Mosiah 12:18-14:12
Reading Assignment for class on Tuesday, Dec. 5: Mosiah 12:18-14:12
To be clear: start reading in Mosiah 12:18 and read the rest of the chapter, then read Mosiah 13 and also Mosiah 14:1-12.
Ponder the following questions as you read:
1) What is the importance of both knowing and living the gospel?
2) What are some things that Abinadi taught Noah and his priests that you can apply to yourself?
3) Why do you think Abinadi re-taught them the 10 commandments? Do they still apply to us today?
4) What do you think it means to have the commandments written in our hearts?
Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, Young Women General President:
“We need to get the gospel from our heads into our hearts! It is possible for us to merely go through the motions of living the gospel because it is expected or because it is the culture in which we have grown up or because it is a habit. …
“We all need to seek to have our hearts and very natures changed so that we no longer have a desire to follow the ways of the world but to please God” (Bonnie L. Oscarson, “Do I Believe?”Ensign or Liahona, May 2016, 88).
Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
“After all our obedience and good works, we cannot be saved from death or the effects of our individual sins without the grace extended by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormonmakes this clear. It teaches that ‘salvation doth not come by the law alone’ (Mosiah 13:28). In other words, salvation does not come simply by keeping the commandments. … Man cannot earn his own salvation” (Dallin H. Oaks, “Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” Ensign, Mar. 1994, 67).
Want More?
Mosiah 13:34. “God himself should come down”
In Mosiah 13:34, the term God refers to Jesus Christ. Saints of the Old Testament era knew Jesus Christ as Jehovah and as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Elder James E. Talmage (1862–1933) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that the scriptures help us understand the divinity of Jesus Christ and His role as a God:
“We claim scriptural authority for the assertion that Jesus Christ was and is God the Creator, the God who revealed Himself to Adam, Enoch, and all the antediluvial patriarchs and prophets down to Noah; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of Israel as a united people, and the God of Ephraim and Judah after the disruption of the Hebrew nation; the God who made Himself known to the prophets from Moses to Malachi; the God of the Old Testament record; and the God of the Nephites. We affirm that Jesus Christ was and is Jehovah, the Eternal One” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 32).
Mosiah 13:27–35. The law of Moses and Jesus Christ
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught how the law of Moses relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ:
“The modern reader should not see the Mosaic code—anciently or in modern times—as simply a tedious set of religious rituals slavishly (and sometimes militantly) followed by a stiffnecked people who did not accept the Christ and his gospel. This historic covenant, given by the hand of God himself and second only to the fulness of the gospel as an avenue to righteousness, should be seen rather as the unparalleled collection of types, shadows, symbols, and prefigurations of Christ that it is. For that reason it was once (and still is, in its essence and purity) a guide to spirituality, a gateway to Christ, a path of strict commandment-keeping that would, through the laws of duty and decency, lead to higher laws of holiness on the way to immortality and eternal life. …
“… It is crucial to understand that the law of Moses was overlaid upon, and thereby included, many basic parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which had existed before it. It was never intended to be something apart or separated from, and certainly not something antagonistic to, the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and theNew Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book ofMormon [1997], 136–37, 147; see also 2 Nephi 11:4; Mosiah 16:14–15).
Mosiah 14:5. Healing through the Atonement
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles testified of the healing we can receive because of the Savior’s suffering during His Atonement:
“What peace, what comfort this great gift is which comes through the loving grace of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. …
“… Even though His life was pure and free of sin, He paid the ultimate penalty for sin—yours, mine, and everyone who has ever lived. His mental, emotional, and spiritual anguish were so great they caused Him to bleed from every pore (see Luke 22:44; D&C 19:18). And yet Jesus suffered willingly so that we might all have the opportunity to be washed clean—through having faith in Him, repenting of our sins, being baptized by proper priesthood authority, receiving the purifying gift of the Holy Ghost by confirmation, and accepting all other essential ordinances. Without the Atonement of the Lord, none of these blessings would be available to us, and we could not become worthy and prepared to return to dwell in the presence of God” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Atonement and the Value of One Soul,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2004, 84–85).