Day 14 August 23 - John 1-5

[pam]

Discussion

[KeithLBrown]

Behold the Lamb of God!

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: - 1 Peter 1:18, 19


Scripture Reference: John 1: 29-36

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

President Boyd K. Packer, "Who Is Jesus Christ?," Ensign, Mar 2008, 12–19

Necessity of the Atonement

Jacob described what would happen to our bodies and our spirits except "an infinite atonement" was made. "Our spirits," he said, "must have become like unto [the devil]." (See 2 Nephi 9:7–10.)

I seldom use the word absolutely. It seldom fits. I use it now—twice:

Because of the Fall, the Atonement was absolutely essential for resurrection to proceed and overcome mortal death.

The Atonement was absolutely essential for men to cleanse themselves from sin and overcome the second death, spiritual death, which is separation from our Father in Heaven, for the scriptures tell us eight times that no unclean thing may enter the presence of God (see 1 Nephi 10:21; 15:34; Alma 7:21; 11:37; 40:26; Helaman 8:25; 3 Nephi 27:19; Moses 6:57).

Those scriptural words, "Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee" (Moses 3:17), introduced Adam and Eve and their posterity to all the risks of mortality. In mortality men are free to choose, and each choice begets a consequence. The choice Adam made energized the law of justice, which required that the penalty for disobedience would be death.

But those words spoken at the trial, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above" (John 19:11), proved mercy was of equal rank. A redeemer was sent to pay the debt and set men free. That was the plan.

Alma’s son Corianton thought it unfair that penalties must follow sin, that there need be punishment. In a profound lesson, Alma taught the plan of redemption to his son and so to us. Alma spoke of the Atonement and said, "Now, repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment" (Alma 42:16).

If punishment is the price repentance asks, it comes at bargain price. Consequences, even painful ones, protect us. So simple a thing as a child’s cry of pain when his finger touches fire can teach us that. Except for the pain, the child might be consumed.

Eric D. Huntsman (Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University), "Reflections on the Savior’s Last Week," Ensign, Apr 2009, 52–60

The Death of the Lamb of God

It is popular in many religious traditions to focus on the extreme suffering of Jesus’s scourging and crucifixion, but the Gospels themselves are sparing of such brutal details. Instead, they emphasize the words and symbolic acts that fulfill prophecy. These include His crucifixion between two bandits or criminals; the division of His garments; the offering of cheap wine, or "vinegar" (Psalm 69:21) to assuage His thirst; the fact that His legs were not broken; and the piercing of His side. Significantly, the greatest suffering that our Lord experienced on the cross does not seem to be anything that man inflicted upon him. Jesus’s cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) may reflect, as in Gethsemane, that His carrying the weight of our sins necessarily separated Him from His Father in a way that He had never experienced before.

Jesus died as a ransom for all. President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) taught:

"No member of this Church must ever forget the terrible price paid by our Redeemer, who gave His life that all men might live. …

"This was the cross, the instrument of His torture, the terrible device designed to destroy the Man of Peace, the evil recompense for His miraculous work of healing the sick, of causing the blind to see, of raising the dead. This was the cross on which He hung and died on Golgotha’s lonely summit.

"We cannot forget that. We must never forget it, for here our Savior, our Redeemer, the Son of God, gave Himself, a vicarious sacrifice for each of us."

Jesus’s being lifted up upon the cross is a fundamental component of the gospel message as later defined by Jesus Himself to the Nephites when He promised that even as He was lifted up by men, so all men will "be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me" (3 Nephi 27:14–15). Foreshadowed by the brazen serpent that Moses raised in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up that all might be saved if they would but look to Him (see Numbers 21:6–9; 1 Nephi 17:41; Alma 33:19–22).

The Gospel of John, which explicitly describes Jesus as "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29, 36), also connects the death of the Savior directly with the Passover. Jesus, as the unblemished or sinless lamb whose bones could not be broken (see Exodus 12:3, 5, 46), died so that spiritual death might "pass over" those who come unto Him. As the blood of the first Passover sacrifice was spread on the doors of each Israelite home, so too did the blood of Christ flow upon the wood of the cross. According to one approach to the chronology of the last week suggested by the Gospel of John, Passover actually began at sunset the day Jesus was crucified. In this scenario the paschal lambs, which were sacrificed before the beginning of Passover so that they would be ready in time for the Passover meal, would have been sacrificed in the temple at the very time that Jesus was dying on the cross.

