This celebrated and oft-cited passage is not a statement from King Benjamin, but a quotation from the angel of God—a messenger speaking the words of the Messiah. It is a formula for the miraculous unfolding of our spiritual potential through the Atonement. The natural man does not receive the things of God (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). The natural man chooses to love Satan more than God, thus becoming carnal, sensual, and devilish (see Moses 5:13). The natural man does not repent. The natural man does not yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. The natural man is not a saint. Man is a dual being—with a mortal body and a spirit endowed with divine potential and with the capacity to choose what kind of person he will become. We are in a fallen state, thus needing the help of an all-merciful God to return to His presence. Mortality does not equate with being a natural man, for the natural man is such by choice. We choose to become a saint through the Atonement of Christ. Elder Neal A. Maxwell described the significance of this doctrine:
Of the great invitation we have received to “come home,” the Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses.” King Benjamin was specific in saying that if one wishes to become a saint, he must become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).
The more one sees of life, the more one understands why there is such a scriptural stress on submissiveness and meekness. The dangers flowing from an excess of ego are real and constant. Would that we first placed an ego-filtering screen over all our thoughts, words, and actions before they hurt others or embarrassed us. If we are steadily becoming more and more the man or woman of Christ, the filtering mesh in that ego screen will become finer; fewer things will slip through to harm.
Some questions may help us to “audit” how much operative faith we have in the Father’s plan of salvation.
• How perceptibly are we developing the Christlike qualities enumerated by King Benjamin?
• What will our sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters learn from us about gospel doctrines? Or will we depend entirely upon Church classrooms to teach our children?
• Does our understanding of the plan of salvation help us to handle disappointments in life? Can we partake of our tiny, bitter cups without becoming bitter?
• How often do we render quiet, Christian service? A lack of sufficient love for others constitutes a major failure for which no other successes can ever fully compensate.
(Lord, Increase Our Faith [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994], 48–49)
King Benjamin teaches us that the natural man—i.e., one who is unrepentant (see Mosiah 2:38)—is an enemy to God. The natural man will continue in his downward course unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, becoming a saint through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, becoming as a child—willing to submit to all things according to the will of the Lord. The application of this scripture to our lives has an exalting power. It is the pathway to salvation and exaltation.