Living the Gospel

Imagine you're on the ground and your kite is very high up, stuck in a tree.  You jump and you jump and you jump with all of your might, but you can't reach the kite.  Gravity keeps pulling you down.  You try to climb the tree, but it's prickly, sticky, and much too difficult for you to do it.  A man comes by, sees your plight, and brings a ladder that will reach all the way to the top of the tree.  He holds it steady so then you can climb it and get your kite back.

Step by step you climb up the rungs, it's a little high and a little scary, but you reach your kite!  With triumph you pull it out of the tree, go back down the ladder, thank the man, and run back to play with your kite.  You did it!  You got the kite!  Thanks to the man with the ladder you achieved your goal and can resume playing with your kite.

Did you get the kite all by yourself?  Not at all.  You tried doing it by yourself the first time and it didn't work out so well.  The man's ladder helped you get there.  Did the ladder get you to the top of the tree all by itself then?  Of course not.  It's a ladder, not an elevator.  You had to put forth your own effort to get up all of the rungs.  The man couldn't have done it for you, you had to do it yourself.

This is very similar to our lives.  Our goal is a lofty one: to reach heaven and live with our Father again.  It is so high up there, that there is no way we can get to it on our own!  We could get there by living perfectly, but since no one can do that, we're kind of stuck.  This is why Christ's atonement is so important.  Because of his suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross, he made it possible for us to reach heaven and make it home again.

Now, his atonement is a lot like a ladder.  It is a necessary tool that we need - without his sacrifice we'd never be able to make it back to heaven - but it isn't an effortless thing on our part.  It's not an elevator that will take everyone straight there, there are things that we must do to apply the atonement in our life.  To use the ladder, in effect.

Our part is summed up in "the Gospel of Jesus Christ".  What is it?  To put it simply, it is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  Make sense?  It didn't make sense to me at first either.  In fact, there are still things I don't understand about it.  But that's okay, because you don't jump from the bottom of the ladder to the top.  You take it one rung at a time.  So let's brake it down.

The first step is faith in Jesus Christ; "Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:21), and must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation.  To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone." (Bible Dictionary: faith)  We must believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and the only begotten of the Father.  We must trust in him, that he is, and that he knows us and loves us.

This can't be an idle feeling, but an active motivation.  When we have faith, we are willing to obey the commandments that we have been given.  We seek for more knowledge and understanding, and we continue to chose the right even when everything else is going wrong.  This is how we can apply faith in Christ in our lives - by doing what he has asked of us.

The second step is repentance; repentance put simply is change.  A change in our actions - a change in our hearts.  "It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings.  It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world.  It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness." (https://www.lds.org/topics/repentance?lang=eng)


When I was young, I thought repentance was saying "I'm sorry" to my sister and "please forgive me" to Heavenly Father.  I thought of it as a punishment, a negative consequence to my bad action.  Now I realize that it is so much more than saying "I'm sorry".  It's an opportunity for me to truly be cleaned from my mistake.  By asking for forgiveness daily, I can change and improve and go on living life without the guilt weighing me down at every step.  When we repent, we are really renewed.

The third step is baptism; the action itself seems simple: go into the water and be baptized.  That's it.  The end.  But there is so much more to this step than the moment you're baptized.  For when you are baptized by God's authority, you are making a covenant - a promise to live your life in a certain way for the rest of your life.  In Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 it says "...all those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized...and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end...shall be received by baptism into his church."

We then take the step of baptism as we remember and act on the covenants we have made.  When we take the name of Christ upon us, we are promising to do as he would do.  To obey his commandments in all situations we are placed in.  How do we serve Him?  "when ye are in the service of your fellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17) As we reach out and help the people around us, we are fulfilling our baptismal covenants, and we are living the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fourth step is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost;  like being baptized, there is only one moment where you are confirmed and "receive the Holy Ghost", but also like being baptized, there is more to it than just the one moment.  To fully receive the Holy Ghost, you must accept his guidance in your daily life and be open to his voice.

Now, the Holy Ghost doesn't usually speak verbally, he is more likely to be felt than to be heard.  He can warn us of danger, encourage us to do good, and help us understand things of a spiritual nature, like scriptures or gospel truths in church meetings.  To hear his voice we must live worthily for it by obeying the commandments.  Our hearts must be devoid of pride so that we can be open to his direction.

You can't really call the fifth step a "step", because it's not really a single step.  It is enduring to the end.  Meaning, we don't stop taking steps.  We keep living our lives as best as we can, building our faith in Christ, repenting of the things we have done wrong, keeping our baptismal covenants, and listening to the Holy Ghost.  On the one hand, this step sounds like drudgery, a never ending circle of effort.  But on the other hand, it is a wonderful process that will bring us never ending joy.

"Enduring to the end brings direction, peace, and happiness to life.  You will feel the joy of trying to become more like Jesus Christ as you serve and help those around you. You will better understand your relationship with your Father in Heaven and feel His perfect love for you. You will feel hope and a sense of purpose in an often unhappy and troubled world."  (The Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet)

"We need to study and learn the fundamental principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we must do our very best to live them. That is how we become disciples of Jesus Christ, and that is how we build an enduring testimony." (Richard J Maynes)  When we can take these 5 simple steps of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will build for ourselves a foundation that will never fall.  We will gain the strength and the wisdom we need to conquer every challenge that we face in this life.

So if you feel like something is missing in your life, take a look at how you are living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Continue to seek to understand it and apply it to your life, and your life will be filled.