Craig Johnson wrote: ↑March 26th, 2018, 9:33 am
I am guessing that you don't actually know the answer to these questions or maybe confused on some of the details?
1. He is not His Father, see Luke 9:26, He cannot come in His own glory if He is the Father. He is a mirror image of His Father, He is exactly like Him but He is not Him. They are two separate persons. Due to divine investiture of authority the Lord often speaks as though He is His Father because they are One in purpose, this is a concept that can only be understood at the simplest of levels by people with mortal minds. Since you are not asking how the Lord is our Father I will not address that. To say that He is precisely what His Father is may indicate that you think He is His Father, which is not true, if you mean to indicate that He is exactly like His Father, but is a separate person, you would be correct. The wording of the question is slightly problematic and could be made more clear by saying it this way, "Is He precisely like His Father?" Is He precisely what His Father is? No, they occupy two separate bodies and have their own spirits..
2. Yes. This statement has dual meanings. Spiritually He did that which His Father showed Him, temporally He did that which He saw His mortal father do, who was a righteous man. Keep in mind that He grew from grace to grace unlike any of us, He did no backsliding, He did no sin regardless of what Hollywood puts out, i.e. if He saw Joseph or anyone else do anything wrong He did not do that, but He did learn from it. Also, remember that this very special person only had to learn things once, we are not like that.
3. Some of us are trying to be like the Lord and this is because we love Him who loved us first and laid His life down for us.
4. Yes and we fail everyday, but we can keep trying.
5. To be like the Lord will be positionally relevant, but that does not mean you will come back to mortality and live the life He lived. If you are never to be like Him you will not be in a position like the one He is in, i.e. you will not be given all that the Father has.
6. If you do not live His law you will not dwell in the kingdom where He dwells, but you might dwell in a lesser kingdom that He controls and visits.
I hope these answers help you to understand better. These questions demonstrate that you are thinking deeply about the Lord. God bless.
I have my understanding of the things. It may be right, it may not be. I do the best I can.
Per #1 - I did not intend to conflate the Heavenly Father and Jesus as being the same person. I merely used the language of the Lectures on Faith.
In the 5th lecture, which I believe is correct, it is very plain that the two are not one:
There are two personages who constitute the great matchless, governing and supreme power over all things- by whom all things were created and made, that are created and made, whether visible or invisible: whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space- They are the Father and the Son...
Later in the 7th lecture:
We ask, then, Where is the prototype? or Where is the saved being? We conclude as to the answer of this question there will be no dispute among those who believe the bible, that it is Christ: all will agree in this that he is the prototype or standard of salvation, or in other words, that he is a saved being. And if we should continue our interrogation, and ask how it is that he is saved, the answer would be, because he is a just and holy being; and if he were anything different from what he is he would not be saved; for his salvation depends on his being precisely what he is and nothing else; for if it were possible for him to change in the least degree, so sure he would fail of salvation and lose all his dominion, power, authority and glory, which constitutes salvation; for salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses, and in nothing else; and no being can possess it but himself or one like him...
I did not include the whole thing before, but this expanded version clearly shows you can be like Him (though it seems to indicate being precisely like Him, not kind of like Him in some ways).
2. I offer this quote from the King Follett Discourse for your consideration:
These are the first principles of consolation. How consoling to the mourners when they are called to part with a husband, wife, father, mother, child, or dear relative, to know that, although the earthly tabernacle is laid down and dissolved, they shall rise again to dwell in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or die any more, but they shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before. What did Jesus do? Why, I do the things I saw my Father do when worlds came rolling into existence. My Father worked out His kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to My Father, so that He may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt Him in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take His place, and thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the tracks of His Father, and inherits what God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all His children. It is plain beyond disputation, and you thus learn some of the first principles of the gospel, about which so much hath been said.
And also:
What did Jesus say? (Mark it, Elder Rigdon!) The scriptures inform us that Jesus said, as the Father hath power in himself, even so hath the Son power—to do what? Why, what the Father did. The answer is obvious—in a manner to lay down his body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life as my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not believe it you do not believe the Bible. The scriptures say it, and I defy all the learning and wisdom and all the combined powers of earth and hell together to refute it. Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.
I understand this to mean He did the things on earth that He saw Heavenly Father do on some world prior to this world. I also submit that there seem to be 2 possible interpretations of D&C 93 when it talks about Him growing from grace to grace. 1. He did this growth during his childhood years (or some other time during his mortal lifetime) or 2. this growth was prior to his mortal life here on earth. For my part, I believe the latter.
3 and 4 and 6: I agree.
5: This seems to be the crux of the discussion. Again I claim this statement to be true from the 6th Lecture:
It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them, who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they in like manner offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of him.
I claim that Christ meets the definition of offering his all in sacrifice, and that it is vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are or can be heirs with Him unless they in like manner offer unto him the same sacrifice. It is not some academic thing you read in a celestial textbook, but literally make the same sacrifice. That is how Heavenly Father worked out his Kingdom and that is the track that all who would be Gods must follow.