Coming Unto Christ

One of the most famous invitations of the Savior was this one recorded by Matthew: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).  The Savior gave similar invitations in other scriptures; in the Book of Mormon He said, “Repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved” (3 Nephi 9:22).  He also invited us saying,

“Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and believe in my gospel, and be baptized in my name” (Ether 4:18).  In our dispensation He said simply, “Come unto me thy Savior” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:41).  This leads to an obvious question: how exactly do we come unto Him?  Clearly at least part of it is repentance and baptism as these verses state; we start our path to come unto Him by entering in at the gate of baptism after we have repented, and we make covenants with Him.  But then what?  How do we keep coming unto Him?

I believe that coming unto Him throughout our lives means in essence that we become like Him, and, in the process, we become the person God intended us to become.  Elder H. Burke Peterson said this about coming unto Christ: “The most significant quest in this life is to gain a personal assurance that we will become what we have been called to become. This effort and this process we refer to as ‘Coming unto Christ.’”  As we come unto Christ we come to have full confidence that He can make us into what we are meant to become; we gain a witness that we can indeed “do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us]” (Philippians 4:13).  I believe this is related to the well-known statement by the Lord to Moroni: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27).  Coming unto the Lord means that we must work, through Him, to overcome our own weaknesses, to change, to develop the talents and capacities that He intends for us to develop.  It is related surely to President Nelson’s invitation to repent daily; we come unto the Savior as we change our own habits and behaviors and strive to become a little more like Him every day and more of what He intended us to be in this life.     

             Joseph Smith taught that faith requires three things: the knowledge that God actually exists, “a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes,” and “an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will.”  The first two seem relatively obvious as to why those are required, but the third is perhaps surprising at first.  I believe it relates directly to what it means to come unto Christ.  We come unto Him and believe in Him, we have to learn what it is we are to do in our lives, what we need to become, to know that the course we are pursuing—the mission we are on in life—is exactly what He would want us to do.  Coming unto Christ is the same in general principle for all of us: trusting God, repenting, making covenants, etc.—but it is also uniquely personal as we learn what God intends for us and what we are to do and be in this life to serve Him and His children.  To come unto Christ we must come to learn the unique missions He has for us in our life, and then seek through His help to accomplish them.