At the sign of the Savior's death, the Savior officially announced to the ancient inhabitants of America the fulfillment of the Law of Moses. He then commanded that, instead of sacrificing animals, the people offer up a new kind of sacrifice - one with which the Jews were, no doubt, all ready familiar:
“...ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost…” (3 Nephi 9:19-20)
What is a Broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit?
I've always struggled to define this sacrifice in concrete terms. How do I make a point of offering up a broken heart and a contrite spirit? How do I get there? Until I had experienced it, I didn't know what a baptism of fire was either. In this article, we'll look at scriptures that help us to understand both.
One of the reasons the Lord asks so much of us as members of His church is that he wants us to get to the point where we have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He wants us to reach the ultimate spiritual conundrum: I have to, but I can't. Until we reach a point where we feel this kind of need for a Savior, our personal pathway into conversion to Christ cannot begin. God's strictness and His many requirements of us are designed to put us on a collision course with that conundrum, that realization that the guy I see in the mirror every morning really truly does need a Savior, right here and now. Eventually, every faithful Latter-Day Saint will come into some aspect of the gospel that we just absolutely have to get right in our lives, something that we find ourselves utterly unable to accomplish alone, something for which we are willing to sacrifice to have the Lord help us with it.
My Own Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit
Not that everyone is as stubborn and unable to see as I have been, but in my case, that event came when addiction had made a complete mess of my life. Not having any idea of how my Savior could help me, I had tried everything I could think of to break free of it, but had been unsuccessful. I remember the heart-rending prayer I finally uttered one lonely Sunday morning: "You're my last hope; I've tried everything else. I've just got to make this change. If this doesn't work, I'm just gonna give up, because I don't know what else to do! Please help me!"
What ensued was a trying time of work, sacrifice, and study that led me to understand some very basic things about how to access the power of the Atonement. I wish so desperately that some bishop or counselor along the way had noticed the most obvious of all needs and had seen fit to teach me these simple yet powerful, life-changing things. But there was no one - no one that is, until I got on my knees. I suppose it doesn't matter how much your parents or your bishop, or a counselor may teach you, or how much you learn from the scriptures. In the end, you too will have to learn these things tearfully, on your knees, one-on-one with your loving Savior.
Accessing the Atonement for making changes in our lives starts with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. This sacrifice, which must be willfully offered up to the Lord in prayer, has three parts: I have to, but I can't; please help me!
I Have To
The first part is the realization that, whether through consequence or through an increase in our love for God, we have developed a compelling need to change something in our lives to come more into conformity with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The Importance of Strict Obedience
The prophet Nephi understood the strictness of the Lord's commandments. During his final statements in the book of 2 Nephi, despite his preference to teach the loving, healing word of God, Nephi had been commanded of the Lord to utter severe warnings to those who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. This he did, concluding with this powerful affirmation of both his reticence and his unswerving obedience:
"...thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey." (2 Nephi 33:16)
There are those who believe all they have to do is claim faith in Christ and they are saved. But the scriptures are clear: imperfect though we are and needing a Savior to help us, there has to be genuine effort on our part to keep the Lord's commandments. One of the many things the Lord taught during His ministry was this:
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Resisting "Unto Blood"
The Lord, in making the Atoning sacrifice, gave the highest example of strict obedience. Faced with the burden of the sins of the world, the Savior said: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39)
He then endured suffering that caused blood to come from every pore in his body as he prayed in Gethsemane, even so much that He needed an angel to strengthen Him. (see Luke 22:41-44) That suffering continued while He was on the cross, and it eventually cost Him His life long before the Jews or His Roman executioners expected Him to die. (see John 19:30-37)
In his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul wrote:
"...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." (Hebrews 12:1-4)
In Gethsemane and again on the cross, our Savior "resisted unto blood" for our sins. He did not stop until He knew He could say with confidence: "It is finished". (see John 19:30) It seems only fair that we should be willing to do the same. We need to be willing to work hard enough to be worthy of the Lord's sacrifice which He gave to help us. During His ministry, the Lord said essentially the same thing:
"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:38)
I don't know how many times I've felt a renewed conviction that motivated me to make a new commitment to myself and to my Heavenly Father that I would work on a temptation that needed it. I'd get all excited and determined and I'd go to work. The opposition would mount, and I'd start losing battles. Before I knew it the conviction was gone, and I'd forgotten once again what it was I was trying to do or why. In my mind, I compare this to the apostles, who, upon seeing their Savior and Friend suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane, were so traumatized that it physically exhausted them. All the Savior wanted was to feel that His friends in mortality were with Him in His hour of need - the worst hour of need in all the history of man. Said He: "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40)
If we would know the freedom and the joy in Christ which He purchased with His blood and suffering, we must be willing watch with Him, to enter a Gethsemane of our own, a Gethsemane of withstanding temptation - resisting "unto blood"! We must be willing to kneel down by the Savior's side in Gethsemane and walk with Him the lonely way to Calvary, a cross of our own on our shoulders.
