November 20-26

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When I was on my mission, my companion came across one of my favorite people I ever taught while she was out on exchanges. I very quickly grew to love this kid. In many ways, he felt pretty broken and at that particular point in life, he was seeking God. The night before my companion found him, he had pleaded with God to send someone. He was blown away that the Lord had really done so. 

Teaching him the Plan of Salvation was legitimately beautiful. Under normal circumstances, we would often split the Plan of Salvation into two lessons because there is so much doctrine to be taught. However, this kid was completely engrossed. He did not want the lesson to stop, and so the lesson continued. At the end, he leaned back in his chair and was quiet for a little bit before he said, “That makes God seem so loving.”

I find it interesting how we, as humans, often describe our Lord as perfect, but then we give Him imperfect attributes. So many people believe in a God who is apparently a perfect judge, and yet, He is willing to throw people into a lake of fire for eternity even though He sent us here to earth where we would receive unequal opportunities to learn of Him. If He is perfectly fair, then I believe that the further we examine Him, the more perfection we’ll find. I don’t believe we have to take specific concepts that have been taught about Him and simply call them perfect because we believe that’s what He did. I can’t imagine getting to the other side and having the Lord command me to throw my Muslim neighbor into the fire even if they were a better person than I was; I can’t imagine looking at Him and believing Him to be a perfect judge. The Lord truly is perfect, and that’s why He has a perfect plan.

Do I believe that Christ is the only way to salvation? Absolutely. Do I believe that He requires everyone to meet the standard of believing in Him? Yup. Do I also believe that the Lord is perfect and provides everyone with a true opportunity to accept Him? I am so grateful that I can give a resounding “yes.”

“That makes God seem so loving”

There is a verse in 1 Peter that inspired some of the reminiscing on my friend from my mission.

1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

Peter counsels us to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks why you hold such hope. There are a great many reasons I have found a deep and abiding hope in this life, but one of those reasons is the Plan of Salvation. Just as my friend rejoiced to hear about a perfect plan from our Heavenly Father, I have more fully learned to appreciate the completeness, the details, the fairness, the perfection of the Plan of Salvation.

There are so many “side” doctrines that come along with the Plan of Salvation: free agency, the fall, the necessity of Adam and Eve leaving their innocent state. Geez, even the atonement of Jesus Christ has a million facets that can never be adequately covered here. Let’s simply talk about the portion of the Plan of Salvation that Peter spoke of.

Dual aspects of standards and fairness

In order for God to achieve His goal of our eternal happiness, He could not budge on the standard of living nor could He budge on our acceptance of Christ. These are two aspects of the Plan of Salvation that we have to accept in order to find happiness. God expects us to choose to become like Christ (even if it takes a while) because anything less results in a lesser quality of living. This simply will not do. We also have to accept Christ because His blood is the only thing that can cleanse us to the extent that we can abide the all-consuming fire that our Heavenly Father lives in. There is no way around these principles. They are eternal laws. Heavenly Father can’t simply bypass them and force the blessings of eternal happiness on us. If we do not want the peace that comes from integrity or the happiness that comes with selflessness, He will not shove those blessings down our throats. 

Now we understand why Heavenly Father has to hold this standard. Honestly, I wonder if it’s even really Him who is holding the standard. I wonder if He is simply abiding by these standards. I digress. There is no way around this. But this creates two problems…you see, there are plenty of people who lived and died without ever hearing the name of Christ. I have friends who specifically argue that anyone can look around and see the evidence of the earth, pray about it, and receive knowledge of Christ. I agree that’s possible. However, I still believe that’s unfair. One kid is born into a loving, Christian home and another is born in Abraham’s time on the other side of the world? The second problem is that some are born into circumstances of trauma where they never had the chance to develop healthy lives. Did Heavenly Father simply send His favorites to the fortunate circumstances? No, because He doesn’t have favorites. This is not a fair plan. Calling it fair simply because you believe that’s how Christ operates doesn’t make it fair. We should be able to observe Christ and observe fairness in all He does.

This is where the restored knowledge of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helps us recognize His perfect fairness. Though all Christian denominations have this knowledge through the bible, I believe that we are the only ones who teach this aspect of Christ’s perfection and fairness. To my knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong), we are the only ones who preach that missionary work continues on the other side before Judgment Day.

In chapter 3 of 1 Peter, Peter teaches that while Christ’s physical body lay in the tomb on earth, He went and taught His gospel to the disobedient spirits from the days of Noah. In chapter 4, we learn why. 

1 Peter 4:6 For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.  

Heavenly Father does not have to abandon any standards of righteousness in order to still be fair. Peter very clearly teaches that the gospel is preached to the spirits of the children of God on the other side of death. Everyone gets an adequate opportunity to accept Christ’s sacrifice and live according to how God wants them to live. Christ can require all of us to live righteously enough to experience His level of happiness, no exceptions. And He can do this fairly. It’s beautiful.

Aspect of mercy

He even takes it a step further. Christ did this awesome thing called the atonement where He paid for all of our sins. Because of this sacrifice and payment of sins, He can work with us for as long as He wants to. This often equates to Him working with us for as long as allow it.

As previously mentioned, Christ preached the gospel to the wicked people who refused to listen to Noah even though these wicked people had already died. Why would He do that if He wasn’t going to give them a chance to still find salvation? If these people were condemned the second they died, why preach to them? 

Christ is fair, but He even takes it a step further. He is merciful. He had just suffered immense agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and then suffered again on the cross, and where does He go? To the wicked people who had refused His blessings during their lives. He had tried to save them from the impending flood, but they had literally said, “We don’t want your ark.” They refused to let Him save them.

And yet after everything He had just experienced and after all of the glory and rest He had certainly earned, Christ went to them. Why? 

Because He couldn’t give up on them. He couldn’t stop loving them. He had to try and convince them to accept His “ark,” His salvation because He wanted them to come home. He missed them. 

What a beautiful and crucial doctrine we have been given. Not only can we look to God and easily see His perfection, but we can also very clearly see how He loves us. It is so evident. Those people had already told Christ, “no,” but He was going to work with them anyway. In the words of my friend, this doctrine that was taught by Peter and restored in the latter-days makes God seem so loving. 

I am grateful for a Savior who paid and died for my experience on earth. I’m grateful that He did so for those I love, and I’m grateful that He restored this knowledge so that I could very clearly see Him for who He is. I’m so grateful that He taught me about how perfectly fair and merciful He is. I am grateful that He gave me yet another reason for the hope that is in me.