In his discourse to his son Jacob about the Fall, Lehi said:
Adam fell that men
might be; and men are, that they might have joy. (2 Nephi 2:25)
What is the "joy" spoken of there? As Brant Gardner notes, it
appears to be more focused on eschatological joy, not temporal joy we
experience currently in mortality:
“Joy” in Joseph Smith’s scriptural vocabulary
is a state that transcends mortality. For example, in the story of Ammon, King
Lamoni offers a simple but sincere prayer, falls to the ground, and is presumed
dead. Ammon, however, “knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; . . .
the light of the glory of God . . . had infused such joy into his soul . ..
that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God” (Alma
19:6). Thus, “joy” is the physiologically overwhelming result that occurs when
the light of God’s glory is infused into human consciousness.
When Ammon and his brothers were reunited with
their father after their mission, they experienced a spiritual outpouring,
described as “the joy of [their] God,” a divine infusion so debilitating that
Ammon’s strength was “exhaust[ed] . . . and he fell again to the earth.” Mormon
comments: “Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none
receiveth, save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma
27:17-18). Mormon exults: “And this is the account of Ammon and his brethren, .
. . their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy” (Alma
28:8).
These men are filled, not with mortal
happiness, but with an aspect of eternal glory. The joy that Mosiah2
and his sons taste is a portion of the joy of the Lord, which can be experienced
completely only after this life. Christ told his twelve apostles in the New
World: “And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down
in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father
hath given me fulness of joy” (3 Nephi 28:10).
Doctrine and Covenants 101:36 corroborates: “Wherefore,
fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me
your joy is full.” Although Mosiah2 and Ammon are filled (“swallowed up”) with “joy,”
a “fulness of joy” can be attained only in the next life. Doctrine and
Covenants 93:33-34 explains: “For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and
spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when
separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.”
“Fulness of joy” can be achieved only when “spirit
and element” (or body) become inseparably connected. When are body and element
inseparably connected? After the resurrection. “Fulness of joy” is a state of joy in the glory of God, part of the eternal joy that comes through our
progression toward godhood.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:34 also explains
why mortality is essential: “When separated, man cannot receive a fulness of
joy.” The equation is simple. “Men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25).
Knowing the eternal nature of joy, this passage becomes the exact equivalent of
Moses 1:39: “This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and
eternal life of man.” When human beings achieve eternal life, they will also
achieve a “fulness of joy.” The physical body, reunited with the spirit at the
resurrection, is necessary to allow a fulness of joy.
Doctrine and Covenants 93 also allows us to
deduce a third state—body and spirit being “separably” connected, or mortality.
In this state, human beings may temporarily taste eternal joy. In ways that we
do not understand, the body appears to act as an intensifier for these
spiritual feelings, giving us brief experiences hat rapidly overwhelm the
physical body but which prefigures the glorious joy that awaits the righteous. Mormon, Volume 2: Second Nephi – Jacob [Salt
Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 52-53)
