Doctrine and Covenants 93 is a bold parting from mainstream Christianity. God teaches us of our true heritage and possibilities as His children.
Receiving His fulness
For any mortal to think that he can become like God is blasphemy to the Christian world. Yet that is our core belief. As literal children of God, not just in a figurative way, we can grow to become like our heavenly parent. This profound doctrine is spelled out in section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Without a knowledge of our true heritage as children of God, how are we supposed to be able to exercise enough faith in Him to become like Him? For more than fifteen hundred years we have been taught that it is sin to think we can strive for godhood. Section 93 is definitely a break with tradition.
This week the lesson manual invites us to consider our own possibilities. What does it mean to “receive of His fulness?” Do we take such thoughts seriously? What can we do in our daily life to get onto the path of perfection that Christ has promised is available to one and all, because of his atoning sacrifice? If you ever tend to skip over the thought provoking questions found in the lesson manual, please don’t do so this week. There is too much at stake.
Comments
Below I have made comments on select verses in section 93. Not every verse has a comment, and I have copied the entire section into this article then deleted those parts for which I had nothing to say. These are my doctrinal thoughts on these verses. I don’t know if you will find them shallow or informative, right or wrong. I present them to you for your consideration. I can’t teach what I haven’t learned. Hopefully, I have learned enough that you will find at least one or two insights to be helpful in your study of the gospel.
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
I suppose at some point all of us will see our Savior and know that he is the Son of God. But I think many of us who don’t see him before the day of judgment will be filled with sorrow, rather than rejoicing at seeing his face. His promise is not that we will see him in this life, just that we will see him. That shouldn’t stop us from striving to be faithful enough to have the privilege of seeing his face before we die. Even if we fall a little short in mortality, we will still be joyful when we do see him, for that will be the desire of our heart.
2 And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world;
3 And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—
4 The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men.
5 I was in the world and received of my Father, and the works of him were plainly manifest.
6 And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed.
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was;
8 Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—
What a beautiful name for our Savior, the Messenger of Salvation. Our ability to return to our Father in Heaven is dependent on someone bringing us God’s instructions for what is required to come home. Jesus is His messenger. Without Jesus we would be lost to God. Jesus is His messenger of salvation.
9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men.
10 The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.
11 And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us.
12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
We focus on receiving grace from Christ, but Christ also received grace (which we define as “enabling power”) from God. He progressed, in much the same way we must progress, from “grace to grace.” In this way he truly marked the path back to God for us.
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;
14 And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.
Jesus being a God already became as man, subjecting himself in the flesh to the trials of mortality like the rest of us. He went through the same human probation we go through, thus becoming a son of God, as we are told to become sons and daughters of God through our obedience, subjecting our will to His.
15 And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son.
16 And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;
17 And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him.
18 And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John.
19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.
The Christian world believes we didn’t exist until God thought us into existence. It is almost as if we are all afterthoughts. Here Christ is confirming that we were deliberately, with forethought, created as God’s children, along with Christ eons ago. Since then we have been raised as God’s sons and daughters in His presence with the intent that someday we could all become like Christ, if we so choose. Unlike the rest of Christianity we believe we are the literal children of deity, here on earth to prove our obedience to Him and define for ourselves what we really want as our eternal reward.
20 For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.
21 And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn;
22 And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the Firstborn.
Do we gloss over the concept that we are to be partakers of the same glory Christ has already received from the Father? The church of the Firstborn isn’t just a random title, it is the name of the title of Christ as the firstborn of the Father. He is sharing his glory with us as we become as he is, like the Firstborn.
23 Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth;
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
This is an eternal truth – that we, through obedience to God’s commandments can receive ever more truth and light until we become glorified, like Christ, and know all things. We have further to go to become like him, but we have all the potential we need to achieve that ambition. All it takes is a will to submit to God’s ways. His grace will lift us a little at a time, until we are able to receive of God’s fulness, just as Christ has received of His fulness. That process wasn’t completed in mortality for Christ, and it won’t be completed in mortality for us.
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
The word “independent” doesn’t mean free to act with abandon. We are independent within the sphere in which God places us, meaning within the laws put in place to govern all that live and act within that sphere of existence. We must obey those laws or face the punishments of those laws. All things have laws that govern their existence, even regular matter, that without a soul, is governed by eternal laws set down by God before it was created and placed within its sphere. All things serve a purpose for where they are and within the laws God gives to the sphere in which those things exist.
31 Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
32 And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation.
Only those who reject the light and truth of the sphere in which they have been placed are punished. All of mankind have chosen foolishly from time to time, for we have moral agency given to us to chose right and wrong, truth and error. It is when we chose wrongly, going against the commandments of the Law Giver that we become accountable to His justice. This is why we need a Messiah, a Savior, our Messenger of Salvation. Only the Savior can offer us forgiveness and mercy to help us realign ourselves with the Father of all. It is called repentance, and we should be ever so grateful for being able to repent as much as we want.
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
35 The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
These last two verses reiterate the obvious. God’s glory comes because He embraces truth and light. The evil one embraces deception and corruption (darkness), the destruction of all that is good. Therefore those who are evil cannot exist with God, for they are the opposite of all that He stands for.
38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.
39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.
These verses demonstrate the principle that the previous two verses teach. We were all innocent or pure in the beginning, but because of disobedience and the wicked traditions of our fathers (our cultures) that light and truth we were created with is taken away from us as we grow up. This is why in verse 40 we are commanded to teach our children the light and truth that comes from God.
40 But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.
45 Verily, I say unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., or in other words, I will call you friends, for you are my friends, and ye shall have an inheritance with me—
46 I called you servants for the world’s sake, and ye are their servants for my sake—
Elsewhere in the scriptures Jesus refers to those whom the Father has given him (John 17:24, Hebrews 2:13, Doctrine and Covenants 27:14, and 50:41-42 to name a few places). These are they whom Jesus calls his friends. We are part of his eternal reward for the sacrifices he has made for all of God’s children. We are the children Jesus is able to bring back to our Father. His joy is being able to live with us as his friends for eternity. That is a sobering and gratifying thought.
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