The Second Temptation

I think the Savior is a lot more like us then we suppose. Sure, He is the Messiah; anointed and chosen as the Only Begotten. He was perfect in His obedience to the Father, not perfect to the commandments, because He didn’t always keep them (a subject for another post). He was always open to hearing the voice of the Father and doing everything the Father commanded.

We think that because Jesus was a God condescended to this earth (1 Nephi 11:26) as a mortal, that He had some apriori knowledge (a preexisting knowledge) of who He was and what was expected of Him and that knowledge was spoon fed to Him by the angels. We tend to think that as a child or young man He knew as soon as He could reason who He was and what His mission was. On the contrary, I think He had to tease light and knowledge from heaven just as Joseph Smith, the Brother of Jared, Moses, and Abraham did. He, like the former prophets, had to plead and entreat the heavens for every morsel of truth at first until, after demonstrating their desire, knowledge came as a torrent of light (D&C 9:7-8) Their attitude toward Heaven was no different than the attitudes we also are expected to learn in order to obtain the same light and knowledge: humility, charity, faith, trust, belief and some persistence.

I believe Christ had to go through the same uncertainties and doubts that we experience. The difference being He was more intelligent than us. He was able to deal with fears and doubts and overcome them perhaps quicker than us. It had to be this way. He had to learn to deal with the doubts and confusions life deals us the same way we have to deal with them, otherwise we could say things like, “I am not Abraham or Christ. I cannot do those things.” It had to be thus so that He could become the path, so that He could overcome all things, so that we would be able to look at Him and say, “If Christ could do that alone, I should be able to follow His path with His help.” How could we follow the path if we believe that the one we were following had some help that is barred to us?

During the temptations of Christ in the desert Matthew describes how the devil took Him to a pinnacle of the Temple and said to Him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at anytime thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Matthew 4:6) Even as Jesus was beginning His mission it seems He was having doubts about who He was or Satan would not have been able to tempt Him. It is the nature and disposition of all humans, even those with an immortal Father, to have to experience and deal with doubts and fears. I know there will be some who will disagree with me when I say I believe Christ had to deal with some uncertainties His whole life. There is no sin with harboring doubts because doubts are the catalyst for developing faith and perfect knowledge. You cannot develop faith without experiencing doubt.

Here is how Isaiah describes the way Christ deals with uncertainty and fears, “For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed (regret).” (Isaiah 50:7) Christ set His face like a stone, not to be deterred from what he believed, but not by perfect knowledge, but by faith in what His purpose and mission was.

I was reading some comments on a Facebook page several weeks ago and came across this comment someone posted: “The Lord spoke to me through the Spirit and said, ‘You are just like Me.‘” I was blown away by that statement. I had heard someone else describe the exact same experience a few weeks before. Is it possible that we really are like Him? Are we more like the Savior than we have believed? It makes me wonder. Beyond the veil and behind the forgotten memories, who are we? It makes me think that Christ and His kingdom is more obtainable than I thought.

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