This world, and everything in it, is in a constant state of decay. Entropy magnetizes darkness to itself and it’s a seemingly impossible battle to move forward in the opposite direction. From this comes fear of loss, pain, sorrow, and heartbreak. It’s fear that replaces the youthful illusion of immortality and gradually brings in the reality of how, in a blink of an eye, life and light can be lost.

The darkness we all encounter here slowly hardens our hearts and chips away at our child-like trust and faith we bring into this world. We become suspicious and doubtful, believing that we are too sinful to approach the Lord.

And yet, Christ is quick to forgive sin. He allows all to come to Him and He is no respecter of persons. In just that defining of Christ’s character, I recognize my incapacity to comprehend Him. What we struggle in extending towards ourselves and others, Christ freely offers to all.

Christ is affable, but not gregarious. Meaning, He is friendly, good-natured, easy to talk to. He wants you to pray. He wants you to approach Him. “He is willing to guide and He is willing to teach. He is intelligent but He is not overbearing. He is humble in His demeanor, even though His power is undeniable. He is therefore, both a Lamb and a Lion (Christ: The Prototype of the Saved Man; Pg. 1-2).

Jesus was subject to suffering and temptations when He came into the world as a man. He endured what no other could endure and come out of triumphant as He did. The despair that you feel so utterly alone and lost in is part of Christ’s experience (The Doctrine of Christ: One People, One Shepherd; Pg. 7). Therefore, how can a God that has suffered it all without succumbing not care for you?

Or who of you, if your child asks for bread, will give them a stone? Or if your child asks for a fish, will give them a snake? If you then, with all your faults, still understand how to respond to your children’s requests, how much more does your Father who is in heaven know how to respond kindly to things asked of Him (CoC 3 Nephi 6:8)?

He is not a god of trickery or one who is without compassion. He is not “bothered” by your prayers over the things within your heart. Being a God that cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, one of the first things Christ does when you enter His presence is forgive your sins. He is providing every possible opportunity to draw you in, not push you away. “…although your sins may be as scarlet, He can, He will and He does, make you white as snow, no longer accountable for your limitations. Therefore you needn’t fear, but you can approach boldly, our Lord (Christ: The Prototype of the Saved Man; Pg. 2).”

Jesus Christ is the only means to salvation. No man or group can save you. The single way and single source is Christ. There is no collective salvation and each person comes to Him one at a time. Even the redemption of a group still warrants Christ visiting with them individually (Glossary – Salvation).

If you are going to be saved, you must be “exactly,” you must be “precisely” what Christ is and “nothing else.” You! At the moment when you are saved this is what you must be, “or else not be saved.” Christ is the prototype and we must mirror Him. He proved God the Father’s word by doing what the Father asked. This is how Christ identified Himself to the Nephites. He “suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.” (3 Ne. 11: 11.) Or, in other words, Christ was obedient before this world was, and this world started in its creation after Christ was first qualified to redeem it. As a consequence of that doctrine, to speak of Christ is necessarily to speak of salvation. To understand Christ is to understand salvation. Your salvation is to be understood as requiring from you exactly what was required of Christ. You cannot be different from Christ and yet be saved, because your salvation depends upon you being precisely what He is and nothing else. Despite how plainly this has been put, we still stop short of comprehending this doctrine (Christ: The Prototype of the Saved Man; Pg. 16).

Christ is the gatekeeper on the path to God and only He permits those to enter into God’s kingdom. Because He has faced everything we face, Christ “comprehends all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him, and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things, and all things are by him, and of him, even God, for ever and ever (T&C 86:6).” There is nothing that we experience here that Christ doesn’t know and comprehend.

He was hungry, thirsty, tired, weary, stirred with unbecoming thoughts, tempted to be impatient, unkind, ambitious, aspiring, indifferent, judgmental, and angry. No appetite of the body was unfamiliar to Him. No ugly thought, unkind reflection, or impatient reaction was absent from His life. But He was nonetheless “without sin” because He did not succumb. He confronted, endured, but gave no heed to temptations (In Defense of Jesus Christ; Pg. 5).

