Holy is the Goal

(From talk given in sacrament meeting March 10, 2024)

God's plan for our salvation is absolutely yummy. The technical scriptural term is 'delicious.'

Every great missionary in the Book of Mormon teaches it by teaching the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Creation - the need for a home away from our heavenly home - to develop our preference for light and goodness.

Fall - the need for a place which included opposition - creating resistance for us to push against, and creating a gap between earth and heaven which cannot be breached.

Atonement - only Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice made it possible to breach the gap between the stains of a fallen earth and our heavenly home.

Jesus Christ's atonement provides restoration - a way to recover God's fallen family - "all as at first" (Hymn #2 - "The Spirit of God"), but with the invaluable learning experience of mortality.

We gain access to all the blessings and promises of Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice by entering a covenant relationship with Him and Heavenly Father. This is how we receive infinite power from Jesus Christ - the power to change.

To grow.

Though a covenant is often compared to an earthly contract, we don't sign documents to ratify entering a covenant relationship the way we do in human contractual relationships.

Instead, we participate in ordinances.

Covenants are private and personal with God - but they're made official and must be ratified by an ordinance - performed by someone authorized - the way documents are formalized by being witnessed and signed by a notary. Ordinances must be performed by one in authority. This authority comes from the Author of the covenant. He is the one who sets the terms.

The word ordinance comes from the Latin word 'ordinare' - to put in order. Heavenly Father is a God of order:

"Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion." (D&C 132:8)

Participating in ordinances is a sign we are still willing to be in a covenant relationship according to the original terms of the covenant - even though we can never perform this with the same honor and fidelity which God does. Even putting the word 'willing' into the ordinance (of the sacrament) is like fine print in the contract. This is how God acknowledges He knows full well we are incapable of honoring the covenant at the same level He does.

Upon entering a covenant relationship, we agree to go through the process of sanctification - God's self-improvement program designed for us to become like Him. That is His desired end result - that we become what He is - holy. A scriptural name for God the Father is 'Man of Holiness' (Moses 6:57).

Like Naaman (2 Kings 5), who was instructed by Elisha to bathe in the Jordan River seven times, we need the whole process of sanctification. With our limited knowledge, and because God's program of sanctification takes a lifetime, we can be tempted to abandon the process, thinking it isn't working. What would have happened had Naaman given up after his second washing? Or third? Or fifth? How lovely that God teaches this powerful lesson of finishing the process in this story - by making Naaman's requirement be the scriptural number of completion, or perfection - seven.

Elder David A. Bednar has reminded us of the teachings of David O. McKay, who taught that the purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good, and good men better. He references these two steps to Mosiah 3:19:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man, and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Baptism and weekly partaking of the sacrament are the preparatory ordinances of the Aaronic priesthood. They aren't preparatory for Aaronic priesthood holders - they're preparatory for us - those going through the sanctification process. They prepare us for the covenants and higher ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood.

Baptism starts the process. The sacrament is the 'rinse & repeat' step in the process - even after higher temple covenants have been made.

In his April 2007 general conference talk, "Ye Must Be Born Again," Elder David A. Bednar compares the process of a cucumber becoming a pickle to the transformation a human being goes through in the sanctification process. In describing the pickling process, he uses such symbmolic phrases as:

• Precise procedures

• Steady, sustained, and complete immersion is required for the desired change to occur

• Gradually alters the composition of the cucumber

• Sealing... in jars that have been sterilized and purified... so the finished product can be protected and preserved [For us - that sealing protects us not just from evil, but from the very glory of God! This sealing process is what enables us to abide being in the very presence of God (D&C 88:22).]

• None of the essential steps can be ignored or avoided

The end result of the pickling process transforms an ordinary cucumber into a pickle.

The end result of the sanctification process makes humans holy - as our Father and God is holy.

Father's plan is to have us enter a covenant relationship and participate in this process of sanctification so we become clean again, we lose our desire for the things of this world and the flesh through practice, and we become holy as He is.

The process is described in Moses 6:59-60 and 62:

"...by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;

"For by the water ye keep the commandment [baptism]; by the Spirit ye are justified [receiving the Spirit through obedience is how we are justified and walk clean, even in our imperfections], and by the blood ye are sanctified [Jesus Christ's atoning blood is the act which gives power to sanctify];...

"And now I say unto you THIS is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time."

With baptism, the water itself has no power to make us clean.

With the sacrament, the bread and water have no no power to make us clean, or keep us clean.

These are symbols only. The ordinances are the way we say we are taking seriously the entering into the covenant relationship. They continue to tell the Lord we are willing.

Willing - again - that fine print word which shows the Lord is fully aware of our inability to meet the terms of the covenant with the perfection He has.

The power comes from Jesus Christ and His sacrificial blood. This is the power which brings the remission of sins and gradually, over time, makes us holy.

We bring faith and repentance to the waters of baptism and to the sacrament table for the rest of our lives. This is what enables Jesus Christ to make us clean, allows us to walk blameless as we continue to mess up, and eventually transforms us and makes us holy.

The sacrament follows the pattern of the tabernacle of ancient Israel:

• Our meeting houses - the outer court

• Our chapels - our holy place - the chapel is an ordinance room deserving of our highest reverence

• The sacrament time of our sacrament meetings - the Holy of Holies

Elder Kyle S. McKay of the Seventy spoke in our January 2016 stake conference [Murray Utah Little Cottonwood Stake]. He compared the sacrament table, covered in a white cloth, to a body laid out at a memorial service. He said even the Aaronic priesthood bearers - bearers of the tokens of His sacrifice - are symbolic of pall bearers - taking the Lord's remains to their final resting place - our hearts.

How do we know if the process is working - if God is accepting our end of the covenant?

What does He promise us?

To have His Spirit to be with us.

Paul teaches in Ephesians 1:13-14:

"In whom ye also trusted [Christ], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,

"Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."

We are the purchased possession - purchased with the blood of the perfect Lamb. Feeling the Holy Ghost, even once in a while on the way to constant companionship, is the Lord's way of giving 'earnest money' on our inheritance. This is how He promises us: He means to follow through with the entire transaction - the entire process of sanctification until we regain His presence.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ - the good news and good word. It is delicious.

Alma ends his powerful sermon on this word - which must be planted by faith - with this promise:

"And now, my beloved brethren [and sisters], I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of His Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen." (Alma 33:23)