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© 2004 by Intellectual
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"If I ever joined that Church
(the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) it would be
for another reason: In their midst Jesus Christ has a place of
pre-eminence as in no other Christian group."
So spoke a minister . . . to other churchmen who were discussing the "temporal achievements" of
Mormonism. Today he is
a Latter-day Saint.
A Careful
Student of the New Testament
What, I asked him . . . did he mean? He had been for at least 25 years a careful
student of the New Testament, of theology and of history. He had voiced with conviction the creedal
statements that Jesus was "Very God, God Incarnate." In prayer, in worship and service, all, he was convinced, "in
His footsteps," he had not only been captivated by the personality
of the Master but experienced, as he witnessed to his congregations,
the spirit of Him. Christ,
he often said, was not just a theological concept, but a "daily
walk, a fellowship, a present help." What
of this had he now abandoned, and what had he deepened? What, beyond it, had he discovered? What difference did it make?
As we quietly discussed things sacred, clarity of thought
and purity of feeling seemed to combine. Though
much, we both knew, failed to get into words, we came to "understand
one another, and both were edified and rejoiced together." (Doctrine
and Covenants 50:22)
This man had been pushed and pulled in the religious world
between two competing conceptions. Neither
had the full "ring of truth" to him, nor could he envision
a combination or compromise of them. To
take either of them seriously was, he felt, to dissolve the events
of Christ's life, particularly of Gethsemane and Golgotha, into
mystery of meaningless.
Two Extreme
Views
At one extreme, Jesus Christ was viewed as substantially God
the Father, the Triuma God of Greek and Latin creeds. His earthly ministry involved all the contradictions of incarnation:
The Immaterial became material, the Creator of man became a creature
of man, the Non-spatial and Non-temporal became subject to space
and time. Thus, though
God and man would remain forever unlike, Divine Incarnation,
by a miracle open only to the eye of faith, "reconciled" them. Today
Christianity, either by its saving covenants or by grace mediated
through the Biblical word, achieved the end envisioned, "salvation."
On this view Christ's "sufferings and death" were
those of an Absolute Being. In
spite of the paradoxical declaration (at the Council of Chaleadon)
of both the Full Divinity and Full Humanity of Jesus it
was clear that ultimately the manhood of Jesus was only the clothing
of His Godhead.
At the other extreme, Jesus was viewed as simply another man;
unique in some matters of degree, but certainly not in kind. He lived a remarkable, and at times inspiring,
life. Like so many reformers
of society He estranged those He sought to aid and met death
at the hands of the Roman authorities.
On this view Jesus' suffering and death were tragic. The prayer of Gethsemane was simply an effort
toward courage to face crucifixion. But
events in the life of Jesus had little more significance than
those in the life of Socrates. To
talk of "atonement," in legal, psychological, or spiritual
terms, was to indulge in nonsense.
Unable, then, to deny that there was something divine
about Christ, yet unable fully to believe that He can into the
world either wholly god or wholly man, this man sought more adequate
comprehension.
Revealed
Insights
The re-revealed insights of the restoration came to Him, as
to others, with a convincing power that was unspectacular but
pervasive. He saw in these insights the drawing together
of truths of opposed conceptions, the overcoming of their errors,
and a flood of light on the meaning of life both of Christ's,
and of our own.
Jesus Christ was not God the Eternal Father. He was the pre-eminent Son of God. He was not "another man." He was
the First-born in the spirit and the Only Begotten in the Flesh. His past, what He had in common with God the
Father, are the foundation of His role as Christ. To ignore or deny these is to miss the power and promise of His
mission.
Without detailing the vast effects of these promises, including
the resurrection, let us focus on Gethsemane and view it though
the manifestations of the Son of God in modern revelation.
Out of our own spiritual lack, our own darkness, there may
be profound misgivings about the significance of Jesus' example
and His relationship to us.
Christ Received
a Fullness
We may say, for example, "He was God from the beginning. He
was not really akin to us." Wrong. He lived, as we lived, in the pre-existent
presence of the Father. He
offered Himself as the "lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world," and assisted in the organization of the earth. In
these senses He was "the greatest of all" and was properly
called "God." But
mortality was for Him, as for us, a genuine second estate. And
in it
He received not of the fullness
at first, but continued from grace to grace until He received
a fullness. (Doctrine and Covenants 93.13)
We say, "But surely He was not subject to the conditions
we face." Wrong. Though by His Divine inheritance He had power
over death, He was tempted in "all points" as we are,
yet without sin. He did
not "ascend up on high" until He had
descended below all things that
He might be in and through all things the light of truth. (Doctrine
and Covenants 88:16).
Behold I am the light: I have set
an example for you." (3Nephi 18:16)
What manner of men ought ye to be?
