Jesus’ message to the Nephites could not be clearer: they are to (1) come unto Jesus and be saved; (2) understand that the law of Moses is fulfilled in him; and (3) keep his commandments. If they will do these things, they will enter into the kingdom of heaven and have eternal life (3 Nephi 12:20; 15:5, 9–10).
Each of these directives, however, is inextricably linked to the other two and is centered in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, on the other hand, is the earthly incarnation of the Lord (Jehovah), the God of the Old Testament (2 Nephi 9:23; 25:29; D&C 18:47; 38:1). As we learn from the Old Testament, moreover, the Lord (Jehovah) personifies salvation (Exodus 15:2; Job 13:16; Psalms 62:1–7; Isaiah 12:2; 62:11; cf. D&C 97:20). In other words, in his earthly incarnation as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior is both the divine source and living embodiment of salvation for all who believe in him, who rely upon his merits.
Coming unto Christ, seeing the law of Moses fulfilled in him, and keeping his commandments thus helps his people to know personally him whom they knew only in the abstract through observing the performances and ordinances of the law of Moses (cf. 2 Nephi 25:30; Mosiah 13:30). When we thus come to know Christ through keeping his commandments, we keep all “the law and the prophets” because they have an end or fulfillment in him (3 Nephi 12:17; 14:12; 15:4–10).
In Christ, therefore, divine worship makes a paradigm shift from the observance of “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1) to an individual encounter and personal experience with our Savior—our Salvation—who is the divine manifestation of the Father’s love. The question is, How do we come unto Christ? How did Jesus fulfill the law of Moses? And what are the commandments we should keep in order to inherit eternal life in the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus has said, “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27).
Amaleki, too, exhorts his readers to “come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved” (Omni1:26).
Lastly, Moroni bids the house of Israel to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32–33).
Just as Jesus, our Savior, personifies salvation, so he personifies the law of God—both the law of Moses and the (higher) law of the gospel. When he says, “I am he that gave the law,” and “I am the law” (3 Nephi 15:5, 9), he asserts that he is both its divine source as the Lord Jehovah and its living embodiment as Jesus Christ. Jesus personifies the law because he himself lives and observes the law in its fullest extent. The same holds true for God’s word (see John 1:1–14): Jesus personifies the word of God because he lives and observes God’s word in its entirety and therefore serves as its exemplar. Similarly, to the degree that we emulate Jesus in living and observing the law and word of God, we too begin to personify his law and word and become its exemplars to the world.
The law of Moses, on the other hand, was a codified system specifically devised to forestall divine justice falling upon transgressors. Those who sinned against God, for example, offered animal sacrifices in anticipation of the great and eternal sacrifice of the Atoning One. On this subject, Lehi says, “redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Nephi 2:6–7).
The “ends” or purpose of the law of Moses, in other words, was to provide a way for transgressors to avoid suffering the effects of God’s justice so long as they repented of their sins. Jesus Christ “answered” or fulfilled this requirement by suffering divine justice on our behalf so that our sins could be remitted (see also Alma 34:8–16).
The law of the gospel, which comprises Jesus’ commandments under the new covenant, deals with the perfection process Moroni spoke of that we undergo after we gain a remission of our sins. The idea that “old things are done away, and all things have become new” (3 Nephi 12:47) means that in the gospel we move beyond salvation from sin to exaltation in the kingdom of heaven. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), which Jesus repeated to the Nephites (3 Nephi 12–14), encapsulates the commandments we must observe if we would attain that glory.
It is indeed a mystery how the world has misunderstood the things Jesus foreshadowed for those who would follow him. When he said, “I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12: 48), he included himself in that perfection process. To his apostles in Jerusalem (before he atoned for our sins) he had said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The question no one asks is, How can we be perfect “even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” unless at some point we become Fathers in heaven ourselves?
Though that exalted goal is admittedly unattainable in this lifetime, yet Jesus boldly holds it up as an ideal. But doesn’t Jesus himself state the purpose of our keeping his commandments: “That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45; 3 Nephi 12:45)? And if we become our heavenly Father’s children in that fullest sense, may we not also become his heirs?