Burying Our Weapons and Doing Without
I believe one of the best examples of the kind of obedience which the Lord requires of us was given by the Lamanite converts of Ammon and of the sons of Mosiah, the same people who went on to become the Ammonites in the land of Jershon. They buried their weapons of war - their only means for providing for their families as they were accustomed to doing. They were willing to learn a new trade, to change everything about the way they were living. They were willing to do without while they were learning a new way to live, even to the point of giving up their God-given right to self-defense as their way of demonstrating to the Lord that they had repented of their many murders:
"...they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth. And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands. And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin..." (Alma 24:17-19)
Just as the Ammonites did, the Lord really does require us to eventually learn to prefer losing what we have to gain from sin over justifying and committing it. He knows this is impossible for us to do by ourselves. The reason for this expectation is that He also knows it will force us to turn to Him, which is the point in our lives where He can really begin to bless, to guide, and to empower us as never before. This is the point where Jesus Christ becomes our one true and living, loving God.
Abiding in God's Love
One thing I've discovered in my own spiritual journey is that discipleship in Christ is about God loving us, us loving Him, and Him and us loving others - a dynamic which the Lord called "abiding in my love". We often talk about having "love languages". Some people feel most loved when they receive an act of service. Others value quality time spent with a loved one. Still others need demonstrations of physical affection, and so on. God's love language is strict obedience. Said He:
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:10)
Note that He doesn't ask that we obey Him for His benefit, but rather for our own benefit, because it allows Him to do things for us that secure our joy in Him. Being willing to offer up a broken heart and a contrite spirit may be painful, and strict obedience in a world that worships having and doing whatever it wants may be a great sacrifice, but to those who do so, trusting in the Lord's care, the end goal is great joy that can only come to us through Him. To early Latter-Day Saints, the Lord made this statement through the prophet Joseph Smith:
"...in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full." (Doctrine and Covenants 101:36)
I Can't
The gospel - and even the world - are designed such that we'll eventually run into something we can't do on our own, something for which our personal resources fall far short of what is needed.
Fishes, Loaves, and Baskets
The message of the scriptures and, indeed, Christ's message to the world is essentially this: salvation equals what you have to give to the effort, plus what He has to give to the effort. Of all the many miracles wrought by the Savior and recorded in the Gospels, there is one that I believe is best suited to teach this principle. The Lord was teaching a group of five thousand men and their wives and children when it began to be late in the day. The group was in need of food. He asked what the multitude had on hand, and their response was:
“We have here but five loaves, and two fishes…" (Matthew 14:17)
The Lord took what they had and added to it:
"...and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude… And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full." (Matthew 14:18-20)
There is no way those people could have fed themselves with the means they had at their disposal. They would have had to split up the meeting and go home or go into town in search of food. The fact that their five loaves and two fishes fell far short of what was needed ended up being irrelevant. All that was important is that they gave absolutely all of the little bit that they had, and the Lord made the rest possible.