[pam]

The Gospel of John



The more one reads the Gospel of John, the more one is impressed with how different this record is from the synoptic gospels. You can almost imagine John, the last surviving apostle, reviewing the records of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and then concluding that there were many precious morsels left out. This romantic notion—that John was trying to fill in precious gaps in the scriptural history—is not just speculation. Robert L. Millet wrote:

“One ancient tradition states that after Mark and Luke had published their Gospels, John ‘admitted them, giving his testimony to their truth.’ John, however, recognizing the fact that ‘the other three evangelists only wrote the deeds of our Lord for one year after the imprisonment of John the Baptist,’ set out to fill in those historical gaps of the synoptic Gospels. ‘John, it is said, being entreated to undertake it, wrote the account of the time not recorded by the former evangelists, and the deeds done by our Savior, which they have passed by.’ It is reasonable to suppose that John collected and drew upon available sources beyond his own personal records (such as the record of John the Baptist). If indeed John's Gospel was written last, it may well be—in those few areas where his Gospel follows the course of the synoptics—that he would have been acquainted with, had before him, and thus utilized in a discerning manner details from the other three Gospels.” (Selected Writings of Robert L. Millet: Gospel Scholars Series [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 2000], 21.)

Consider what a great tragedy it would have been if John had not written his gospel. We would be missing: Christ turning the water into wine (Jn. 2), the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus (Jn. 3), the passage ‘For God so loved the world’ (Jn 3:16), the Bread of Life sermon (Jn. 6), the story of the adulterous woman (Jn. 8), the passage ‘other sheep I have, which are not of this fold’ (Jn. 10:16), the raising of Lazarus from the dead (Jn. 11), the washing of the apostles’ feet (Jn. 13), precious doctrines taught during the last supper (Jn. 13-16), the intercessory prayer (Jn. 17), and the conversation of the resurrected Lord with Peter and John (Jn. 21). Furthermore, the tone, style, and content of John’s writings are unique and truly sublime.

“In the first four lines we sense already a quality unique to the Gospel of John. It is the same Savior that we knew in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but now we see him in a new light, with new dimensions of greatness and godhood unfolding before our understanding. This is not just the Messiah of the Jews; this is ‘the light’ of the whole world, the creator of ‘all things.’ He ‘was with God.’ He ‘was God.’ But he was a God who ‘was made flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14), and so was known to men—to some only at a distance, to some secondhand. But to a few he was known closely, intimately. And it is the voice of one of those intimates that speaks to us in this Gospel. John, the beloved apostle, had not only heard the words of the living Lord, he had ‘leaned on his breast at supper.’ (John 21:20.) He not only knew the teachings of Jesus, he knew, in a way we can hardly appreciate, the stirrings of that divine heart. It is the profound depths of that heart and the infinite heights of that divine glory that John presents for us in his Gospel.

“No other single piece fuses so remarkably the mortal and the immortal, the finite and the infinite: a draught of water from a well becomes a metaphor for the living water of the gospel; the bread to feed five thousand becomes a lesser symbol for the more significant bread of life after partaking of which there will be no hunger. The sheep and their shepherd, the vine and its branches, the very stuff of human existence is shown to have meaning and significance far beyond what our own dull senses have suggested.” (Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, “The Powerful Voices of the Gospels,” New Era, Jan. 1973, 42)

Gordon B. Hinckley

“I like to read the Gospel of John. Over sixty years ago my missionary companion and I started reading the Gospel of John which begins with that great opening statement, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Our reading of the Gospel of John did something to me. And I still love to read the Gospel of John.

’For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).
’Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid’ (John 14:27).

Those are great and marvelous statements that I learned to love in the Gospel of John. We need to do more reading in the scriptures and more dwelling on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 279.)

[pam]

John 1:9 the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world

Joseph F. Smith
“It is not the Holy Ghost who in person lighteth every man who is born into the world, but it is the light of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the source of intelligence, which permeates all nature, which lighteth every man and fills the immensity of space. You may call it the Spirit of God, you may call it the influence of God's intelligence, you may call it the substance of his power, no matter what it is called, it is the spirit of intelligence that permeates the universe and gives to the spirits of men understanding, just as Job has said. (Job 32:8; D&C 3-13.)” (Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith, compiled by John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939], 61.)

