left in the arms of Satan to be just as fully selfish as we care to be.
The constant struggle of a Latter-day Saint is thus discernment. We must discern and distinguish the promptings of the Holy Ghost from the temptations of Satan with sure clarity and understanding. To mistake the one for the other could mean physical or spiritual death in extreme cases. The beauty of the situation is that we get a lot of practice in instances where it is not a matter of life or death, and by careful attention we can learn to discern clearly and correctly between what the Lord desires us to do and what our own carnal or worldly desires might be. It is good to know that Satan cannot tempt us with everything. He can only tempt us with our own desires. As our hearts become purer and purer through careful discipleship and obedience to Christ, the less power Satan has to tempt us. Our goal is to become impervious to temptation to evil, even as our Master was during His earthly ministry.
If we master the temptation to do evil in this world, we will have no need to continue the struggle after we leave this mortal probation. We will have established our character, which is our armor, and never again will we struggle with temptation to think, feel, desire, or do evil to all eternity. Our sure course will be only to bless others, even as Father, the Sons, and the Holy Ghost.
Baptism of the spirit is the beginning, but the goal is to endure to the end.
5. Enduring to the end: Actually attaining full faith in Jesus Christ, culminating in charity and loving God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, even as Christ does.
Enduring to the end is to complete what we set out to do in baptism, to gain full faith in Jesus Christ. When we have full faith we will rely alone upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit will show us all things that we should do. And we will do them.
Our goal of attaining full faith in Jesus Christ is to attain a perfectness of the pure love of God, which is charity, through the hope and faith which our assiduous keeping of the commandments has made possible. Having that charity, we then are reliable saints on whom the Lord can place any assignment or burden, and He will know that we will fulfill all that He desires of us. For charity never faileth, and those who have it are not thwarted. The full power of God is with them in what they do, and nothing on earth or in hell can withstand them. The gates of hell are no obstacle to them as they invade it to rescue souls, even as they overcome all obstacles on earth to establish Zion and to welcome the Lord into His pavilion to dwell with and bless His saints.
To say that we have charity is to say that we have learned to keep the first and great commandment: we love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. We are wholly dedicated and fully consecrated to His work, and His work succeeds in spite of all that hell can do to break loose and try to hinder the work. The powers of hell become the tempering factor which prove and verify that the faith of the saints is whole and holy, complete and full. Then His saints enter into His rest, which is the glory of the presence of God. They are just men and women made perfect in the cause of Christ and receive the eternal reward of following in the footsteps of Christ to bless other souls unto all eternity.
Conclusion: The first principles and ordinances of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ are indeed a unified package which can and will lead all mankind unto all things pertaining to life and salvation.