Friday, February 11, 2011
How do you come to Jesus?
In Matt. 11:28, Christ invites us to come unto Him and He tells us that if we do, he will give us rest. Recently, I've been studying scriptures like Matt. 11:28 in which Christ invites or commands us to come unto Him, in order to understand a bit more what that really means. What does it mean to come unto Christ? How do you do it? I have come to some conclusions from my personal study, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
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I've been studying the same thing David! Elder Holland gives a talk called Broken Things to Mend. He talks about how to come unto Christ. In it, he says 1st you must believe, even with a molecule of faith. 2. Change anything we can change that is keeping us from Christ and the forgive the rest. 3rd Take upon us Christ's identity by first taking upon us His name. Then we can take upon us His identity by prayer, fasting, meditation, savoring the scriptures, giving service, succoring the weak, lifting the hands which hang down, strengthening the feeble knees and loving with the pure love of Christ.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of taking upon us Christ's name and then gradually changing (or being changed, or submitting to change) so that our identity matches the name.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the talk "Broken Things to Mend:" http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-602-22,00.html
ReplyDeleteI just went through it and thought it was beautiful. If you get a chance, read it.
This is my simplified outline of what the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants say about "coming unto Christ:"
ReplyDelete1. We must come unto Christ in order to be saved.
“It seems clear that the essence of our duty and the fundamental requirement of our mortal life is captured in these brief phrases [“Come unto me,” “Follow me”] from any number of scenes in the Savior's mortal ministry .” (Broken Things to Mend, Elder Holland)
2. While coming unto Christ is associated with belief, repentance, baptism and obedience, and while these steps may certainly facilitate the process, coming unto Christ is something more than each or all of these (I say “more” and not “different” because I believe that those steps are a part of the process—they are necessary, but not sufficient).
3. In 3 Nephi, Christ qualifies His invitation using several adverbial phrases.
-3 Nephi 18:32 and 3 Nephi 12:23-24 come unto me with full purpose of heart
-3 Nephi 12:19 and 3 Nephi 9:20 come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit
-3 Nephi 9:22 cometh unto me as a little child
I believe that these phrases indicate the difference between simply going through the motions like repentance and baptism and allowing those steps are actually bring us to Christ. Coming to Christ is more than becoming a better person, and it is certainly more than completing salvific ordinances. We need to come unto Christ with full purpose of heart, with a broken heart and contrite spirit, as little children—humbly, intently, honestly, and focused on Him. He, not anything else, must be our desire and destination.
4. Several other scriptures invite us to come unto Christ and partake of His goodness.
(Jacob 1:7, 2 Nephi 26:33, 2 Nephi 26:25, 2 Nephi 9:51, Omni 1:25-26, Alma 5:34)
This invitation to come and eat a divinely provided meal reminds me of the sacrament in which we eat and drink symbols of Him and His sacrifice--we partake of His goodness. As we do so, Christ’s goodness fills us, quenches our thirst, and becomes a part of us. As we partake of His goodness (as opposed to bread and water), He changes us, and we take upon ourselves not only His name, but a bit of His identity. We feel His love and are better able to reflect it to others. Little by little, we come unto Him, and find that He has come into us.
One of my friends said this in response to my question:
ReplyDelete"I wish it was more profound than this. But I keep coming back to it as I think about your blog post.
I think you just talk to Him.
and then you listen.
because, it's like any other friendship. You hang out."