Neal A. Maxwell

“…the light of Christ is present in us mortals if we will respond to its illuminations (John 1:9; D&C 84:46).

“In her introduction to Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maude Montgomery writes: ‘It has always seemed to me, ever since early childhood, amid all the commonplaces of life, I was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty. Between it and me hung only a thin veil. I could never draw it quite aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond—only a glimpse—but those glimpses have always made life worthwhile.’

“But despite our innate longings for the ideally good and beautiful, it is so easy to be caught up instead in the cares and things of the world. This is done to our cost, however, for passivity toward things spiritual will move us toward that low-grade ‘joy in [our] works for a season’ (3 Nephi 27:11). The combination of life and the light of Christ is designed to help us discern between the real thing and all the clever counterfeits and sparkling substitutes.” (Not My Will, But Thine [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998], 9-10.)

Howard W. Hunter
“We believe there is a spiritual influence that emanates from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space (D&C 88:12). All men share an inheritance of divine light. God operates among his children in all nations, and those who seek God are entitled to further light and knowledge, regardless of their race, nationality, or cultural traditions.

Elder Orson F. Whitney, in a conference address, explained that many great religious leaders were inspired. He said: ‘[God] is using not only his covenant people, but other peoples as well, to consummate a work, stupendous, magnificent, and altogether too arduous for this little handful of Saints to accomplish by and of themselves.

’All down the ages men bearing the authority of the Holy Priesthood—patriarchs, prophets, apostles and others, have officiated in the name of the Lord, doing the things that he required of them; and outside the pale of their activities other good and great men, not bearing the Priesthood, but possessing profundity of thought, great wisdom, and a desire to uplift their fellows, have been sent by the Almighty into many nations, to give them, not the fulness of the Gospel, but that portion of truth that they were able to receive and wisely use.’ (In Conference Report, April 1921, pp. 32-33.)”(The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, edited by Clyde J. Williams [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 102.)

Joseph Fielding Smith
“Now, do you think that these discoveries and inventions by Marconi, by Edison, by Bell, by Stephenson and by the other inventors and discoverers without naming them, have come just because these men have been sitting down and concentrating their minds upon these matters and have discovered them through their thought or accidentally? Not in the least, but the Spirit of the Lord, the Light of Christ, has been back of it, and has been impelling them to do these very things; and why? Because the time is here; it is ripe. We are ready for these discoveries, these inventions, and they all have a bearing upon the restoration of the gospel and preparation for the time which is yet future, but which is shortly to come, when Christ shall reign on the earth, and for a thousand years peace shall be established. That is what it is all for.

“Now, a man like Edison may say, ‘I do not believe in a supreme being.’ I do not know whether he does or not; some of these men do not. However, the Lord in his great mercy, overlooks that and uses the man because he is adapted to a certain work, and he, through his Spirit, can inspire this man to do this great work, and so he goes ahead and does it, all for the establishment of the kingdom of God.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols., edited by Bruce R. McConkie [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-1956], 1: 180-181.)

[pam]

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time



Orson F. Whitney

“One of our ‘Mormon’ boys out on a mission was confronted with this question. He had just been preaching that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith, when a voice rang out: ‘No man hath seen God at any time,’ The boy had his wits about him. ‘Of course not,’ said he, ‘God is a business man—you can't see him at any time; you have to make a special appointment with him.’ (Laughter.) He answered a fool according to his folly, but that of course is not the explanation.” (Conference Report, October 1924, First Day—Morning Session 22.)

Joseph Fielding Smith

“Question: How, as the Church claims, could Joseph Smith see God when the Bible clearly states in St. John 1:18, 'No man hath seen God at any time,' and in Exodus 33:20, 'Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live?’

Answer: You quote from Exodus 33:20, ‘And he said, thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.’ Yet in the same chapter, Verse 11, it reads thus: ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.’

“It is to be hoped that you are aware that the Bible has come down to us through many translations and that it has been copied many times…Therefore we find errors and contradictions in the Bible.