For me, the way this most often finds application in my personal life is in my battle with temptation.
Tempted Above Our Ability
Paul taught the Corinthians:
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Alma the Younger said this to the people of the Valley of Gideon:
"And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance; But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear." (Alma 13:27-28)
Here, we see plainly the "have to", "can't", and "please help me" parts in his language: "...but that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord... tempted above that which ye can bear... watch and pray continually...". Alma's words also serve as a warning that we can indeed be tempted "above that which [we] can bear". But, just as Paul said, the Lord provides the "way to escape, that we may be able to bear it". People who fail to pray in those moments of need - myself included - often experience more than we can handle alone, and then, unwittingly, fail to trust in this truth.
The Branch Cannot Bear Fruit of Itself
During His ministry, the Savior made it very clear that in order to do all He has commanded of us, at the level He requires of us, we need His help:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no
more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." (John 15:4-8)
It's easy to forget that one of the lessons we are here on earth to learn is to trust in the Lord's care, to get on our knees and ask for help in the very moment of our most dire need.
There is one commandment that I believe the Lord gave with the singular purpose of helping us realize our need for His help in all things:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
Note that, following His resurrection, the Lord gave the same commandment to the people of the Nephites in ancient America, with this added part:
"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48, emphasis added)
In other words, during His ministry, the Savior gave a commandment that even He himself did not reach until He was resurrected. In other words, the Lord has literally given a commandment which mortal beings by definition can never keep. Why did He do this? He wanted us to understand that without His help, "[we] can do nothing". He wanted us to understand that when we let our gospel living slip, there is no getting started again without Him. There is no real getting underway in the gospel again until we have a personal understanding between ourselves and Him, that we will choose to sacrifice unto obedience, but that we will let Him supply the power to make it possible. He wanted us to reach that painful point so that, from there, we could go on to experience the great joy of having His constant help and guidance and care as we strive to live the gospel!
On the one hand, the Savior said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15) On the other hand he said, "Without me ye can do nothing". The combination of these two injunctions adds up to a sort of between-the-lines commandment: "let me help". What He's really saying here is, "Let me be the vine!"
Please Help Me
At some point in our process of conversion to Christ, our realization of the dire and urgent need to change, combined with our experiencing the shortfall in our own personal resources has to put us on our knees, pleading with Him who does have the resources to help us.
Ask and It Shall Be Given You
Following His mortal ministry, the Savior appeared in resurrected form to the ancient inhabitants of America. He gave them the same sermon He'd given on the mount during His mortal life, but with the addition of one small part - a part meant to offer relief to those who've realized they need and want to live the gospel, but that they are utterly unable do it all alone:
“…blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (3 Nephi 12:3, emphasis added, compare Matthew 5:3)
The Savior's promise to them that follow Him is this:
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:7-11)
Such is our Heavenly Father's good will toward men and His overwhelming desire to help us, if we'll just ask! This promise is so important that it's repeated multiple times in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. (see 3 Nephi 14:7, Doctrine and Covenants 11:5 for a few examples)
If we are not careful, we can be tempted "above that [we] are able". The Lord does provide an escape, that we may be able to bear temptation, but we have to ask for it in the very moment of temptation, when we may feel least like praying!
Watch and Pray Always
One of the reasons we experience frustration in living the gospel is that we expect the Lord to save us from our challenges and fix all our problems. Either that, or, knowing He'll do no such thing, we wonder what it is exactly that He will do. What He will do is lend us His power to face those challenges, to live the gospel, not in the absence of our weaknesses or because we've put them behind us somehow, but rather in spite of the fact that they continue to plague our path day by day. But we have to remember to ask for it in the very moment when we most need it. We have two choices: either crash and burn yet again, or watch and pray always, just as the Savior said, and find ourselves built upon a firm foundation, whereon if men build they cannot fall.
