Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie on New Birth and Covenant Adoption



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)