“There are too many passages which declare very definitely that God did appear, ‘face to face,’ with his ancient servants. Therefore, passages which declare that no man has seen him, must be in error. For instance, the passage in John 1:18, to which you refer, is likely due to the fact that a translator in more recent years did not believe that God was a Personage and therefore could not be seen. This notion has come down to us since the introduction of the Athanasian Creed in 325 A.D. The Prophet Joseph Smith has given us a correction of this passage as follows:
And no man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son, for except it is through him no man can be saved. (John 1:19, Inspired Version. Compare John 1:18, King James Version.)
“Again in 1 John 4:12, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith the following correction:
No man hath seen God at any time, except them who believe. If we love one and other, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfect in us. (Compare 1 John 4:12, King James Version.)
“Now let us consider other verses from John's Gospel, and Authorized Version:
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. (John 6:45-46.)
“If we were not aware of the fact that mistranslations exist, it would appear that our Savior contradicted himself. The latter verse (John 6:46) does not harmonize with John 1:18.
“We read that Abraham talked with God face to face, and he also talked with Enoch and others. (Gen. 17:1-9; Moses 1:1-2; Moses 6:43.) The modern world, however, will have none of it and have rejected the living God for one who cannot be seen or heard.” (Answers to Gospel Questions, 5 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1957-1966], 2: 161-163.)
LeGrand Richards

“The Prophet Joseph Smith's understanding of the true meaning of these scriptures was made plain in a revelation received by him from the Lord at Hiram, Ohio, in November 1831: ‘For no man has seen God at any time in the flesh, except quickened by the Spirit of God.’ (D&C 67:11.)


“This doctrine was further clarified in the visions of Moses as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith:
But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him. (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:11.)
“It is thus plain that man can only see God when ‘quickened by the Spirit of God.’ This is apparently what John had in mind in the following statement:
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. (John 6:45-46.)”
(A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 20-21.)

[pam]

John 2:16 my Father’s house



Howard W. Hunter

“In the process of moral decline, reverence is one of the first virtues to disappear, and there should be serious concern about that loss in our times. Love of money had warped the hearts of many of Jesus’ countrymen. They cared more for gain than they did for God. Caring nothing for God, why should they care for his temple? They converted the temple courts into a marketplace and drowned out the prayers and psalms of the faithful with their greedy exchange of money and the bleating of innocent sheep. Never did Jesus show a greater tempest of emotion than in the cleansing of the temple. Instantly he became avenging fury, and before the miscreants knew what was happening, their coins were rolling over the temple floor and their flocks and herds were in the street.

“The reason for the tempest lies in just three words: ‘My Father’s house.’ It was not an ordinary house; it was the house of God. It was erected for God’s worship. It was a home for the reverent heart. It was intended to be a place of solace for men’s woes and troubles, the very gate of heaven. ‘Take these things hence’ he said, ‘make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.’ (John 2:16.) His devotion to the Most High kindled a fire in his soul and gave his words the force that pierced the offenders like a dagger.” (“Hallowed Be Thy Name,” Ensign, Nov. 1977, 52-53)

[pam]

John 3:5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God



The Mormon hopes for a place in the celestial kingdom. The Christian hopes to be saved in Heaven. The Muslim aspires to a place called Paradise. The Buddhist and Hindu yearn for Nirvana, but none of them will enter the kingdom of God except they are ‘born of the water and of the Spirit.’

Joseph Smith

“This eternal truth settles the question of all men's religion. A man may be saved, after the judgment, in the terrestrial kingdom, or in the telestial kingdom, but he can never see the celestial kingdom of God, without being born of water and the Spirit. He may receive a glory like unto the moon, (i.e. of which the light of the moon is typical), or a star, (i.e. of which the light of the stars is typical), but he can never come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, unless he becomes as a little child, and is taught by the Spirit of God.” (History of the Church 1:283.)

Brigham Young

“A man must be born again before he can see the kingdom of God; and must be born of water and of the Spirit, before he can enter therein.

“It may be asked whether any person can be saved, except those who are baptized. Yes, all the inhabitants of the earth will be saved, except those that sin against the Holy Ghost. Will they come into the presence of the Father and the Son? Not unless they are baptized for the remission of sins, and live faithfully in the observance of the words of life, all the rest of their days.” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 9: 315.)