While among the Nephites, following His resurrection, the Savior taught:
"Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.... [I] have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see... and whosoever breaketh this
commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation." (3 Nephi 18:18-25)
King Benjamin taught his people the same concept:
"...And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." (Mosiah 4:29-30)
Steadfastness in Christ
Nephi called this dependence on the Lord's righteousness "relying wholly upon the merits of Him who is might to save" and "press[ing] forward with a steadfastness in Christ". (see 2 Nephi 31:19-20) Both Helaman and the Savior called it "build[ing] upon the Rock of the Redeemer... a sure foundation, whereon if men build, they cannot fall" (see Helaman 5:12, Matthew 7:7-8, 24-27). Captain Moroni taught about the importance of not getting decoyed out of our strongholds, saying "it [was] easier to keep the city from falling into the hands of [their enemies] than to retake it from them." (Alma 59:9) It's easier to keep the Lord and His righteousness helping us than it is to fight our battles on our own while we're working to be reconciled to God.
All true disciples know that we utterly, truly cannot live righteously without borrowing the Lord's power each and every time we need it. We cannot live the gospel in spite of our weaknesses without watching and praying always that we "be not tempted above that [we] are able". We will not have what we need for our daily battles without coming to the Fountain and asking for that living water which only He can give. As a general authority pointed out in this most recent general conference, some weaknesses will be with us until the end of our lives, but the Lord supplies the power to live the gospel in spite of them. This is the "gift of God" unto all them that ask Him. Thus shall He clothe the grass of the field. (see Matthew 6:26-33)
The Gift of God: Living Water, The Power of Righteousness
I think the reason why we sometimes don't try as hard as we could, or why we don't trust the Lord is that we just have no idea how much He wants to help, how much He would give and will give to our effort if we would just believe and ask. We don't realize the great joy that comes of working with the Lord in this way.
To a woman at a well in Samaria, the Savior said: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John 4:10)
So what is this living water exactly? The Lord taught the prophet Mormon that living water is spiritual power, drawn from a fountain of righteousness - spiritual power that makes weak things become strong unto us:
“... if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.” (Ether 12:27-28)
Righteousness is the power by which we are to live the gospel, a power that comes from Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all righteousness. When we run out of our own righteousness, we have to draw from the Savior's fountain.
Paul said it this way:
“But now the righteousness of God… is manifested, …Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference [among us]: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:21-23)
All of us without exception need to learn to borrow the Lord's power for living the gospel!
The Lord's promise to those of us willing to learn to depend on Him and on His living water, given through the prophet Isaiah is this:
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen." (Isaiah 43:18-20)
The saints who followed Alma the Elder and built the city of Helam were subjected to captivity under the Lamanites. They felt this kind of support from the Lord, albeit in a very literal way:
"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." (Mosiah 24:14-15)
I believe Mormon's purpose for including this story in the Book of Mormon was to show us what can happen when, in a moment of temptation, we "seek the Lord and His righteousness". The people of Helam acknowledged their need for a Savior in order to do all the Lord expected of them. Because they did this and pleaded with Him unceasingly, He made them able to bear their burdens.
We often wonder how we're supposed to live up to all the Lord has expected of us. But salvation isn't just a wiping away of offenses, it is salvation into the ability to live the gospel, by way of both the outpouring of righteousness "upon all them that believe" as we fight our battles with temptation, and by the remission of sins which we can receive when we are baptized or when we prepare diligently and partake of the sacrament. How do we get there?
To put the process in a nutshell, the Savior said:
"...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
In His Strength I Can Do All Things
Ammon, after serving as a missionary among the Lamanites and seeing seven cities of them completely converted to the gospel - a thing which their peers at home had thought impossible - said this about the means that had enabled him and the sons of Mosiah to do it:
"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things..." (Alma 26:12)
Even God Himself defines His strength in terms of its usefulness to us, His children. The Lord told the apostle Paul:
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Paul continues: "I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me... I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
He Shall Prepare a Way for Them
As I mentioned previously, Nephi understood the importance of doing as the Lord commands. But he also knew that, in exchange for his willingness and determination to obey, he could expect the Lord to provide the means for him to succeed. Upon being asked to obtain records from an evil and hostile man with armed guards - a thing any reasonable human being would deem foolhardy - Nephi told his father:
“I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” (1 Nephi 3:7)
In most cases, when we need help from our Savior, it is in the midst of temptation or trial, and, in most cases, the way the Lord helps is by offering us power unto righteousness - the power of righteousness!
