Sunday, April 17, 2022

George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl on Jesus' Uniqueness and not Being Merely Just One of Us

Commenting on Mosiah 15:4, Reynolds and Sjodahl offered the following note:


The Son. There is a tendency among modern professors of Christianity to accept the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus, on the slippery ground that every human is divine. This, they argue, follows from the fact that all nature is permeated by the divine, supreme essence. In one sense, they say, all men are divine, and Christ is no more divine than we all are, or that all existing creatures are, for that matter. The only difference between Him and us, in their view, is this, that He realized He was Divine, while we hope to be able to realize our divinity—some day.

 

 

It is not denied that there is some truth in the conception of a universal divinity. We are all God’s children. But Christ is much more than a child among children. He is the Creator, our Savior, or Redeemer, the Captain of our Salvation, the Mediator between the Father and the rest of God’s children. And that is a great difference. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976], 2:166-67)

 

Further Reading


Blake Ostler on Christology and Christification in Mosiah 15 and D&C 93