Chief among the plain and precious things taken from the Old Testament was the testimony that the Messiah would be the Son of God. Alma declared this doctrine to be the seed that grows up into the tree of everlasting life. In so doing he cited the testimony of three Old Testament prophets—Zenos, Zenock and Moses. He then quoted Zenos and Zenock to that effect. His quotation from Moses, however, though a Messianic prophecy, does not specifically state that the Messiah would be the “Son of God.” (See Alma 33.) In the present instance, Nephi refers to the same text that Alma quoted and also declares that it described the Messiah as God’s Son.
“Even So as Many as Should Look Upon the Son of God with Faith”
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the doctrine of Christ’s divine sonship. Alma, as noted, referred to it as the tree of everlasting life, meaning that all the doctrines of the kingdom are fruits plucked from this tree and are of necessity rooted in this doctrine.
The Atonement, the Resurrection, and the personal nature of God serve as classic examples. Of his own life, Christ said: “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:18.) That is to say: “Because my mother is a mortal woman I have inherited blood, or the ability to die, from her; and because God is my Father I have inherited immortality, or the ability to live, from him.”
Thus Christ, because he is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, is the only man who ever walked the face of this earth who had the capacity to both live and die- to lay down his life and to take it again. He became the first fruits of the resurrection, his body and spirit joining in an inseparable union. All who became heirs of mortality as a result of the fall of Adam become heirs of immortality through the death and resurrection of Christ. Every spirit that has been clothed with a body will have claim upon that body in the worlds to come. Like our Father, in whose image and likeness we are, we will be personal beings, and like him will have body, parts, and passions. Such are the fruits of divine sonship.