During His ministry both among the Jews and among the Nephites, He taught:
"And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost." (3 Nepi 12:6, compare Matthew 5:6)
God didn't just command Gideon to attack the army of the Midianites; He made the fleeces turn wet or dry overnight in answer to Gideon's plea for His assurance of success. He told him to gather thousands of men, then gave him a way to sort out only a few hundred for the mission. Gideon was overwhelmed at the though of attacking the whole army of the Midianites with only a few hundred men, but, under cover of dark, and using nothing but lanterns and drums, those men were able to scare the Midianites so badly that they destroyed themselves. (see Judges 6-7)
It Is By Grace That We Are Saved
There is another word used in the scriptures that is synonymous with "righteousness": it is "grace". Both Nephi and Paul taught:
"...we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23)
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Paul tells us what empowered his personal transformation from persecutor to apostle:
"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corinthians 15:9-10)
Notice how both Nephi and Paul showed the importance of "doing all we can do" and "laboring more abundantly than they all", but that, ultimately, when grace finally took over, salvation ended up being more the Lord's gift to give for their diligence in asking for His help than it was theirs to earn by their works. The same thing applies to us. It is by grace and grace alone, relying alone upon the merits of Him who is might to save, that we are saved after all we can do. Incidentally, the definition of "saved" depends on what it is you're trying to overcome.
Paul reminded the Hebrews of the importance of accessing the Fountain of All Righteousness, which he called the throne of grace:
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Genuine Effort
The Lord knows fully well we are not perfect, that we are unable to be perfect while in mortality. He does not expect perfection in all things. What he does expect is genuine effort - "all we can do". If we will offer that, we stand to experience the great joy of borrowing both His righteousness and His perfection
So how do we know when our effort counts as "all we can do?" It's easy; the Lord will tell you. By paying attention to some things, we can know what the Lord makes of our current effort level. Our effort can range across a spectrum from open rebellion, to not really trying, to giving it "all we can do".
The Spectrum of Genuine Effort
- Level 1: Open Rebellion or Spiritual Darkness - in this state, if we have known the gospel, we have given up. We may actually be living in search of rules to break. We lose - or never experience to begin with - the ability to feel spiritual things, to the point that we forget why we ever believed or cannot bring ourselves to understand why others still do. Constant inexplicable misery hangs overhead and is exacerbated in the presence of those whom we know to be trying to do what they believe is right. Those who have not known Jesus Christ or His gospel may be looking for spiritual light or something bigger than themselves to be a part of, but not know what that might be or where to find it. (Doctrine and Covenants 123:11-14, Mosiah 2:36-38, 1 Nephi 17:45)
- Level 2: Not Really Trying - we are spiritually coasting, wanting the good things the gospel offers and occasionally doing right and avoiding wrong, but not really sacrificing to always do right and never do wrong to the best of our ability. If we stay at this level, we run the risk of moving down to Level 1; but with more sacrifice and effort, we can begin to feel the great joy of growing in the gospel. (Revelation 3:15-16, Alma 12:10-11, Luke 16:13)
- Level 3: Trying Sometimes - occasionally, we remember that "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven" and we do enough of it to feel a little something by way of mountains moving the next time we partake of the sacrament, but we keep dropping the ball. This stunts our spiritual growth - a state referred to in the scriptures as "damned", meaning not "condemned" or "cast out", but rather "stopped" or "held back". If we stay at this level, we run the risk of moving down to Level 2; but with more sacrifice and effort we will no longer be "held back", but will be permitted to know the great joys that come with moving to Level 4. (Mark 12:30, Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-29), LDS Hymns #27)
