D&C + Church History – Lesson 2
Just as a branch detached from its roots is dead, no matter how good a branch it was, so gospel principles, no matter how true, become dead when they are not tapped into the Living Root. “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy” becomes dead unless it is tapped into the Living Root that “the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that He may redeem the children of men from the fall.”
I never feel worry that I will fail in anything as far as how my performance will be judged by the Lord so long as I enlist His help – the reason for this is because He has overcome all things. The irony here is that He had to endure that precise worry that He might be inadequate to the one task that He alone could undertake and which He could not lean upon His Father.
I’m biased, I admit, but I find it funny that this lesson which is based in the Doctrine and Covenants stuffs a principle into the lesson that is illustrated by two scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and one scripture from the Book of Mormon and the one scripture from the Book of Mormon is at least twice as enlightening on the subject as the two scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants combined. (I think I would have left that principle, resurrection, out of the lesson if the goal was to focus on the D&C.)
D&C 45: 3-5 is beautiful. Listen to Him who is your advocate, who pleads with the Father thus: “Father, behold the suffering I went through without sin, wherefore spare these, my brethren who believe on my name.”
D&C 76: 5 “I the Lord am merciful and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness.”
D&C 93: 12-14 “He received not of the fullness at first, but received grace for grace until he received a fullness.” I think a part of me already knew this. but it came more strongly this time that Christ grew up as a child without any special knowledge. He simply was the greatest of God’s children and thus He worked the hardest to learn and grow. Because of His diligence He gained more light than any other and thus prepared Himself to be the Savior of the world, endowed with the knowledge and power that would enable Him, because of His amortal body, to perform the Atonement and bring about the salvation of mankind.
I like the list of titles of Christ in the index of the Triple combination found scattered as headings between pages 176 and 184