“How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth”—that is why we serve missions. But what things, specifically, are so important for us to make known? Second Nephi 2 and 9 are two of the most important chapters in all of scripture. Lehi and Jacob taught about the greatness of God in providing redemption from our fallen condition. The following chart lays out side-by-side the points of the glorious plan of redemption.
Note that all things on the left side of the chart take us down (into a fallen condition), and all things on the right side of the chart take us back up (towards a redeemed condition).
What a great and glorious message we take to the world! With infinite mercy, grace, and love, our Father and our Savior have provided a way for us to escape all the consequences of the Fall. The consequences include becoming sinners, heaping more and more sin upon ourselves (and justice demanding suffering for all of it), eventually having our bodies and spirits separated by death, and being out of God’s presence, with no possible way for us to resolve our own plight and get back to him. All of these consequences would otherwise have been irreversible and permanent were it not for the intercession or intervention of God himself. No wonder we are so anxious to bring everyone to Christ—because “there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah.”
Two Inseparable Parts of the Plan
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall.
2 Nephi 2:25–26
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christ intercedes for everyone, and those who believe in him will be saved. They are saved by his grace—that is, his loving kindness and enabling power—and his merits (see commentary at Alma 24:1–11).
Through Jesus’ intercession on our behalf, every child of Heavenly Father will be taken back into the presence of God for judgment. The Book of Mormon is clear that spiritual death is overcome by every soul returning to the presence of God. But then it is also clear that “no unclean thing can dwell with God”; therefore, those who are not worthy, those who do not have sufficient light in them in order to endure God’s glorious company, must be immediately escorted back out of his presence and be “cast off forever” (1 Nephi 10:21).
Again, as the preceding chart illustrates, the glorious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ (which is originally and forever the gospel of God the Father) is that all the consequences of the Fall are resolved through the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has made it possible to overcome all of the otherwise devastating and permanent effects of our fallen condition. It remains for us to do our part by keeping his commandments and receiving and living all of his teachings, laws, principles, ordinances, and covenants so that we will merit eternal life with him and our Father.