- Level 4: Doing All We Can Do - we are trying hard enough that it hurts when we fail, and we're responding to every temptation and trial with immediate and fervent pleading to have the Lord shore up flagging spiritual strength. In other words, we are watching and praying always, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. we hold tight to the great value we find in fighting our spiritual battles side-by-side with our loving Savior. Concerning the importance of renewing our efforts when we fall and of combining work with prayer unto the receiving of grace, the prophet Hosea taught: "Sow to yourselves in righteousness (make a commitment or covenant with God and yourself), reap in mercy (receive the Lord's righteousness); break up your fallow ground (make a genuine effort): for it is time to seek the Lord (watch and pray always), till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (by grace we are saved after all we can do)" At this effort level, if all we're doing is trying hard, we'll experience constant failure and let-downs, and we run the risk of moving down to any one of the lower levels. But if we are working hard and praying hard, we, the poor in spirit, stand to see that the kingdom of God truly is at hand, and it truly is ours for the having. You'll know that, in the Lord's eyes, you are doing "all you can do" when you feel Him come and "rain righteousness upon you". (2 Nephi 32:9, 3 Nephi 12:3-8, Isaiah 55:1-3, John 4:10-14, Ether 12:27-28, John 15:4-6, Hosea 10:12)
Setting Our Sights High
We've all heard that old saying: it's better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit what you're aiming at. We won't try hard unless we know intuitively that the thing we are trying to accomplish is hard. In order to experience the great joy of having the Lord's help in our lives, we have to set a spiritual goal that is beyond our reach, and we have to get after it, working and praying like never before, pleading with the Lord to get us the rest of the way there.
The Lord tells us what happens when we set our sights on His glory:
"And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will." (Doctrine and Covenants 88:67-68)
Those who want what is right badly enough to put some constant prayer and personal elbow grease into making it happen are referred to in scripture as the "pure in heart". To this group of people the Lord made this promise: "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". (Matthew 5:8, compare 3 Nephi 12:8)
Take My Yoke Upon You
To succeed at living the gospel, we have to be willing to shoulder the burden placed by the commandments of God. We have to be willing and committed. We have to take up the yoke and begin pulling. But that isn't enough. Without the Lord's help we cannot and will not succeed. We need Him to take up His side of our yoke and pull with us.
The Lord, ever able to pull our burdens with us, no matter how great they may be, has invited us to try His willingness to do exactly that:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
When the Lord starts pulling with us, the gospel, with all its dos and don'ts, ceases to be a burden and becomes the source of our power. That's what it means to "see" God!
Come Unto Christ and Be Perfected in Him
In his epilogue to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Moroni gave us an invitation to experience the power of Christ and His grace in our lives - a power that he knew would enable a kind of spiritual perfection that is supposed to be impossible for mortal beings to reach. Said he:
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:32-33)
If we will grab hold of Moroni's invitation and let a fierce love of God and of working with Him in all things teach us the importance of keeping His commandments, if we will learn to watch and pray always and give it everything we've got, we can begin to feel His grace, His power, His living water, His fountain of righteousness filling our hearts and souls with the ability to do all that He has required of us. Although our burdens and trials do not change, we will begin to feel them growing lighter by the day, and we will begin to have a sense that something bigger is about to happen between ourselves and Him.
A Baptism of Fire
The Savior's promise to us is that, if we will offer unto Him a broken heart and a contrite spirit, He will baptize us as with fire and with the Holy Spirit.