George F. Richards
“There are many people today who do not understand this ‘birth,’ but we have an explanation in the vision of Moses contained in the Pearl of Great Price, which makes plain the meaning of this Scripture. For the benefit of those who have not understood it let me read a few paragraphs:

Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children saying:
That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified.’ (Moses 6:58-60)

“…God has never authorized any other kind of baptism…And baptism by water is not complete until the individual has been baptized by fire, or the Holy Ghost, or, in other words, has had hands laid upon his head for confirmation to membership in the Church of Christ and the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.” (Conference Report, October 1934, Afternoon Meeting 73.)

Joseph Smith

“You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half—that is, the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 314)

George Q. Cannon

“…a large class of people have come to the conclusion that unless a man is born again, or, as they term it, experience a change of heart, he is consigned to endless misery; and there are those who believe that all the heathen who have died in ignorance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are thus punished, and, in fact, there are those who profess to have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, who believe that in hell, that place of torment from which they declare there is no escape, there are infants by scores, and hundreds and thousands, and I may say by millions, enduring inconceivable and endless torment because they have died before receiving the ordinances which they consider necessary to salvation.” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 14: 311.)

Brigham Young

“Did Jesus say, ‘Except a man is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God?’ Yes, all Christians will admit that. Then do you think there was one plan of salvation for Nicodemus and another for you and me? It is all folly for any person to expect any such thing! Come with the sword of the Spirit! Let the whole world of Christendom come with their arguments and Scriptures, and let us argue these things together! Let us lay them before the people and see who is right and who is wrong.

“Let me say to you, if it is true that no man can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and of the Spirit, God must provide a plan by which those who have died ignorant of the Gospel may have the privilege of doing so, or he would appear to be a partial being. Has He provided that way? He has. The Christian world have taught, preached, contemplated, meditated, sung about and prayed for the Millennium. What are you going to do during that period, Christians? Do you know what the Millennium is for, and what work will have to be done during that period? Suppose the Christian world were now one in heart, faith, sentiment and works, so that the Lord could commence the Millennium in power and glory, do you know what would be done? Would you sit and sing yourselves away to everlasting bliss? No, I reckon not. I think there is a work to be done then which the whole world seems determined we shall not do. What is it? To build temples. We never yet commenced to lay the foundation of a temple but what all hell was in arms against us. That is the difficulty now: we have commenced the foundation of this temple. What are we going to do in these temples? Anything to be done there? Yes, and we will not wait for the Millennium and the fullness of the glory of God on the earth; we will commence, as soon as we have a temple, and work for the salvation of our forefathers.” (Journal of Discourses, Apr. 24, 1870,vol. 13: 329 - 330.)

[pam]

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son


When Nephi saw the vision of the tree of life, he wanted to know the meaning of the tree of life. His explanation came in the form of a vision—he was shown the birth of the Savior. Then the angel said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?’ Now Nephi knew! He had been shown the greatest expression of God’s love for his children, and he replied, ‘yea, it is the love of God’ (1 Ne. 11:8-22). When we think of the loving acts of a kind Heavenly Father, we think of our creation as spirit children, we think of the creation of the earth, we think of the privilege of coming to earth, and we think of the great plan of happiness. Yet none of these beautiful gifts caused the Father any personal pain. But the gift of his Only Begotten was another story. To see him mistreated, spit upon, scourged, and suffering in Gesthemane must have been an almost unbearable sacrifice. Such was the love of God for the world!

Jeffrey R. Holland
“I am a father, inadequate to be sure, but I cannot comprehend the burden it must have been for God in His heaven to witness the deep suffering and Crucifixion of His Beloved Son in such a manner. His every impulse and instinct must have been to stop it, to send angels to intervene—but He did not intervene. He endured what He saw because it was the only way that a saving, vicarious payment could be made for the sins of all His other children from Adam and Eve to the end of the world. I am eternally grateful for a perfect Father and His perfect Son, neither of whom shrank from the bitter cup nor forsook the rest of us who are imperfect, who fall short and stumble, who too often miss the mark.” (“The Hands of the Fathers,” Ensign, May 1999, 14–15)