These daily burdens were endured and overcome by Christ and He eagerly awaits for us to approach Him in repentance and humility so that He can relieve us of those burdens as well. I believe in this Christ whose love is so complete that He has “begged us to repent and follow Him so we can escape the consequences of our failures (In Defense of Jesus Christ; Pg. 10-11).”

The great triumph of Christ is His love. There is no power which can separate us from His love. He has overcome all that divides us, and is able to reach across any gulf, overcome any distance and meet any challenge…His love is so compelling it would require us to walk away, to reject what He offers, before we can lose what He freely gives (Come, Let Us Adore Him; Pg. 272-273).

No one has done what Christ did and yet He commands us to be like Him and the Father (3 Nephi 5:31). In becoming perfect, we are to love, bless, and impart goodness and prayer to those who hurt, abuse, and persecute us. The Father makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good. We must come to do the same for each other.

The Lord said, “But remember that without the fruit of repentance, and a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you cannot keep my covenant; for I, your Lord, am meek and lowly of heart. Be like me (T&C 175:51).”

If it is impossible, would the Lord have commanded it? In asking the seemingly impossible, Christ travailed that path first and laid out the way for us.

In concluding the final writing in the Covenant of Christ, Moroni writes:

Again, I would urge you to come to Christ and hold firmly to every good gift, and avoid every evil or unclean thought. Wake up and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem! Put on your beautiful clothes, daughter of Zion, and strengthen your tent stakes and extend your borders out forever, so you won’t be lost anymore, so the covenants the Eternal Father has made with you, O house of Israel, can be fulfilled. Come to Christ and be made complete in Him, and reject all ungodliness. And if you reject all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then His grace is sufficient for you, so that by His grace you can be complete in Christ. If by God’s grace you’re complete in Christ, there’s no way you can deny God’s power. Moreover, if you’re complete in Christ by God’s grace and don’t deny His power, then you’re sanctified in Christ by God’s grace through the shedding of Christ’s blood, which is part of the Father’s covenant, to accomplish the remission of your sins, so that you become holy, without stain (Moroni 10:6).

Grace, which is the power to move closer to God, is received by keeping the commandments. It is an increase of light that we must choose to draw closer to. If we receive this light from Him, we receive grace and, therefore, become more like Him. In so doing, we will find ourselves more gracious and patient with others. This is the formula that works. This is the process we are commanded to stay in engaged in.

How was the Lord able to accomplish all He did? In Abraham 5:4 the Lord explains, “I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.” He was more intelligent because He grew from grace to grace until He understood all things — because He had been through all things, He had descended below all things, and He had risen above all things — therefore He comprehends all things. Comprehension of the “doctrine of Christ” is not based on the command of a vocabulary or mastery of an argument. It is based on gathering light. Light is gathered by heed (obedience) and diligence alone. “We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect….” By following the light one has received already, one grows in light (see T&C 36:4). This process leads to the “perfect day” where the light has chased away all darkness. This is how all, like Christ, can grow from grace to grace until they also receive a fullness (see T&C 93:7⁶ As man keeps the commandments, he gains light and truth. Experience will be his guide. It works. If anyone finds this odd or difficult to grasp, he just needs to keep the commandments, and he will find it becoming increasingly easy to understand. Man will get light and truth as he follows the process. Do it, and see it unfold. This is the way in which Christ grew from grace to grace. This is how He received the fullness. It is also the way man can get greater grace, greater light and truth. It is the way man will obtain the fullness of light and truth (Glossary – Grace).

Let our faith be renewed in Christ and that His path is the only straight and narrow one that leads back to Him. There truly is light at the end of the road when Christ is the one we follow. He overcame it all and even justice had to surrender to His resurrection. Such an incredible, incomprehensible being and, yet, Christ continues to walk beside us. Remaining affable, approachable, but not being gregarious, He waits for us to walk the path back to Him. Being no respecter of persons, Christ allows anyone, “in any circumstance, to approach Him on equal footing (The Second Comforter).”