The New Birth and Covenant Adoption
Deliverance from this state-redemption from spiritual
death--is made available only through the labors of a God, through the magisterial
ministry of one mightier than death, one upon whom justice had no claims and
death had no hold. But deliverance is not a given, not something that may be
had without effort and without price. In order to be released from carnality
and restored to righteousness, men and women must exercise saving faith in
Jesus Christ and thus receive the blessings of the Atonement: they must
"put off the natural man" through Christ, must "crucify the old
man of sin" and rise through their Redeemer unto a "newness of
life" (see Mosiah 3:19; Romans 6:6).
Because people are not born in mortality into
the family of God, because on earth man is estranged by the fall from holiness,
he must be adopted into that family--must comply with the laws of adoption,
must meet the lawful requirements. This is accomplished through subscribing to
and receiving what Joseph Smith called the "articles of adoption,"
the first principles and ordinances of the gospel (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 328).
"Faith, repentance, baptism and the
laying on of hands," wrote Elder Orson Pratt, "are the four rules of
adoption. Remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, are the two
blessings of adoption which are inseparably connected with obedience to the
rules. Both the rules and the blessings of adoption are the same in all ages
and dispensations of the gospel. No man or woman ever entered into the Church
or kingdom of God on this earth, and became a legal citizen thereof, without
complying strictly with these rules. Indeed, it is the only door or entrance
into the kingdom." ("The Kingdom of God," in Orson Pratt's Works, p. 48.) Further, as
a person receives the ordinances of salvation and thereafter enjoys the gift
and influence of the Holy Ghost, he is said to have been "born
again," to have risen above spiritual death unto spiritual life, to have
come alive to the things of the Spirit.
As the Savior and foreordained Messiah, Jesus
our Lord became the "author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
him" (Hebrews 5:9), and the Father's gospel--the gospel of God (see Romans
1:1-3)--because his, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ is the father of salvation,
the father of resurrection, and the father of redemption. He is also the King
of kings, and spiritual adoption represents acceptance into his family kingdom.
Those who have been born again become members of the family of Christ and thus
take upon them the family name--they become Christians in the true senses of
that word and are obliged by covenant to live by the rules and regulations of
the royal family, to live a life befitting the new and sacred name they have
taken. (Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie, In His Holy Name [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988], 17-19)