Melvin J. Ballard
“I love to contemplate what it cost our Father in heaven to give us the gift of his Beloved Son, that worthy Son of our Father…I think as I read the story of Abraham's sacrifices of his son Isaac that our Father is trying to tell us what it cost him to give his Son as a gift to the world. You remember the story of how Abraham's son came after long years of waiting and was looked upon by his worthy sire, Abraham, as more precious than all his other possessions; yet, in the midst of his rejoicing, Abraham was told to take this only son and offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord. He responded. Can you feel what was in the heart of Abraham on that occasion? You love your son just as Abraham did; perhaps not quite so much, because of the peculiar circumstances, but what do you think was in his heart when he started away from Mother Sarah, and they bade her goodbye? What do you think was in his heart when he saw Isaac bidding farewell to his mother to take that three days' journey to the appointed place where the sacrifice was to be made? I imagine it was about all Father Abraham could do to keep from showing his great grief and sorrow at that parting, but he and his son trudged along three days toward the appointed place…They ascended the mountain, gathered the stones together, and placed the fagots upon them. Then Isaac was bound, hand and foot, kneeling upon the altar. I presume Abraham, like a true father, must have given his son his farewell kiss, his blessing, his love, and his soul must have been drawn out in that hour of agony toward his son who was to die by the hand of his own father. Every step proceeded until the cold steel was drawn, and the hand raised that was to strike the blow to let out the life's blood when the angel of the Lord said: ‘It is enough.’

“Our Father in heaven went through all that and more, for in his case the hand was not stayed. He loved his Son, Jesus Christ, better than Abraham ever loved Isaac, for our Father had with him his Son, our Redeemer, in the eternal worlds, faithful and true for ages, standing in a place of trust and honor, and the Father loved him dearly, and yet he allowed this well-beloved Son to descend from his place of glory and honor, where millions did him homage, down to the earth, a condescension that is not within the power of man to conceive. He came to receive the insult, the abuse, and the crown of thorns. God heard the cry of his Son in that moment of great grief and agony, in the garden when, it is said, the pores of his body opened and drops of blood stood upon him, and he cried out: ‘Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.’

“I ask you, what father and mother could stand by and listen to the cry of their children in distress, in this world, and not render aid and assistance? I have heard of mothers throwing themselves into raging streams when they could not swim a stroke to save their drowning children, rushing into burning buildings, to rescue those whom they loved.

“We cannot stand by and listen to those cries without its touching our hearts. The Lord has not given us the power to save our own. He has given us faith, and we submit to the inevitable, but he had the power to save, and he loved his Son, and he could have saved him. He might have rescued him from the insult of the crowds. He might have rescued him when the crown of thorns was placed upon his head. He might have rescued him when the Son, hanging between the two thieves, was mocked with, ‘Save thyself, and come down from the cross. He saved others; himself he cannot save.’ He listened to all this. He saw that Son condemned; he saw him drag the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and faint under its load. He saw that Son finally upon Calvary; he saw his body stretched out upon the wooden cross; he saw the cruel nails driven through hands and feet, and the blows that broke the skin, tore the flesh, and let out the life's blood of his Son. He looked upon that.

“In the case of our Father, the knife was not stayed, but it fell, and the life's blood of his Beloved Son went out. His Father looked on with great grief and agony over his Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’

“In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room, so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed his head, and hid in some part of his universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he had for his Son. Oh, in that moment when he might have saved his Son. I thank him and praise him that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his Son in mind, but he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere, and that his love for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of his Son and give him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer. Without him, without his sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have come glorified into his presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father in Heaven to give the gift of his Son unto men.”(Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1949], 151-155.)

[pam]

John 4:9 How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria

“How natural it would have been for others to turn from such a one in disgust. She was a woman; Jews of that age had no more conversation with women than necessary. She was a sinner, a woman who, having had five husbands, was now living with a man not her husband; Levitical law makes deadly clear how Jewish society regarded that.

“Most damning, she was a Samaritan. Today, it's hard to comprehend what that meant. Alfred Edersheim, the nineteenth century Jewish/Christian scholar, in his excellent book Life and Times of Jesus, describes the Samaritan condition:

“’Samaria, the area between Judea and Galilee, was inhabited by foreigners after Israel was taken captive. When the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, they refused to have anything to do with the idolatrous racial mixture in Samaria. Centuries of bitterness followed.

