Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The Sufferings of Jesus Being Necessary for His Exaltation


As to whether the Savior has got a body or not is no question with those who possess the gift and power of the Holy Ghost and are endowed with the Holy Priesthood; they know that He was a man in the flesh and is now a man in the heavens; He was a man subject to sin, to temptation, and to weaknesses; but He is now a man that is above all this-a man in perfection. (Brigham Young | JOD 11:42, January 8, 1865)

I have always looked upon the life of our Savior-who descended beneath all things that He might rise above all things -as an example for His followers. And yet it has always, in one sense of the word, seemed strange to me that the Son of God, the first begotten in the eternal worlds of the Father and the only begotten in the flesh, should have to descend to the earth and pass through what He did-born in a stable, cradled in a manger, persecuted, afflicted, scorned, a hiss and byword to almost all the world and especially to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea. There was apparently nothing that the Savior could do that was acceptable in the eyes of the world; anything and almost everything He did was imputed to an unholy influence. When He cast out devils the people said He did it through the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils; when He opened the eyes of the blind, the Pharisees and priests of the day told the man to give God the glory; we know this man is a sinner." And so all His life through, to the day of His death upon the cross. There is something about all this that appears sorrowful; but it seemed necessary for the Savior to descend below all things that He might ascend above all things. So it has been with other men. (Wilford Woodruff | JOD 23:327, December 10, 1882)

We all know that no one ever lived upon the earth that exerted the same influence upon the destinies of the world as did our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and yet He was born in obscurity, cradled in a manger. He chose for His apostles poor, unlettered fishermen. More than nineteen hundred years have passed and gone since His crucifixion, and yet all over the world, in spite of all strife and chaos, there is still burning in the hearts of millions of people a testimony of the divinity of the work that He accomplished. (Heber J. Grant, Improvement Era 43:713, December, 1940)



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