Why is Jesus Christ our final judge? Because He has paid our debts. This may sound threatening—to be beholden to someone who swooped down out of nowhere without our consent and snatched up the fallen deposit slip of our sins and assumed ownership of our souls. But His goal is to protect us from justice and provide us with the maximum leniency for sin, and the maximum reward for whatever good we do. Our Attorney for the Defense is also our Judge. How mercifully convenient for us.
It is funny to attempt to see myself from the Lord’s perspective. I often expect great rewards for finally succeeding to keep the commandments I had been neglecting. But should there be an awards ceremony every time I forgive someone for cutting me off in traffic?
Most people do not think of dust as being sentient, conscious, or intelligent. But the scriptures indicate that it is. “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.” Do sound waves or some other energy emit from God’s mouth and push the dirt around? No, God speaks directly to it, and it exhibits a personality trait, namely, obedience: “...if he say unto the earth—Thou shalt go back...it is done...” “Thou” implies a who, not a what. The dirt has intelligence, and it hears and obeys God’s commands (Hel. 12:7-14).
Does the dirt expect a medal every time it does what it is supposed to? Did the apple that hit Isaac Newton on the head expect a trophy or congratulations for obeying the law of gravity? It seems that all things everywhere that have any intelligence at all are obedient to God—except us. Is it pure love for Him that motivates them? When Jesus was crucified, the whole earth was in upheaval. Kings on the islands of the sea exclaimed, “The God of nature suffers,” because nature itself was reacting to its Creator’s suffering and unjust death. Is that love and a sense of justice being manifest?
While love alone may motivate other intelligences to obey God, we children of God are often more demanding. A deep-seated sense of entitlement seems to motivate us. When we do obey the commandments, from our perspective it can seem like something extraordinary. We can be quite mercenary about it. “I will do such-and-such if You will provide me with this or that.” But from dirt’s perspective, instant and precise obedience to God’s laws is just the way things are, a fact of life. True, we are juggling myriad commandments at once while simultaneously balancing the teacup of patience on our heads, riding the unstable unicycle of a mortal body, sitting on the thumbtack of carnal appetites, and wearing the blindfold of forgetfulness. In the midst of our clumsiness, something is bound to shatter, spill, bounce, or collapse as we attempt to fulfill all that we have been assigned by the Lord. But justice requires a price for anything we break; we are always on probation. When we go five minutes without breaking anything, we are actually just doing what we already ought to be doing, and any blessings we receive are a form of overpayment.
I love this quote from William Tyndale, whose English translation gave us huge swaths of the King James Bible. He personifies the virtue of faith as female: “Faith, when she prayeth, setteth not her good deeds before her, saying, ‘Lord, for my good deeds do this or that’; nor bargaineth with God, saying ‘Lord, grant me this, or do this or that, and I will do this or that for thee.”...But she setteth her infirmities and her lack before her face, and God’s promises, saying, ‘Lord, for thy mercy and truth, which thou hast sworn, be merciful unto me’” (S. Michael Wilcox, Fire in the Bones: William Tyndale—Martyr, Father of the English Bible, p. 101).
“I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting your from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants” (Mosiah 2:21). God already owns all our stuff. We have nothing to bargain with. All we have that He wants is our agency, and if it is given to Him conditionally, with a hostage-taking mentality, are we really giving it to Him? He loves us, and gives everything to us; He wants us to love Him in return, and give ourselves with a similar openness.
What can children offer their parents to pay the debt of giving them life, love, food, shelter, clothes, education, etc.? Nothing. The only thing children could do to come close to repaying their parents is raising their grandkids well, uphold the family reputation through good conduct and productive living, and keep the family name unsoiled.
“Lovest thou me?...Feed my sheep.” Taking care of each other is the only thing we can do that approaches paying our debt, though it actually is a drop in the bucket, totally insufficient to merit anything in a strict legal sense.
The amazing thing is how generous the Lord is towards our paltry offerings. Despite the fact that He does not need our works, He still blesses us generously for obedience. “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say” (D&C 82:10). Think of it—our reward for obedience to the commandments is certain as gravity pulling apples off a tree. Unlike the dust of the earth, we actually get something for our obedience (though sputtering and intermittent it may be). “...he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted to him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?” (Mosiah 2:24). We are unprofitable servants, even when we are obeying Him as well as dirt.
God does not need our contributions. It seems He wants some things from us very much. His joy is in our departure from misery, and our joy: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). That is a high premium placed on repentance. No wonder the Lord offers missionaries, “And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” (D&C 18:13-15). I assume the same idea applies to Temple work for the dead. When we participate in the rescue of souls, God views that as service to Himself. He deigns to reward those who help save his children, even though we are all indebted to Him no matter what we do.
We are all lost unless the Atonement is applied to our case; ordinances and covenants precede the full application of the Atonement. People must choose to receive covenants and ordinances; missionary work is getting people to receive the Atonement, to expose themselves to its effects.
Who is greatest in the kingdom? It seems to be the people who are least concerned with their ranking. Those who are most worried about their own salvation probably have cause to worry. Those who are worried about the salvation of others are covered by the promise of the Lord to faithful and obedient undershepherds. They are missionaries, parents, teachers, welfare workers, and those who do family history research and Temple work. It is another gospel paradox that as we let go of our death grip on our own needs, and use both hands to reach out to others around us, that we become more secure in the arms of Jesus, less likely to be swept away or lost.
