What can one say about the Savior that hasn’t already been said many times? The only thing a person can say is what they personally feel about Him without any concern for what others may have expressed. The way one feels about the Savior is hard for most of us to describe or share publicly, because it is so personal. Charles Spurgeon stated that “He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet.” I remember when I was a young man of nineteen years, I was a member of the United States Army, actually a Military Policeman serving at the Presidio in San Francisco at the Sixth Army Headquarters. I have to admit that I was a pretty rough-talking person. Not as bad as many of my fellow soldiers, but pretty bad. Our talk was often what I would later consider downright vulgar. I was becoming disgusted with myself and those around me. I can remember the thought going through my mind, “Is this really what life is all about, day after day, the same dirty talk and stupid routine dialog?” Smoking and dirty talk seemed to be the main, day to day, for many of us.
They were essentially my family. I lived with them, ate with them and worked with them. I remember not being very happy with my lifestyle, and I couldn’t see how it was going to take me to anything better. It was during this time that I noticed how one of our group was different. He didn’t swear, didn’t smoke (I had actually just quit smoking myself ), and he didn’t drink alcohol. Yet, he always seemed to be happy with a smile on his face. That was when I asked him to tell me why he was so different from the rest of us. He sat me down on his footlocker, and handed me a book, a copy of the Book of Mormon. He told me that if I would read the book, then I would understand why he was different. Even though I considered myself a Christian, I really hadn’t known the Savior. I had been raised in the Lutheran Church, but I do not believe that I had ever felt the spirit of the Holy Ghost. The story of my conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in my history, but to make a long story shorter, I began reading the Book of Mormon, and once I started, I could not put it done. For the first time in my life, I began to understand who Jesus Christ really was. The Spirit in the Book of Mormon was so powerful to me at that time, that much of the way through the book, I found tears streaming down my cheeks. I felt like I had finally come home or come to a place or a spiritual understanding of life that made me feel like I belonged. Within a few weeks, I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I quit swearing. I no longer would drink beer, even though I seldom did before that. I no longer had a desire to do any of those things. I became a church goer and one who looked forward to going and being there among people who believed in that book that made such a significant impact on my life and my very being. I felt the Savior’s spirit and came to know Him through the spirit of the Holy Ghost, that same spirit that permeates throughout the Book of Mormon. Is that same spirit found in the Old and New Testament? Yes, I suppose you could say that it is, but it is just a little harder to find there. The Book of Mormon was translated from plates of gold by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, so yes, it is a much more powerful witness than is the Old and/or the New Testament. Those testaments have been translated many times by various groups of scholars and in several languages. However, once a person has the knowledge and understanding of the scriptures as found in the Book of Mormon, the Old and New Testament begin to make much more sense and are more easily understood and digested from a spiritual point of view. The poem below expresses the Savior as he was in the world and the impact He had while in the world. However, the Savior’s influence is much more far reaching than just the time He spent here on earth. I love the poem (below) about the Savior’s life on earth entitled: “One Solitary Life,” written by D. James Allan Francis in 1926:
He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind’s progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth As powerfully as that one solitary life”
He was the first born spiritually of the Father and He, it was, who accepted the assignment to be sacrificed for the sins of all mankind, long before he came to earth and then actually experienced it. He was the only one of all of the millions (billions) of the pre-earth spirit children who was perfect and without blemish, the one who could satisfy universal “Justice” and provide the mercy for which our salvation is based. He was also the one who was asked by the Father to go down and create the earth that we are currently dwelling on. He was given the power of the Father to carry out the Plan of Salvation, or the Plan of Progression, for which all of God’s children from the very beginning are involved in, whether they are aware of it or not. It makes one sad to know that many do not know of the plan. They do not know why they are here and therefore live out their lives in a twilight zone, so to speak. They are blind to what they could be seeing had they the knowledge to see the light that is available to them if they would seek it out. He is the reason that Israel was required to offer sacrifices (a lamb without blemish) as a reminder of their Savior who would someday come and sacrifice His life, as a lamb going to the slaughter. I owe my long and happy life to my knowledge and testimony of the Savior, Jesus the Christ, which knowledge I have acquired through the doctrines of His Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has been restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. An article in the Smithsonian Science magazine recently identified Joseph Smith as the person who has made the greatest religious influence on humankind in this country and in the world more than any other human being. He was martyred at the young age of 38 years. I know he had a sig- nificant influence in my life. Why? Because the Book of Mormon was brought forth through the power of God, through revelation and inspiration received by Joseph as a young man. I agree with the statement in the Doctrine and Covenants: “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose the book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3)
I love the sacrament prayers that are read each Sunday by those holding the Priesthood, and I love to partake of the bread and water in remembrance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is a time when we can bow our heads and contemplate the love and care that He has for each of us to be willing to do what He did in our behalf. It is a time when we can think of our weaknesses and express our sorrow while we covenant that we will try to lead better and more pure lives so that His sacrifice for us will not be in vain. He was the only one who has ever walked the earth who was never tempted beyond His ability to resist. He was a perfect being and He had to be that way for “Justice” to accept His sacrifice in our behalf. May we have the strength to live worthy of His love and devotion to us and to His Father so that we might return to live with them one day. While hanging on the cross and just prior to his death, these words came from his mouth: “It is finished.” ( John 19:30). Arthur Pink said of those words, “This was not the despairing cry of a helpless martyr; it was not an expression of satisfaction that the termination of his sufferings had now been reached; it was not the last gasp of a worn-out life. No, rather it was the declaration on the part of the divine Redeemer that all for which he came from heaven to earth to do, was now done: that all that was needed to reveal the full character of God had now been accomplished, that all that was required by law before sinners could be saved had now been performed; that the full price of our redemption was now paid…. “It is finished.” Each of our lives will one day wind down, and, be it as it may, we too will say “it is finished.” What work we have done while sojourning here and how we performed that work will be history. Each of us will want to and hope to hear the Savior say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”