Over the years, as I’ve talked with people about the Book of Mormon and especially about Nephi, I always hear the same things. It goes something along the lines of, “The stories are good, but those Isaiah chapter…” And that seems to be what people get from 1 and 2 Nephi.
At one point I thought to write a book about how I see and understand those pages of scripture. But let’s face it, I’m me. Writing a book takes organization and that is something I really do not do well. So instead I’m going to try to pull things together here.
To me, the first 117 pages of the Book of Mormon are the manual for how to enter into the presence of Christ, not when I die, but here in this mortal world in this mortal body. But to convince you of this, I need to first explain what I feel it means to follow Jesus Christ.
For as long as I can remember I was told to follow Jesus, to do as He did. As a little girl I wondered how in the world I was going to be able to walk on water, or cause the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the lame to walk. As I got older there was more clarification - be kind, be loving, be honest…this is what is meant by following Jesus.
But that didn’t seem right to me for so many reasons. It was missing the piece of perfection (the word “perfect” as defined in this post); the awareness of motives and making choices was missing. As I began to look over the scriptures and glean out moments where Jesus told us His motive, I started to see a different pattern come to shape in how to follow Christ.
In Doctrine and Covenants 93:13-14, speaking of Jesus we read:
“And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fullness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.”
I want to focus in on the word “grace” for a moment. In Hebrew, the word is חנן. The basic definition of this word is favor or gifts depending on context. But as you dig deeper into the meaning of each letter, there is much more involved in this word. This word speaks to the dichotomy of life and death. It gives reference to the Messiah as the key between the two opposites. It speaks of the difference between “essential life” and “life to enliven”. There is information regarding the role of the Messiah and how we are brought to know and understand and choose “life eternal” through the great Mediator of all men. It also shows that there are two different definitions of this word depending on whether it is grace being given to Jesus or grace being given to us through Jesus the Christ.
So when we read that Jesus continued from grace to grace, what does that really mean? The way I understand the word in Hebrew I am led to believe that, in this context, the word grace implies gifts unto life…or that the purpose of the gift is life. This speaks to the tree of life and so many other things. But that is a digression.
So the purpose of the gift is to bring or increase life.
What gifts do that? In my mind, the answer can only be one thing; gifts of the Spirit.
Taking this view, the verse in Doctrine and Covenants 93 then tells us that Jesus grew and increased in the gifts of the Spirit.
Okay. So what. What does this have to do with following Jesus?
Well. In my opinion, the way we follow Jesus Christ is to do as He did. And what did He do? He learned His spiritual gifts. He worked to refine them and grow in understanding of them. He learned what His purpose on this earth was. He went to His Father and asked for instruction on how to use His gifts to fulfill His mission.
So for me to follow Jesus I must learn what my gifts are. I must refine them. I must learn what my mission on this earth is. Then I must gain instruction on how to use my gifts to fulfill the purpose for which I was created. This is what it means to follow Jesus and to do as He did, in my opinion.
So now, with this understanding of what that means and how important it makes learning the gifts of the Spirit, let’s look at Nephi.
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