Jesus Christ is our Savior. That means He does things for us that we cannot do for ourselves.
I spent a lot of time this week chasing hyperactive nieces and a nephew, 5 years or younger, around the house. I did many things for them, including cleaning up their messes, feeding them, and playing with them. Some things they could do for themselves, others not at all, but I could do anything better for them than they could for themselves. I could not help wondering as I looked at these precious little ones, is this how God sees me? Is this how it feels to be like Him?
Jesus Christ is "the light of the world." Not only does His universal influence illuminate conscience; it makes life and conscious existence possible. Lucifer wanted to be the savior instead, and lower the bar for himself by lowering it for us so that there would be no sin for him to suffer for. Instead of chasing us around cleaning up our messes when we sin, and providing succor for our mistakes and weaknesses, Lucifer proposed a plan in which no one could even choose to sin. Instead of lowering the bar for us, Jesus atones for our sins, and makes it possible to be forgiven when we repent. He also staves off justice, clears a space for mortal probation, in which we may repent.
"And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents" (2Ne. 2:21).
From creation to the final judgment at the narrow gate of heaven, Jesus
is there with us every step of the way. This is true for all of His
Father in Heaven's children. This is an incomprehensibly enormous
responsibility. He assumed it all when He said, "Here am I, send me"
(Abr. 3:27).
Even with this generous extension of our lives beyond the years of procreation, knowing what the standard is can be daunting. I have looked at high-jump bars and pole vaulting bars set high in the air, and it is intimidating to think of what skill and strength it would take to clear them. The disparity between where we are and where we know we ought be is staggering. How can we look at the bar of righteous behavior so high above our heads, and not become discouraged?
We have a chance to alter our behavior, to improve it. "Perfect" has several meanings in the scriptures. The Greek meaning in Matt. 5:48 ("be ye therefore perfect") implies completion, adulthood, full development. But the word translated as as "perfect" from Greek (teleios) can also mean that we live up to all the commandments we currently have—"keeping the whole law." This simply means our behavior conforms to the rules. A circle may be small or big, but the small one only has to be the right shape to be a perfect circle. We do not need to live up to every law that exists, just every law we have currently been given, to achieve this kind of "perfect." I believe this second kind of perfection is closer to what Moroni meant when he wrote the last few verses in the Book of Mormon:
"Yea, 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." I believe this is an admonition about behavioral perfection rather than ultimate perfection because of the next verse: "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).
If we are perfect, as in flawless and fully developed, how can we be improved upon? But Moroni is saying that AFTER we become "perfect in Christ," we can then become sanctified when we do not deny His power. That indicates an improvement; how do you improve on perfection? But if he is speaking about having our behavior perfected, then the verse makes sense. I believe he is saying that first we receive strength beyond our own natural powers, grace, to live the law outwardly. Then, if we do not deny that Jesus was the one who gave us that power, we will be sanctified, or cleansed of evil inwardly. It is possible to be righteous through resisting by will power, but it is better to be righteous because we have lost the ability to be tempted, or the desire to sin at all. One by one, our evil tendencies blink out like stars disappearing before the dawn of a new day, until they are dissipated and obscured and scoured out of us. That is sanctification.
Jesus is our Savior at all stages of this process, whether recognizing pangs of guilt for our sins for the first time, or changing our behavior alone, or being strengthened to change our behavior more, or having unrighteous desires "rooted out of [our] breast" (Alma 22:15). What makes recognition of our nothingness bearable? Our trust and reliance upon the Savior, our hope through His atonement, the knowledge that He fills in the blanks we leave, and makes up the difference. Feeling the Savior's hand in our lives, feeling the sting of guilt prompting us to change and repent, is evidence that there is hope for us. Why would the Spirit prompt us to work harder if it was all meaningless? There must be hope for us, otherwise God would give up and let us go our way. In short, knowing He loves us, and will perfect us, makes weakness bearable.
Rather than lower the bar, or hit us over the head with it, the Savior gives us one boost after another as we learn and grow and reach toward ultimate perfection. He lifts us up to His level. He puts a series of steps between us and the bar, instead of expecting us to clear it in one enormous leap to flawlessness. He asks that we keep trying via the numerous commands to repent. We can wobble at perilous altitudes with confidence because a pair of strong hands waits to catch us when we stumble, as long as we are willing to repent and try again.
