THE PLAN OF SALVATION
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?
Life on earth is a testing period
during which we prepare to meet God again.
Our Heavenly Father wants all of his children to have the perfect joy
he has attained. To gain that joy, it is necessary for us to come
to earth to obtain physical bodies. Let’s understand some of the
important reasons for getting a physical body. God is a God
of love, and seeks that which is best for each of us. Therefore,
he provided a plan for us to become more like him. To gain the wisdom
that God has, we needed many experiences,(1) particularly since there
are many things we could not learn or do as spirits in the premortal life.
For example, a spirit cannot feel physical pain or suffering, and learn
by experience what pain is. Neither can a spirit be baptized or married,
nor experience the pain and joy of having children or watching them grow.
To obtain experiences like these, we have come to this earth and received
physical bodies. It’s a wonderful feeling to be on this earth gaining
wisdom and knowledge day by day.
…Speaking of wisdom and knowledge, one way to get these great gifts
are by reading words from the prophets, modern and of old. Many years
ago a prophet named Moroni (during Ancient American times), compiled a
history of his people, along with important revelations received from other
prophets. This incredible book, known as The Book of Mormon
has become a second witness of the divine nature of Jesus Christ, as well
as a powerful teaching tool to gain wisdom and knowledge of God’s plan
for us. We all know that
The Bible is the first witness to Jesus
Christ’s divinity.
A second reason we came to earth was to develop faith in God.(2)
Our Heavenly Father wants all of his children to have faith in him.(3)
Obviously, if we are to have faith in him, we must learn to trust him and
have confidence in his promises to us.(4) One of the great
Book of Mormon prophets, Alma, gave a definition of faith.
"And now as I said concerning faith…
faith is not to have a perfect knowledge
of things; therefore, if ye have faith ye
hope for things which are not seen
which are true." (Alma 32:21)
In other words, Faith is a hope, a confidence, a belief in things that
are true but which we cannot see. In our premortal life, we walked
primarily by sight; in this life we walk primarily by faith.(5)
Our Heavenly Father made it possible for us to live by faith by placing
a veil of forgetfulness over our minds, thus causing us to forget the premortal
life. Therefore, we live not by memory but by faith. Do you
suppose we could develop faith if we could remember what it was like to
be in the premortal existence with God? No. We would all be perfect
because we would remember our wonderful existence with our Father in Heaven
and we wouldn’t want to do anything wrong to make him disappointed in us.(6)
We have already progressed to the point of obtaining a physical body,
which is one of the main reasons for coming to earth. Remember, the
other reason for being on this earth was that God wanted us to test our
faith and see if we would keep all of his commandments when we are not
in his presence.(7) When we came to earth, he caused us to
forget the premortal life and gave us commandments to live by. Some
of those commandments are to 1) have faith in the Lord, 2) repent
of our sins, 3) be baptized, and 4) love one another.
God Measures our love and faith in him by how well we keep the commandments.
He told his disciples that if they loved him, they would keep his commandments
(John 14:15) As we keep the commandments, our faith grows and we
prepare(8) to live with our Heavenly Father in his kingdom.
No one can ever be saved in his kingdom without showing his faith by obeying
the Lord’s commandments.(9) Just think of the many ways we
can manifest our faith in God? Faith grows by keeping the commandments
and by prayer and study of scriptures and gospel principles.
I know that we lived as spirits with our Heavenly Father in a premortal
life and that we were born into mortality so we could obtain bodies, develop
faith, and prove to our Heavenly Father that we would keep his commandments.(10)
The most important thing we can do in this life is to keep God’s commandments,
and, in fact, obeying God’s commandments is the only way we will ever be
truly happy.
As we keep the commandments of God, He will prepare a place for you
in His Kingdom. We will each be judged and rewarded according to
our own works here on this earth. We are personally responsible for
our own salvation (remember "The Devil Made Me Do It" mentality?).
We cannot be saved by another man’s labor or how another man keeps the
commandments.
I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand his words
Before it grows too late. |
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.(11) |
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Next
Concept
(1) Hebrews 5:8-9
(2) Hebrews 11:1,6
(3) Romans 1:17
(4) Moroni 7:26,28,32,33 |
(5) Habakkuk 2:4
(6) 2 Corinthians 5:7
(7) Alma 12:24 |
(8) Alma 34:32
(9) Ether 12
(10) Matthew 7:21 |
(11) I Am a Child of God, 2nd verse, by N. W. Randall
& M. T. Pettit (Hear
the piano music to this song)
