Christ to be Subject to Man--His Descent Below all Things--Man's
Condition had there been no Atonement--The Sons of God--Man's
Inability to Save Himself--Christ's Glory before the World Was--
Necessity for an Infinite Atonement--The Father and Son have Life in
Themselves.
Again we will return to the quotation from the Book of Mormon.[A]
Satan, as we have remarked before, wanted to deprive man of his
agency, for if man had his agency, it would seem that necessarily the
Lord would be subject to him; as is stated, "For it behooveth the
Great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in
the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto
him."
[Footnote A: 2 Nephi, ix, 5-7.]
The Lord being thus subjected to man, He would be placed in the lowest
position to which it was possible for Him to descend; because of the
weakness, the corruption and the fallibility of human nature. But if
man had his free agency, this necessarily would be the result, and
hence, as it is said, Jesus descended below all things that He might
be raised above all things; and hence also, while Satan's calculation
was to deprive man of his free agency, and to prevent himself or the
Only Begotten from being subject to this humiliation and infamy, the
Lord's plan was to give man his free agency, provide a redeemer, and
suffer that redeemer to endure all the results incidental to such a
position, and thus, by offering himself as a substitute and conquering
death, hell and the grave, he would ultimately subjugate all things
unto himself; and at the same time make it possible for man to obtain
an exaltation that he never could have had without his agency. It is
said, as already stated, "For behold, if the flesh should rise no
more, our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from
before the presence of the eternal God, and became the devil, to rise
no more;" and hence the plan of Satan it appears would have frustrated
the designs of the Almighty, and have deprived man of that exaltation
and glory which his Heavenly Father contemplated. It is further
written:
"And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils,
angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to
remain with the father of lies; in misery, like unto himself; yea, to
that being who beguiled our first parents; who transformeth himself
nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto
secret combinations of murder, and all manner of secret works of
darkness. O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for
our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster,
death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death
of the spirit. And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the
Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the
temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. And
this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall
deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death
and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its
captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and
the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other;
and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise
of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave
deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is
restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible and
immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like
unto us in the flesh save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect;
wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt; and
our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a
perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being
clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness. And it
shall come to pass, that when all men shall have passed from this
first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they
must appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel; and
then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to
the holy judgment of God. And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the
Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal word, which cannot
pass away, that they who are righteous, shall be righteous still,
and they who are filthy, shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who
are filthy, are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away
into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a
lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up for ever and
ever, and has no end. O the greatness and the justice of our God!
For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his
mouth, and his law must be fulfilled."--2 Nephi, ix, 9-17.
In the economy of God pertaining to the salvation of the human family,
we are told in the Scriptures that it was necessary that Christ should
descend below all things, that He might be raised above all things; as
stated above, He had to "become subject to man in the flesh." It was
further necessary that He should descend below all things, in order
that He might raise others above all things; for if He could not raise
Himself and be exalted through those principles brought about by the
atonement, He could not raise others; He could not do for others what
He could not do for Himself, and hence it was necessary for Him to
descend below all things that He might be raised above all things; and
it was necessary that those whom He proposed to save should also
descend below all things, that by and through the same power that He
obtained His exaltation, they also, through His atonement, expiation
and intercession, might be raised to the same power with Him; and, as
He was the Son of God, that they might also be the adopted sons of
God; hence John says:
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like
him; for we shall see him as he is."--1 John, iii, 2.
And by this power we shall overcome and sit down on His throne, as
Jesus overcame and sat down upon the throne of His Father.
We are told in the foregoing quotation from the Book of Mormon that
the atonement must needs be infinite. Why did it need an infinite
atonement? For the simple reason that a stream can never rise higher
than its fountain; and man having assumed a fleshly body and become of
the earth earthy, and through the violation of a law having cut
himself off from his association with his Father, and become subject
to death; in this condition, as the mortal life of man was short, and
in and of himself he could have no hope of benefitting himself, or
redeeming himself from his fallen condition, or of bringing himself
back to the presence of his Father, some superior agency was needed to
elevate him above his low and degraded position. This superior agency
was the Son of God, who had not, as man had, violated a law of His
Father, but was yet one with His Father, possessing His glory, His
power, His authority, His dominion. As He, Himself, prayed:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was."--John, xvii, 5.
A man, as a man, could arrive at all the dignity that a man was
capable of obtaining or receiving; but it needed a God to raise him to
the dignity of a God. For this cause it is written, "Now are we the
sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that when he shall appear we shall be like him." And how and why like
Him? Because, through the instrumentality of the atonement and the
adoption, it is made possible for us to become of the family of God,
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; and that as He, the potential
instrument, through the oneness that existed between Him and His
Father, by reason of obedience to divine law, overcame death, hell and
the grave, and sat down upon His Father's throne, so shall we be able
to sit down with Him, even upon His throne. Thus, as it is taught in
the Book of Mormon, it must needs be that there be an infinite
atonement; and hence of Him, and by Him, and through Him are all
things; and through Him do we obtain every blessing, power, right,
immunity, salvation and exaltation. He is our God, our Redeemer, our
Savior, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be eternal and
everlasting praises worlds without end.
Again, Jesus testifies of Himself:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear
shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given
to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to
execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at
this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation."--John, v, 25-29.
It would seem from the above that the Son hath life inherent in
Himself, even as the Father hath life in Himself, He having received
this power from the Father. Also, that He had power in Himself, as
elsewhere stated, to lay down this body, and also to take it up again;
and in this respect He differed from others. While man dies and lays
down his body, he has not power under any circumstance to raise it
again, only through the power of Jesus and His intercession and
atonement; for the Redeemer has proclaimed Himself to be the
Resurrection and the Life; and it is by this resurrective power which
He possesses, as the gift of God through obedience to the will of the
Father, that the dead shall hear the voice of God and shall live.
Hence He not only becomes the first fruits of those that slept, having
conquered death Himself and triumphed over it, but He also becomes the
means of the resurrection of all men from the dead. Hence He says:
"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I
might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again. This commandment have I received of my Father."--John, x, 17,
18.
Thus, when He says He has power to lay down His life and power to take
it up again, He speaks of a power never before exhibited among men
upon this earth; and which power, indeed, does not belong to man in
and of himself.