Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the last section of Moroni as well as your section in Luke.

i agree with you 110% that if not only Mormons but all people focused on the last part of Moroni as you suggested, we would feel such peace and joy in our lives with the knowledge that we have a personal Savior who died for us and that we can come to in prayer anytime to lift our burdens as He was lifted on the cross.

thank you very much for your testimony.

“God is Love…and love never fails”
Plead the blood of Christ over every area of your life and resist the devil. Make sure not to be lead astray by other gospels the way I was and test every spirit to see if it is good or bad. Give God the glory and rejoice in everything. And finally “by their fruits ye shall know them”.

Those are the most important gospel truths I have been shown this past year. There are so many other things I would want to share about my testimony of the Savior and God’s love, but I leave it at those words alone.

Happy New Year!!

I have to rely on your placing of the context: the last words of Moroni and an expression of his hope.

30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

As Christians, the greatest gift is our inclusion into the faith and the family of God, specifically by Jesus Christ.

31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.

This expression is very much like the Old Testament prophets, who talked about being clothed in salvation (Isaiah comes to mind.) The following words tie this in with Christ, for when we are clothed in faith, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, namely, the righteousness which Christ bestows on us in his death and resurrection:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

Again, an excellent description of what happens when God bestows the gift of salvation. Salvation comes only because God comes to us and causes us to believe. That is grace: an undeserved, unmerited gift. God’s grace bestows saving faith within us. By that action of God, we are made perfect and holy. And God’s grace is sufficient for everyone, for it is God’s power and desire to save.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Amen. What more could any Christian say? If we do not push God away, we remain perfect and holy in God’s sight–and yes, all because Jesus shed his blood on the cross. The atoning blood of Christ covers the multitude of our sins. By that atoning blood of Christ, still poured out for us, we are cleansed of our sin and we have full pardon of our sins (See 1 John, which expresses the same thing.)

34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.

That is our Christian hope: Even as St. Paul wrote, whether I live or die I am with the Lord. The soul of the believer resides with Christ, awaiting the resurrection of all the dead, which happens as Jesus Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. Then soul and body will be joined; and following this judgment, there will be the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Thanks for the insight. This section of Moroni strikes a cord with the Christian understanding of our salvation in Jesus Christ. I find it a wonderful pronouncement of the Christian hope. Were Mormons to focus on this one text I believe they would find great hope and encouragement.

I say this not to impugn the LDS church, but to note that the Gospel is all about what God does to bring about our salvation and not what we have achieved. It is so easy to think that Jesus is just an example for our own attempts at holiness. As Moroni wrote, all depends on what Jesus accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection.

It’s all about Jesus being the Christ and our need to trust that faith in him is everything:
In him was life and that life is the light of all men. John 1.

Blessings to you all,
in this new year of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2009,
Ezra

Good to hear from you! You’re a funny man, but you have a great point too!

Hope all’s well for you and thanks for stopping by!

Jason Davis

Thanks for stopping by again. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

This is a nice post. I think I’ll give this some thought and actually do this. Most definitely, it will include God’s grace in my life, and my relationship with Jesus Christ!

Peace and Grace,
jackg