Thursday, 10 April 2025

UNSPOTTED IN A WORLD OF SIN

 


There is a scripture in Section 36 of the Doctrine of Covenants which issues a challenge to the members of the Church to have an aversion to sin. This is a tall order considering we live in a fallen world with the inclinations of the natural man.

This scripture says we are to ‘come forth out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted with the flesh’ (v 6). This has reference to Jude 1:23 and this is a clearer explanation of it:

“To stay the spread of disease in ancient Israel, clothing spotted by contagious diseases was destroyed by burning (Lev. 13:47-59; 15:4-17). And so with sin in the Church, the saints are to avoid the remotest contact with it; the very garments, as it were, of the sinners are to be burned with fire, meaning that anything which has had contact with the pollutions of the wicked must be shunned” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:428).

Again I ask, is it possible to be in total control of the inclinations of the natural man? Well, it would appear so. When King Benjamin delivered his address, his people were so overcome that they viewed themselves in their carnal state and begged for the Atoning power of Christ to purify their hearts and grant them forgiveness of their sins (Mosiah 4:2).

It didn’t stop with forgiveness though. Because of their willingness to believe in Jesus Christ and in His power, this willingness led to His spirit working a ‘mighty change’ in their hearts to such a point that they had no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually (Mosiah 5:2).

The key to a sinless state then has to be ‘a mighty change’ for our hearts to become like Christ’s, devoid of desire to sin. The thing is, the Saviour did not come to this fallen world immune to sin and temptation. It was His choice to be sinless.

“Christ was perfect because he wanted to be. It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that he remained true.

“Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the agency of man [hence] He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he willed so to do…..

“He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants records, “He suffered temptations but gave no need heed unto them (D&C 20:22).”  (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, p 4; see also Jesus the Christ, p 134)

The Saviour did not overcome sin for himself, He resisted it. No painful repentance needed because no sin was committed. We might argue that because of His divine nature it was easy for Him to resist His temptations but that is not so. Every temptation has to equal the stature of the man, otherwise it is not a temptation. It has no substance if it does not carry with it potential power to destroy.

Lest we feel totally disheartened because we are not sinless….we can have the power to become so. Because of His Atonement, the Saviour overcame the effects of sin for the natural man and can give us strength beyond our own to keep our garments unspotted from the world through the enabling power of His grace.

This power is ours for the asking, and seeking, and longing to keep our garments unspotted from ‘the flesh’ of this world:

“….I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong.” (D&C 50:16)


- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Return to the Fold by Greg Sargent)



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