Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Mathew 1 - 2, Luke 1:5 - 2

When the Father and the Son visited the prophet Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove, Joseph relates -

"...One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Pearl of Great Price JS-History 1:17)

John emphasized -

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son..." (New Testament John 3:16)

Luke testifies the same as he records the angels words to Mary -

"...behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest..." (New Testament Luke 1:31 - 32)

This must have perplexed Mary as she humbly asks -

"...How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (New Testament Luke 1:34)

It is then the angel clearly explains how he shall be the Son of the Highest in that -

"...The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (New Testament Luke 1:35)

The angel told Nephi -

"...Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!..." (Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 11:21)

Jesus Christ was born as the son of a mortal woman and an immortal father. I believe the gift of the immortal father was the very control of his life and his own death. The gift of a mortal woman was the gift of -

“the veil of forgetfulness common to all who are born to earth, by which the remembrance of primeval existence is shut off” was cast over him. (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 111.)

Having forgotten all he was susceptible to all manner of tempations, sorrow, and pain. Like all others, he had to learn -

"...precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." (Old Testament Isaiah 28:10)

And John testified -

I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness..." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 93:12 - 13)

As He learned, His temptations exceeded all others. Alma prophesied -

"...he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Book of Mormon Alma 7:11 - 12)

Paul talked of the Savior's tempations -

"...For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." (New Testament Hebrews 2:18)

And of his mortal sufferings and tempations, King Benjamin said -

"...And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people." (Book of Mormon Mosiah 3:7)

Though the Savior had an immortal father and a mortal mother -

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." (New Testament Hebrews 5:8)

This is the testimony of Jesus Christ for -

"...the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (New Testament John 1:14)