The Greatest of All the Gifts of God

As President Oaks presented many of the aspects of the plan of salvation in a recent general conference talk, he focused on the divine love of the Lord. He began, “The gospel plan shows our Heavenly Father’s love for all His children…. He loves His children so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and Redeemer, to suffer and die for us.” President Oaks emphasized the important, but not well-understood, doctrine that “all the children of God—with exceptions too limited to consider here—will finally wind up in a kingdom of glory.” With the exception of the rare son of perdition, everyone will be saved in the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial kingdom. This is what the great vision that the Prophet Joseph had teaches us: “He came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him; Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:41-43). The Savior’s atoning sacrifice enables all of us to receive an ultimate destiny that is described by the word glory. The near universal nature of this gift to all His children indeed shows the great love He and His Son have for us.

                Despite this, though, we must remember that “we will need to suffer for our unrepented sins” before we attain unto a kingdom of glory. President Oaks emphasized, “The scriptures are clear on that.” The most straightforward statement on this is probably the one that he referenced in the footnotes where the Savior declared, “And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless. Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:4, 15, 17). Mercy cannot rob justice, and, as I understand it, it is those who ultimately inherit the telestial kingdom who must beforehand pay the price for their own sins: “These are they who suffer the wrath of God on earth. These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:104-106). Though eventually “death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits,” those who choose to break God’s law and refuse to accept the Savior’s suffering through repentance must personally pay the price for their own sins (2 Nephi 9:12). If we do not choose “liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men” and “hearken unto his great commandments,” then we give “the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring [us] down to hell, that he may reign over [us] in his own kingdom” (2 Nephi 2:29). If we rebel against God and His commandments we cannot “escape the damnation of hell” where we will suffer in a way “how hard to bear [we] know not” (Matthew 23:33).

                And so, understanding this plan and the effect of our choices, we teach principles which may be contrary to the current norms of society. President Oaks explained, “The Lord has required His restored Church to oppose social and legal pressures to retreat from His doctrine of marriage between a man and a woman, to oppose changes that homogenize the differences between men and women or confuse or alter gender.” While the world focuses on love by embracing all choices in the present, the Church focuses on love by understanding that “in the long run” our greatest happiness will come by keeping the commandments of God: “God’s plan assures that in the long run, the faithful who keep their covenants will have the opportunity to qualify for every promised blessing.” Those who choose to reject His commandments and law will still ultimately receive a kingdom of glory, evidence of His great love for us, but His scriptures warn that “if we pollute our fountains of life or lead others to transgress, there will be penalties more ‘exquisite’ and ‘hard to bear’ (D&C 19:15) than all the physical pleasure could ever be worth…. Every debt of transgression must be paid ‘till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing’ (Matthew 5:26).” And so with love we invite all to choose to follow the Savior Jesus Christ, to make covenants with Him, and repent so that His suffering can pay the price of our sins and ultimately we can receive “eternal life” with Him, “the greatest of all the gifts of God.”