The five most personally impactful points of 2 Nephi 2:
- (v. 1-2) Like so many people, Jacob was not born into a perfect family environment. I am grateful that the foundational characters and first family of The Book of Mormon are exactly who they are. Two of his elder brothers (Laman and Lemuel) were poor examples while the other two (Nephi and Sam) were excellent examples. These facts are important to the remaining themes of the chapter: opposition and agency.
- (v. 3-10) The grantor of our agency and key figure in the Plan of Salvation is Jesus Christ. It is only through the merits, mercy and grace of Christ that we will be able to overcome both sin and death. The ends of the law given by the Savior have both a punishment affixed for disobeying it as well as happiness affixed for obedience to it.
- There must be opposition in all things. Without wickedness there would not be holiness. Without sadness there would not be happiness. All things in heaven and earth we created for a purpose - some to act and some to be acted upon.
- When our Father placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he gave them the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in opposition to the Tree of Life. They were "instructed sufficiently that they (knew) good from evil" (v.5) and then allowed to make a choice. The Lord gave unto man that he should act for himself, but man could not act for himself unless he was enticed by opposite forces (v.16).
- Adam fell that man might be and men are that they might have joy (v.25). To this verse Elder Russell M. Nelson commented, "men are they they might have joy, not guilt trips." If the Lord is the one enticing us to do good and have joy we also learn that it is Satan who "had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind" (v.18). Therefore we are "free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil" (v.27)
No comments:
Post a Comment