Teachings of Jesus Christ Archive
Matthew records Jesus’ now famous phrase, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28). Contrasting Jewish teachers at the time, Jesus Christ invites people to come unto him, not the Law. No teacher before or any after ever invited Israel to come unto them; instead they invited people to the Law itself or the wisdom teachings that included the Law. This startling invitation proved once again that Jesus Christ stood apart and above all teachers of the Law—and that he stood above the Law and all wisdom. Read the rest of this entry »
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Paul taught that to come unto Jesus Christ is to enter a new realm of existence, a spiritual realm. It is to forsake death and come unto life, to put away evil and darkness and learn to walk in righteousness and light. “Know ye not,” Paul asked the Romans, “that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:3-6). Read the rest of this entry »
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The Fall of Adam brought into the world both physical death, which is the separation of the spirit from the body (James 2:26), and spiritual death, separation from God or alienation from the things of God (Alma 12:32). The Atonement of Jesus Christ redeems, or ransoms, us from the effects of the Fall. “Redemption,” Bruce R. McConkie, late Mormon apostle (apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints) taught, is of two kinds: conditional and unconditional” (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., Bookcraft, 1966, 623.)
Jesus Christ’s unconditional redemption provides two free gifts to mankind. The first unconditional gift is that all who ever have or ever will live in mortality will be redeemed from physical death through the Resurrection, because Jesus “taste[d] death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). John recorded the Savior’s own testimony that all “shall come forth; they who have done good, in the... Read the rest of this entry »
The New Testament portrays Joseph and Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as observant Jews (Luke 2:22-24). Luke reveals that Jesus was raised according to the customs of the people (Luke 2:41-42). We assume, therefore, that Jesus observed the Law of Moses as an obedient and faithful son of the Law.
During his mortal ministry, Jesus Christ often quoted from the Jewish scriptures—from the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms ( Luke 4:4, 8, 12). During his famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught, “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). Read the rest of this entry »
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Jesus Christ is the author of peace, the Prince of Peace. In this learning laboratory of mortality, we find that peace comes as we put Him first in our lives. We come to know that He lives, that Christ truly paid the price of our sins, our poor vision, our weaknesses, by suffering personally for each one of them, and that He has become our Advocate with the Father through Christ’s atoning sacrifice, to enable us, lift us, save us, and redeem us. He alone can bring peace to us through the gift of His Spirit.
The Savior’s words are literal and are for you and I: “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). Read the rest of this entry »
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Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming that the Father’s foreknowledge as to what would be, under given conditions, determined that such must be. It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself thereof. The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous... Read the rest of this entry »
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus Christ‘s most famous discourse. Many Christians and non-Christians have been deeply impressed and motivated by its teachings. Some people refer to it as the revelation of the higher law at a time when God’s people were still under the obligation of the lower one. On a superficial level, the Sermon on the Mount and its counterpart in Luke-the Sermon on the Plain-are a commentary on the ethics of the Law of Moses. Some elements they retain-as evidenced through silence on many important subjects-while other elements they specifically reform or transform.
Three main points of the Sermon on the Mount stand out as representative of the meaning and focus of the sermon as a whole: the Beatitudes, the six antitheses of Matthew 5, and the directions given to the disciples about how they should care for the flock. The Beatitudes, a later term that comes from the Latin “Blessed,” although simple in language... Read the rest of this entry »