Behold, verily I say unto you, even as I am. (3Nephi 27:27)
We say, "But because He did not violate the law of God
as we do, He does not know the burden of guilt and alienation." Wrong. Because of His sensitive, uncompromising
submission to the Father's will, He was the only one of the Father's
family who did not transgress, who in no sense deserved the throes
of sin and the withdrawal of the Spirit. Yet
through His life, climaxed by those incomprehensible h ours in
a Garden beyond the brook Cedron, He suffered "according
to the flesh" (Alma 7) the pains and afflictions of all
the forms of human evil doing. He participated, voluntarily, in the actual
conditions that follow in the wake of deliberate transgression. He "took upon him" the cumulative
impact of our vicious thoughts, motives, and acts.
He Endured
More Than Man Can Suffer
We say, "But it was easier for Him because of His Divine
Sonship." Wrong. It was infinitely harder. He endured "even more than man can suffer
except it be unto death," (Mosiah 3:7) how exquisite and
hard to bear we k now not, which caused Him:
to tremble because of pain, and
to bleed at every pore and to suffer both body and spirit. And would that I might not drink the bitter
cup and shrink. Nevertheless,
glory be to the Father, and I partook, and finished my preparations
unto the children of men." (Doctrine and Covenants 10:13,
19)
We say, "But He was never left as we are unto Himself." Wrong. Who can comprehend His cry on the cross, "My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Who can fathom His reiterated statement in
modern times,
I have trodden the winepress alone,
even the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty
God." (Doctrine and Covenants 88:106)
We say, "But what He did twenty centuries ago cannot
affect me now." Wrong. The Christ who was is the Christ who is. Out of His life came a full knowledge of righteousness
and full knowledge of the effects of sin. This means that no human encounter, no tragic
loss, no spiritual failure is beyond the pale of His present
knowledge and compassion gained.
according to the flesh -- that He
might succor His people according to their infirmities. (Alma7)
The Complete
Expression of Love
No act in all history has united
intelligence, virtue and mercy in so complete an expression of
love, a love which, even dimly glimpsed, will "draw all
men unto him;" a love which underlies His present living
roles as Mediator, Revelator, Savior, Redeemer, and Advocate
with the Father.
We say, "But His Glorious triumph
has no bearing on my own." Wrong. Exalted
now on high, Jesus Christ is He by whom "life, light, Spirit,
and power" are shed forth from the presence of and by the
will of God. (Doctrine and Covenants 50:27) Through
Jesus Christ, we may come unto the Father. The pattern ordained,
a pattern which begins when the light of Christ given to every
man who enters the world and leads, if it is honored, through
the "first principles" includes sublime blessings:
knowledge, glory and communion, love, joy and peace, blessings
even of personal visitation, which transcend the highest aspiration
of martyr or mystic, and of enlightened souls in every age.
But beyond these we are promised,
If you keep my commandments you
shall receive of his fullness, and be glorified in me as I am
in the Father: therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace
for grace." (Doctrine and Covenants 93:20)
Touched, as few who have tasted of His Spirit and love fail
to be, with "a broken heart and contrite spirit" we
may walk the path whereby to become, as President David O. McKay
has repeatedly testified with Peter, "partakers of the divine
nature." (2 Peter 1:4) As He was begotten of God the Father both
in spirit and in body, so be being "begotten of Jesus Christ" through
His laws and ordinances, we may be transformed into a like condition
of complete fulfillment, "sons of God" in the fullest
sense, like Him.
Wherefore, all things are theirs
whether life or death, or things present of things to come, all
are theirs and they are Christ's and Christ is God's. And they
shall overcome all things." (Doctrine and Covenants 76:
59, 60)
The Pre-eminence
of Jesus Christ
Whatever else the "pre-eminence of Jesus Christ" means
(and it means much, much more); this surely is the heart of it. Today, in His revelations, in hymns and sacrament
prayers, in testimonies of living witnesses and the radiance
of lives endowed with His power; in the spirit and operations
of His Priesthood, and in the covenants and ordinances of His
holy temples, this drama, enacted in the land of Palestine, is
conveyed to our souls. As
His "sufferings and death" brought man nearer to God
and each other, so individually, as we seek to comprehend Him,
He brings us ever nearer the realization of our own spiritual
destiny, that the light in us may "grow brighter and brighter
until the perfect day." (Doctrine and Covenants 50:24) No hour of life need be so despairing or so
exalting as to blot out His voice:
Listen to him who is your advocate
with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him -- Saying,
behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom
thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of Thy Son which was
shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be
glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe
on my name, that they may co me unto me and have ever-lasting
life. (Doctrine and Covenants 45:4
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