“’The Samaritans built a rival temple, repudiating all connection with Israel and dedicating their temple to Jupiter. While the Jews agonized under the Roman heel, the Samaritans prospered, even selling many Jews into slavery and waylaying and killing Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

“The Jews retaliated, Edersheim recounts, by treating the Samaritans with every mark of contempt, accusing them of falsehood and irreligion, disowning them as to race or religion. To the Jews, Shechem, the Samaritan capital, was ‘the city of fools, derided by all men.’ To partake of Samaritan bread was like eating the flesh of swine.

“Heir to this bitter history, Jesus faced the woman who had scorned Him. Forgetting His thirst, ignoring centuries of hatred and mistrust, He taught and loved.

“…So to this common, ignorant, sinful Samaritan woman, of all people, He for the first time revealed Himself, in plainness, to be the promised Messiah. With her and her people he spent two days, seeking to give to them the living water that springs up into eternal life. And many of these despised people believed and recorded their plain and simple testimony that this was the Christ, the Savior of the world.

“Can nations and races and individuals not learn from that divine example: That while we properly hold to convictions of who and what is right, there is a higher truth. It is that we are all brothers, that God loves us all. We are more alike in our longing for peace and safety and dignity than we are different.

“Jesus' treatment of the despised Samaritans with love and compassion opened the way for a rich harvest of souls who joined His followers in brotherhood in later years. Can we not follow Him?” (William B. Smart, Messages for a Happier Life: Inspiring Essays from the Church News [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1989], 139-140.)

[pam]

John 5:25,28 the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God



The Bible teaches of Christ’s ministry in the Spirit World in several locations. Here, he declares that the dead shall hear his voice, and ‘all that are in the graves shall hear his voice’ (v. 28). Could the words be rendered any plainer? Later, Christ promises the malefactor, ‘To day shalt thou be with me in paradise’ (Lu 23:43). Then Peter declares in great clarity, ‘For Christ…went and preached unto the spirits in prison’ (1 Pet. 3:18-19), ‘For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.’ (1 Pet. 4:6) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asks the world, “what good is all this preaching to the dead, if it is not done with the intent to bring salvation to the spirits of the dead? And how can they be saved without the saving ordinances of the gospel?”

Shall the dead hear the voice of the Son of God? Joseph F. Smith saw in vision the fulfillment of the Savior’s words:

‘I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great.
And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just…
They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world…
While this vast multitude waited…the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful;
And there he preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind’ (DC 138:11-19)

Joseph Fielding Smith

“…the Jews marveled. Perhaps they thought he meant those who were ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ should hear his voice. At any rate they marveled…Why did he preach to these disobedient spirits? Surely not to increase their torments, to taunt them for not accepting of his truth in the days of the prophets! Was it to tantalize them and make them more miserable because of the blessings they had lost! Jesus was a merciful Redeemer, who suffered as no other man suffered that he might save the children of his Father. He would take no pleasure in the suffering of the wicked./

"The visit of Christ to the spirits in prison was not made in vengeance, to show them that he had power to triumph over the grave, while they, who died without the remission of their sins, should remain in that condition of punishment forever. He took the glorious message of the gospel and proclaimed it to the dead with the promise that they, if they would obey it, should partake of its blessings.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2: 159.)


Joseph Fielding Smith

“Any misunderstanding of the plain statement of these words must be wilful, for they can have no meaning other than that the dead who were in the spirit world would hear his voice and come forth in the resurrection…

“What purpose could there possibly be, in the Savior going to the spirit world to preach the gospel, if there were no provision in the gospel for deliverance of the dead? Is it possible for any person to imagine that he went there merely to harrow up these souls, to increase their torment by proclaiming the gospel and then informing them that because they died without a knowledge of it, and unrepentant, without the remission of their sins, they would have to endure the torment of the unsaved forever? Surely not! There could be but one purpose for preaching the gospel to the dead, and that would be to ‘proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.’…Provision has been made by which the gospel message is proclaimed among these active spirits, and provision has been made in the gospel plan, appointed before the foundation of the earth was laid, for the vicarious work to be performed for them, if in that spirit world they repent and receive the gospel. Otherwise God would be a respecter of persons favoring the living and condemning the dead, who would be penalized when dying without the opportunity to receive the gospel.” (The Restoration of All Things [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1945], 228 - 229.)