Lehi's Testimony of the Savior

We don’t have a lot of the words of Lehi, but one thing is clear as we read 1 Nephi 1 – 2 Nephi 4 (the chapters in which Lehi was alive): Lehi consistently bore witness of the Savior.  From the very beginning in the first chapter of the Book of Mormon we read how he “manifested plainly of the coming of the Messiah, and also the redemption of the world” (1 Nephi 1:19).  As they were in the wilderness, Lehi continued to teach his family about the Savior, saying that the Lord “would raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world” (1 Nephi 10:4).  Lehi taught them about this “Redeemer of the world”, “the Lamb of God”, and “the true Messiah,” and he taught his family how “all mankind were in a lost and in a fallen state, and ever would be save they should rely on this Redeemer” (1 Nephi 10:5-6, 10, 14).  Surely there were many more teachings of the Savior that he gave to his family as they journeyed across the desert in an attempt to follow that very Messiah.    

During his final testimonies to his children, Lehi continued to stress the importance of the Messiah and His coming.  As he spoke to Laman and Lemuel in the promised land, he said that those for those who “reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them” (2 Nephi 1:10).  To Jacob he said, “Wherefore,  redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:6). He gave us this important witness of the necessity of the Savior for each of us: “How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit” (2 Nephi 2:8).  Lehi testified further to Jacob that “the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall” (2 Nephi 2:26).  He called Him the “great Mediator of all men” to whom they could look for eternal life (2 Nephi 2:28).  To his son Joseph Lehi prophesied that the “Messiah should be made manifest” unto some in the last days. 

From the small portion of the teachings of his that we have, Lehi used at least seven different names for Jesus Christ: the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of the world, the Lamb of God, the Lord, the Lamb of God, and the great Mediator of all men.  Lehi knew the Lord and knew that the plan of salvation rests upon the sacrifice of the Son of God, as much then as it does now.