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That They May Be One in Us to the law of sin which is in my mem- bers” (Romans 7:21–23). That They May Be Nephi expressed similar feelings: “Notwithstanding the great good- ness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart One in Us exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because ELDER D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON of my flesh; my soul grieveth because Of the Seventy of mine iniquities. “I am encompassed about, because We will not be one with God and Christ until we make of the temptations and the sins which Their will and interest our greatest desire. do so easily beset me” (2 Nephi 4:17–18). But then, remembering the Savior, Nephi stated this hopeful conclusion: “Nevertheless, I know in whom I have world may believe that thou hast trusted” (2 Nephi 4:19). What did he sent me. mean? “And the glory which thou gavest Jesus was also a being of flesh and me I have given them; that they may spirit, but He yielded not to tempta- be one, even as we are one: tion (see Mosiah 15:5). We can turn to “I in them, and thou in me, that Him as we seek unity and peace they may be made perfect in one” within, because He understands. He (John 17:20–23). understands the struggle, and He also How glorious it is to contemplate understands how to win the struggle. that we have been invited into that As Paul said, “We have not an high perfect unity that exists with the priest which cannot be touched with Father and the Son. How can this the feeling of our infirmities; but was happen? in all points tempted like as we are, Pondering this question, it yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). becomes clear that we must begin by Most importantly, we may look to becoming one within ourselves. We Jesus to help restore the inner unity are dual beings of flesh and spirit, and of our soul when we have succumbed s His mortal ministry drew to we sometimes feel out of harmony or to sin and destroyed our peace. Soon a close, knowing “that his in conflict. Our spirit is enlightened after His intercessory plea that we A hour was come” (John 13:1), by conscience, the light of Christ (see might become “perfect in one,” Jesus Jesus gathered His Apostles in an Moroni 7:16; D&C 93:2), and naturally suffered and gave His life to atone for upper room in Jerusalem. Following responds to the whisperings of the sin. The power of His Atonement can their supper and after He had Holy Spirit and desires to follow truth. erase the effects of sin in us. When we washed their feet and taught them, But the appetites and temptations to repent, His atoning grace justifies and Jesus offered a sublime Intercessory which the flesh is subject can, if per- cleanses us (see 3 Nephi 27:16–20). It Prayer on behalf of these Apostles mitted, overwhelm and dominate the is as if we had not succumbed, as if and all who would believe in Him. spirit. Paul said: we had not yielded to temptation. He supplicated the Father in these “I find then a law, that, when I As we endeavor day by day and words: would do good, evil is present week by week to follow the path of “Neither pray I for these alone, but with me. Christ, our spirit asserts its preemi- for them also which shall believe on “For I delight in the law of God nence, the battle within subsides, and me through their word; after the inward man: temptations cease to trouble. There is “That they all may be one; as thou, “But I see another law in my mem- greater and greater harmony between Father, art in me, and I in thee, that bers, warring against the law of my the spiritual and the physical until our they also may be one in us: that the mind, and bringing me into captivity physical bodies are transformed, in NOVEMBER 2002 71 Paul’s words, from “instruments of This was certainly no small thing. Father is the husbandman. unrighteousness unto sin” to “instru- That suffering, He said, “caused “Every branch in me that beareth ments of righteousness unto God” myself, even God, the greatest of all, not fruit he taketh away: and every (see Romans 6:13). to tremble because of pain, and to branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth Becoming at one within ourselves bleed at every pore, and to suffer it, that it may bring forth more fruit” prepares us for the greater blessing of both body and spirit—and would that (John 15:1–2). becoming one with God and Christ. I might not drink the bitter cup, and What form that purging may Jesus achieved perfect unity with shrink— take, what sacrifices it may entail, the Father by submitting Himself, both “Nevertheless, glory be to the we probably cannot know in advance. flesh and spirit, to the will of the Father. Father, and I partook and finished my But if with the rich young ruler His ministry was always clearly focused preparations unto the children of we were to ask, “What lack I yet?” because there was no debilitating or men” (D&C 19:18–19). (Matthew 19:20), the Savior’s answer distracting double-mindedness in Him. These statements reveal that the would be the same: “Come and fol- Referring to His Father, Jesus said, “I Savior’s overarching ambition is to low me” (Matthew 19:21); be my do always those things that please glorify the Father. The Father is “in” disciple as I am the disciple of him” (John 8:29). the Son in the sense that the Father’s the Father; become “as a child, sub- Because it was the Father’s glory and the Father’s will are the all- missive, meek, humble, patient, full will, Jesus submitted even to death, consuming occupation of the Son. of love, willing to submit to all things “the will of the Son being swal- During that Last Supper with which the Lord seeth fit to inflict lowed up in the will of the Father” His Apostles, the Savior said: upon [you], even as a child doth sub- (Mosiah 15:7). “I am the true vine, and my mit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). 72 President Brigham Young spoke understandingly of our challenge when he said: A Woman of Faith “Af ter all that has been said and done, after he has led this people so MARGARET D. NADAULD long, do you not perceive that there is Recently Released Young Women General President a lack of confidence in our God? Can you perceive it in yourselves? You may ask, ‘Brother Brigham, do you per- A woman of faith trusts God. .. She knows of His interest ceive it in yourself?’ I do, I can see in her life. She knows that He knows her. She loves His words that I yet lack confidence, to some and drinks deeply of that living water. extent, in him whom I trust.—Why? Because I have not the power, in con- sequence of that which the fall has brought upon me. ... agony Himself. He overcame death “.. Something rises up within me, so that we can too. He has prepared at times[,] that .. draws a dividing a place for us in heaven with our line between my interest and the Eternal Father. He has taught us the interest of my Father in heaven; plan for happiness and given us the something that makes my interest vision of it and the hope to follow it. and the interest of my Father in His was the ultimate life of sacrifice heaven not precisely one. and a life of service to fulfill the plan “.. We should feel and under- of God His Father. stand, as far as possible, as far as fallen A Latter-day Saint woman who fol- nature will let us, as far as we can get lows Christ’s example in her daily liv- faith and knowledge to understand ing begins to fulfill the plan of our ourselves, that the interest of that Heavenly Father for her. By so doing God whom we serve is our interest, she can be a powerful influence for and that we have no other, neither in good in today’s world and meet the time nor in eternity” (Deseret News, challenges of mortality. I have known 10 Sept. 1856, 212). such women, and they have been a Surely we will not be one with God love the Lord Jesus Christ and His guiding light to me. The Latter-day and Christ until we make Their will Church, which has been restored Saint woman who follows Christ is a and interest our greatest desire. Such I to the earth in our day. I treasure true Christian in the very best sense submissiveness is not reached in a the teachings of His holy life from of the word. She is a woman of faith day, but through the Holy Spirit, the newborn infant to resurrected man, who trusts God and is confident and Lord will tutor us if we are willing Son of God. fearless. until, in process of time, it may accu- As I have read from the pages of A woman of faith trusts God and rately be said that He is in us as the the Bible, in my mind’s eye I have faces adversity with hope.
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