The Mediator

 Hey Everyone!

This week I wanted to post about something that I read about in the New Testament. It's found in 1 Timothy 2:5 and it says, "5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

Jesus Christ has many names. One of my favorites is "Mediator" because He paid the price for our sins. We have the ability to repent and return to live with Heavenly Father because of Him.

This also reminds me of a story. There was a certain man who borrowed a large sum from another man with the agreement that it would be paid in full at a later date. However, when the date did come around the first man (the debtor) couldn't pay back the money that he borrowed from the second man (the creditor) in full. And so, the debtor was to be put in prison because of what happened. The creditor wanted justice to be satisfied while the debtor wanted mercy shown. The demands of justice and mercy cannot be satisfied in this situation without a third party: a mediator.

The debtor had a friend that offered to help him out. He offered to pay back the creditor in full and have the debtor work for him in order to back his debt completely. In this way, the creditor was able to receive justice and receive his money and the debtor was able pay back the money he owed at a later date.

This story is a parable of how our lives are. Heavenly Father is the creditor in this story and we are all the debtors. Heavenly Father has given us everything that we could ever want in our lives. There is no possible way that we could ever pay him back for all of the things that He has done for us. One of the things that He asks us to do us is to keep the commandments and to be perfect eventually. Well, as humans, none of us are perfect and some of us have a long way to go in order to reach perfection. 

We are going to make mistakes in our lives and the only way that we have even a small chance to be with Him again is through a third party: a mediator. The Mediator is Jesus Christ. Because of all of the sins that we have committed, we cannot possibly suffer for all of them. We're not capable of taking that much pain upon ourselves. That is why Heavenly Father prepared the Savior for us. Without the power of the Atonement and without the Mediator, there would be no point to our lives. We wouldn't have the opportunity to grow or to learn from our mistakes. We wouldn't be able to be forgiven. We would have to suffer the penalty of our sins.

Righteousness and Obedience

 Hey Everyone!

One of the scriptures that I came across in my New Testament study this week is found in the Book of Romans Chapter 5 verse 19. The scripture says, "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." 

I really like this scripture. This makes me think about about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it has helped me become more righteous in my life. As natural humans, we all sin. We all have the ability to choose between right and wrong. Heavenly Father has made it so that we can decide whether we want to be obedient and keep his commandments or whether we want to sin and be disobedient.

Because we all sin, we distance ourselves away from God and this makes it hard for the Spirit to be with us and for us to receive revelation for ourselves. It also makes us unhappy. It may bring temporary happiness for a little while and may even be pleasurable. But, even with keeping that in mind, it doesn't bring eternal happiness.

A lot of things that are temporal or things of the earth, are not lasting. We need to eat to keep ourselves from starving; we need to drink water to keep ourselves hydrated; we need sleep to rest and recover and so on. Things that are spiritual, however, have an eternal effect on us. For example, reading our scriptures every day will help us to resist temptation, getting sealed in the temple will help us to have an eternal family. These things that are righteous have lasting effects on us.

I enjoyed this scripture a lot. It helped me to remember why we are obedient and why we need the Gospel in our lives.