Jesus the Christ Archive
Jeff Simmons is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a Mormon husband and father–currently working as an Optician as he prepares for a Doctoral program in Optometry.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of the love that our Savior and our Heavenly Father have for each of us. All other principles taught through the gospel are to help us become more Christ-like and direct our lives in the service of others. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (sometimes inadvertently called the Mormon Church by the media), we believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored in its fullness in our day, and in His Atonement as the central doctrine and ruling principle of our faith.
For Mormons, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most important influence in our lives because of the hope that it gives us. Hope is an emotion which brings purpose to our everyday lives. Hope can inspire dreams and help us to accomplish those... Read the rest of this entry »
Jesus Christ: Be Still My Soul
I hung up the phone after speaking with an acquaintance, Ed. His emotional and spiritual temperature seemed to change with every set of daily circumstances. When something lent him favor, he was up and kind. He was humble when he positioned himself to see his blessings; when he forgot them, he was a different person. Without the gospel in his life, he tended to dive often off emotional cliffs that weren’t there. He acknowledged a miracle when he saw it and in the next breath, when an outcome wasn’t just what he expected, he was kicking and screaming. As he spoke, what I saw in my mind’s eye was, of all things, a fly. I saw it buzzing all over the place, never with a secure or lasting landing place, not being anchored to something that would allow it to be still, quiet. He was like that fly. I thought to myself, “He has no anchor in Christ, and is buzzing through life and changing colors with every event and happenstance.”... Read the rest of this entry »
Why is Jesus Christ called the Son of Man? While others in the Scriptures (particularly the Old Testament) who are called “son[s] of man” (Jeremiah 49:18, Ezekiel 4:16, Psalms 8:4), the word “son” is uncapitalized. Elder James E. Talmage, a Biblical scholar, sheds light on the answer in his renown work, Jesus the Christ. He says,
“In applying the designation to Himself, the Lord invariably uses the definite article. ‘The Son of Man’ was and is, specifically and exclusively, Jesus Christ. While as a matter of solemn certainty He was the only male human being from Adam down who was not the son of a mortal man, He used the title in a way to conclusively demonstrate that it was peculiarly and solely His own. It is plainly evident that the expression is fraught with a meaning beyond that conveyed by the words in common usage. The distinguishing appellation has been construed by many to indicate our Lord’s humble station as a mortal, and to connote that He stood... Read the rest of this entry »
Jesus
went to the temple during the feast of the Tabernacles. The temple was lit by four very large candelabra and their light could be seen for a great distance. Here, he rescued the woman about to be stoned for adultery and then proclaimed to those who watched the event, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Jesus Christ did not actually use the word grace in His earthly ministry. Only two verses reference this word in the four gospels, and these were both spoken by others. Luke tells us the grace of God was on Jesus as a child. John taught: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17, King James Version of the Bible). Therefore, our understanding of the word grace comes from others. Read the rest of this entry »
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The evening before the Lamb of God was to be crucified for the sins of the world and hours before He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus was sitting with his Apostles in a “large upper room” (Mark 14:15). It was here that He first instituted the sacrament: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples,” (Matthew 26:26). Then He said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” 1 Corinthians 11:24). Then, “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Thus, the purpose of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is to look back and remember Jesus the Christ and what He has done for each of us. Everything points “to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice [is] the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal” (Alma 34:14).... Read the rest of this entry »
The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ “embraces, sustains, supports, and gives life to all other gospel doctrines. It is the foundation upon which all truth rests and all things grow out of it and come because of it.”1 “The wondrous and glorious Atonement was the central act in all of human history.”2 Because of these statements, all things also point to Christ and His atonement. Those who lived before Christ looked forward to Him and His infinite and eternal sacrifice. Those who live after Christ look back to this greatest of all events and “remember what was done.”3
There were many different ways in which the blood sacrifices before Christ were types and shadows of the great and last sacrifice. Note a few of the details:
First, like Christ, the [sacrificial] animal was chosen and anointed by the laying on of hands. (The Hebrew title Messiah and the Greek title Christ both mean “the Anointed One.”) Second, the animal was to have its life’s blood spilt. Third,... Read the rest of this entry »
The atonement of Jesus Christ is the central doctrine of Christianity, and all other Christian doctrines come out of and are appendages to it.1 Not only can these other doctrines be connected back to the Savior and His Atoning Sacrifice, but if they are not, “there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them,” to use a phrase by President Boyd K. Packer, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.2 It is therefore not only important, but necessary, when studying any doctrine or teaching or appendage of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to connect it back to Jesus Christ and His eternal sacrifice.
When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, they were commanded “that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord” (Moses 5:5). Yet M. Russell Ballard, another apostle of the Church, has said that some have wondered, “How could the slaughtering of an animal upon an altar... Read the rest of this entry »
Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that the real answer to this question is beyond the scope of this article; indeed, it is beyond the scope of mortality and all things temporal: for “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Furthermore, “it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned [all the principles of exaltation]. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:306-7).
I am now able to attempt a basic answer to the above question.
One of the most profound statements that will act as a beginning to our answer was made by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said, “It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith. Salt... Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes some of the simplest questions are also some of the most profound. These types of questions are therefore some of the most difficult to answer. “Why is Jesus called the Son of God?” is one of these questions, simple, profound, and difficult to answer. But as one of my English Professors told me the other day, “The hard questions are really the only questions worth asking.” In that case, Why is Jesus called the Son of God?
In a basic sense, the question is closely related to the question the Spirit of the Lord asked Nephi: “Knowest thou the condescension of God?” (1 Nephi 11:16). Note a definition of “condescend” that the Oxford English Dictionary gives the word, “To depart from the privileges of superiority by a voluntary submission; to sink willingly to equal terms with inferiours.” I feel like I can use Nephi’s response to the Spirit’s question as my own response, “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning... Read the rest of this entry »
