"Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given."
3 Nephi 1:14
The phrase here "of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh" is an interesting one, perhaps showing that Christ, at this point, right before he is born into mortality, hasn't unified those parts of himself... or even just as an explanation to us about where any other will comes from.
We are spirit and body, and our spirits, before we came here, were already united with Heavenly Father's will. We wanted this chance, and looked forward to getting bodies and learning to use them. But, as Christ mentions, having "flesh" gives us additional urges and desires that we didn't have as Spirits. That's what the scriptures call "the natural man" in some places (1 Corinthians 2:14, Mosiah 3:19), and that's why we're sometimes torn apart internally... one part of us going in one direction and the other part wanting to go a different way. One part of us always wants what God wants, because that is what we wanted before this life, and the other part has new needs, which we have to decide how to satisfy. A large part of life is just choosing whether to let our spirits lead or our bodies, and who we choose to become as this new melded being... how we decide to reconcile those different parts of our new whole selves.
Another thing that Christ says here is that he is going to do the will of BOTH. And that's the trick, right? We need to learn to be unified within ourselves the same way that Christ did the will of his Father *and* himself. The scriptures give us hints about bridling our passions and *all* of the commandments are to help us learn in this new situation, to listen to the voice of the Spirit, to treat our bodies well and respectfully... just showing us how to get used to having bodies and how to get back home after we're done with that task. :)
Today, let's work on unifying ourselves, being less torn apart internally and less at odd with God, because being at odds with God is *also* being at odds with part of ourselves. Once we get on the same page internally, it will be a lot easier to influence the world in a good way. :)
3 Nephi 1:14
The phrase here "of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh" is an interesting one, perhaps showing that Christ, at this point, right before he is born into mortality, hasn't unified those parts of himself... or even just as an explanation to us about where any other will comes from.
We are spirit and body, and our spirits, before we came here, were already united with Heavenly Father's will. We wanted this chance, and looked forward to getting bodies and learning to use them. But, as Christ mentions, having "flesh" gives us additional urges and desires that we didn't have as Spirits. That's what the scriptures call "the natural man" in some places (1 Corinthians 2:14, Mosiah 3:19), and that's why we're sometimes torn apart internally... one part of us going in one direction and the other part wanting to go a different way. One part of us always wants what God wants, because that is what we wanted before this life, and the other part has new needs, which we have to decide how to satisfy. A large part of life is just choosing whether to let our spirits lead or our bodies, and who we choose to become as this new melded being... how we decide to reconcile those different parts of our new whole selves.
Another thing that Christ says here is that he is going to do the will of BOTH. And that's the trick, right? We need to learn to be unified within ourselves the same way that Christ did the will of his Father *and* himself. The scriptures give us hints about bridling our passions and *all* of the commandments are to help us learn in this new situation, to listen to the voice of the Spirit, to treat our bodies well and respectfully... just showing us how to get used to having bodies and how to get back home after we're done with that task. :)
Today, let's work on unifying ourselves, being less torn apart internally and less at odd with God, because being at odds with God is *also* being at odds with part of ourselves. Once we get on the same page internally, it will be a lot easier to influence the world in a good way. :)
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