The prophet Nephi taught that this baptism of fire could come in conjunction with a baptism in water, but note that he refers briefly to the conditions we've already discussed:
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost" (2 Nephi 31:13)
Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming of the Savior into mortality and of his power to help us fight our battles as with "burning and fuel of fire". This prophecy can also apply to us, in our daily "walk with Christ":
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and increased the joy—they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." (2 Nephi 19:2-5, compare Isaiah 9:2-5)
By the time we reach a baptism of fire, we've been through many, many cycles of trying and failing, trying and praying, wondering when the day would come when we would "see" God as the scriptures have promised. At some point, we figure out that we need both constant effort and constant prayer; we need to involve the Lord in order to get anywhere, spiritually speaking. As we diligently do this, we discover Him gradually making our burdens "light upon our backs, even that we cannot feel them". If this goes on long enough, upon either being baptized or partaking of the sacrament, we stand to experience a baptism of fire - an experience that is far more powerful and life-changing than anything we could ever imagine!
There are several examples of people experiencing this baptism of fire in the scriptures:
- The eunuch, having been baptized by Philip, "went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:36-39)
- Lehi and Nephi preach in prison, the Lamanites are encircled by "fire" (Helaman 5:23-50)
- King Benjamin and his people experience "exceeding joy" that so great that it "caused their mouths to be shut that they could not find utterance" upon renewing their covenants (Mosiah 4:20)
Circumcision of Heart
This baptism of fire is also referred to in scripture as a "circumcision of heart", the "winds of Pentecost", or the receiving of the "gift of the Holy Ghost":
- The Holy Ghost is poured out on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4)
- Peter promises the gift of the Holy Ghost to those who are baptized (Acts 2:38)
- Jesus teaches Nicodemus about being born again of the Spirit (John 3:1-8)
- Paul writes to the Colossians about "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ...made without hands" (2 Colossians 11)
"Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish also. Wo unto the uncircumcised of heart, for a knowledge of their iniquities shall smite them at the last day." (2 Nephi 9:32-33)
A circumcision of heart or baptism of fire does not free us from the temptations and trials of mortality; it only frees us from the spiritual consequences of previous choices, the entanglements that make it so hard to put a stop to sin. It cuts away ugly things in our hearts that need to go. The experience leaves us with tender emotions, but it also leaves us free - free to love and to live God's truth!
The Winds of Pentecost in Latter Days!
Just as in times of old, today, in the Church of Jesus Christ, new members who have just been baptized are instructed under the authority of the ancient, restored priesthood to "receive the Holy Ghost". Without fail, each time this happens, those present can feel the "winds of Pentecost" blowing, the gift of the Holy Ghost being poured out once again!
While serving as a missionary, I had the opportunity to baptize a man by the name of Raphael Castillo. He had been in dire need of a change in his life and had sought that change through becoming a member of the Church. I will never forget the joy - the tears in his eyes, the quiver in his voice, or the power that filled the room that day as we baptized him and instructed him to receive the Holy Ghost. He truly went on his way rejoicing, having been born again of the Spirit and having become a new creature in Christ!
Salvation and the Baptism of Fire
Latter-Day Saints as also other Christians often think of "salvation" in terms of only one of its definitions: being saved into a happy and glorious place at the last day, or after we die. But the thing is, salvation is something that begins to come the moment we ask for it - in the face of temptation.
A missionary by the name of Amulek taught the Zoramites:
"Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you." (Alma 34:31)
As soon as we begin watching and praying, the Lord begins pouring out His righteousness "unto all and upon all that believe" and thus, the great plan of redemption is brought about unto us - immediately! If we keep it up, this watching and praying and redeeming will grow and grow until, by way of the ordinances of the priesthood, it becomes a baptism of fire - a thing that causes knee-jerk responses and disposition toward indulgence in old habits to disappear, leaving unbelievable great joy and a deep sense of freedom in their place!
Earlier, I made reference to king Benjamin and his people's experience in receiving their baptism of fire. In the next chapter, the people are given a chance to respond to what their king has taught them. They describe how they felt about their experience:
"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2)
Salvation from sin is no more or less than this one thing: asking and having the Lord's help in overcoming! Realizing that the Lord's power has freed us to succeed at doing things that were once impossible for us is the greatest thrill any human being can ever know, and it comes by way of a baptism of fire!
Also of Interest
My most life-changing baptism of fire (What Jesus Christ Means to Me)
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