My Savior, Jesus Christ. A Real Person.

(disclaimer: this is possibly the most jumbled and scatterbrained and grammatically odd thing I have ever written. But be that as it may, I had thoughts. They were powerful to me, and -- even though that power is undoubtedly NOT communicated effectively in this post -- take it for what you will. If nothing more, just think for a moment about your Savior and what He means to you. Because that's really all this is. My Savior and what He means to me).

For tonight's post, no fluff. No centering certain text. No bolding/italicizing/capitalizing important words. Because I very simply have some words to share, and I don't want any "fluff" to distract me from writing them.

First of all, as proof of how important these words are to me, I am leaving town for two weeks tomorrow morning and I'm not even packed. My homework is due at midnight and I'm not even done with it. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've had quite the ridiculously aweomse day. One of the most productive I've ever had. But nonetheless, I am left with still lots to do and there are technically only 2 hours left in the "official" day of Saturday.

But still... I had thoughts. And I've just gotta share them. But probably this is more just for the sake of getting them written down. Becuase these are those kind of thoughts that come into your head and you know right then and there that you really really don't want to forget them. Ever.

So, thoughts:

While doing my Book of Mormon class homework, I was reading in 3 Nephi. These are the chapters where Christ comes to visit. Oh goodness, so many glorious stories and feelings and moments of feeling the Spirit. So many words that could be said about that wonderful passage of scriptures. But those are not precisely the things I even want to write about.

The point is, they got me thinking about Christ. A lot. And I really started thinking about Him as the real person that He is. As I person I have known before being on this earth and I will be with again after leaving it.

And then came the part in my homework where I had to memorize a passage of scripture. I could choose my own scripture to memorize, so long as it was about the atonement. For some reason I flipped the pages over to the Bible Dictionary. Every now and then I like to read those passages. They are just very interesting and often provide wonderful summaries of beautiful doctrines and principles.

And so to the Bible Dictionary I went. And this is what I read:

"Jesus Christ, as the Only Begotten Son of God and the only sinless person to live on this earth, was the only one capable of making an atonement for mankind. By his selection and foreordination in the Grand Council before this world was formed, his diving Sonship, his sinless life, and the shedding of his blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, his death on the cross and subsequent bodily resurrection from the grave, he made a perfect atonement for all mankind."

...and the thoughts started flowing. And then just. kept. flowing.

Keep in mind here that I had already been having wonderful feelings about Christ being a real person. Because that overtone made all the difference when reading this.

"...the only sinless person to live on this earth...."
Wow. Sinless. Never yielding to temptation. Ever. Not even once. He was perfect, because he had to be. He had to be "capable of making an atonement for mankind."

And then the first big thought/realization came to me.
Realization #1 --
He was perfect BECAUSE he had to be. He volunteered and was selected to be our Savior BEFORE the world. He wasn't called BECAUSE He was perfect. He was called, and then CHOSE to be perfect in order to fulfill His responsibility. So often I think of Him as being the only one eligible to perform the Atonement as our Savior. But this is my new way of thinking about it: He was the one who made the right choice EVERY MINUTE OF HIS LIFE, and THAT made Him eligible. He CHOSE it, and He followed through...

...and that was no small task. That is something I learned in a realization a few minutes later while studying the same words.

"...the only sinless person to live on this earth...."

Realization #2 --
...this earth. THIS one. This is the earth He lived on. This earth scares me sometimes. This earth scares me most of the time, actually. So much can and does go wrong. And THIS is where He was perfect. THIS is where He CHOSE to never sin. THIS is where He never ever ever once yielded to temptation...
THIS earth.

He is a real person. He was human. In the scriptures, we learn that on this earth we "real people" are given temptations and weaknesses so that we can overcome them through our righteous choices and become strong. Same goes for Him. We learn that we are put through afflictions even when we're doing the right things, so that we can be tested in our faith. Same goes for Him. We learn that there is a universal law of opposites: misery and happiness. Bitter and sweet. Right and wrong. Salvation and punishment. That is just the way things go. We learn that unto whom much is given (such as an earthly responsibility) much is required (such as enduring through a whole bunch of muddy and messy affliction)....

Same goes for Him.

Which brings me to realization #3 --
He was GIVEN the biggest responsibility: to be perfect so that He could perform the Atonement for all of mankind (talk about pressure).
And so, based on "opposition in all things," He must have also had more REQUIRED of Him than any other. He faced more temptation, more persecution, more pain... not to mention all the temptaion, persecution, pain, sin, and sickness of EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT EVER LIVED ON THIS EARTH.
Whenever I think of that, it is so beyond comprehension that it seems so other-wordly. So foreign.
But then I remember: He is a REAL PERSON.

He was like you and me. But the difference is what He chose to be.

And that is quite the choice. And it made quite the difference.



And it makes quite the difference to me.