That we do have our free agency
was gloriously exemplified by Jesus in the temptation scene. Jesus, Matthew
records, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
He had fasted forty days and nights and was hungry. The tempter bade him turn
the stones into bread, but Jesus refused, saying, "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Then the devil took him into the holy city and set him on a pinnacle of the
temple. "If thou be the Son of God," he said to Jesus, "cast
thyself down: for it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash
thy foot against a stone.'
Jesus answered the tempter,
saying: "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
Finally, the devil took Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain and gave him a
panoramic view of all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said
to Jesus : "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me." Jesus' answer has tolled through the ages: "Get thee
hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve." (See Matt. 4:1-10.)
From this example we learn that
man is a free spirit with power to will his own destiny. God made man free.
Man, however, is much too frequently unable to use his free agency judiciously.
(Leland H. Monson, “Behold,
many are called–but few are chosen,” The Improvement Era 67, no. 10
[October 1964]: 836; this is another example that Latter-day Saints do not
believe in the impeccability of Jesus)
