The Conditions of Mortality
Background and Student Reading
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 David A Bednar
Things as They Really Are, Ensign, June 2010, 16-25
David A Bednar
The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality, Ensign, Apr. 2012, 40-47
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 2 Nephi 2:27-29; Mosiah 3:19; 16:3-6; Moses 6:49, 53-55; Abraham 3:25
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Elevated Learning
As you go through this institute lesson make notes in your study journal of the things that impress on your mind and heart and expand your personal understanding. Take the time to review these notes and share with others after the lesson. This is an important part of your elevated learning experience and will help the gospel of Jesus Christ get down into your heart and contribute to your successful graduation of this institute course.
Have we ever really considered why having a physical body is so important? Do we really understand why a body is so central to the Father's plan of happiness? Do we perhaps recite this answer so frequently and routinely that we fail to recognise its true importance? I would like for us to dig a bit deeper into this eternally important question about why a body is so important. Ultimately the answer affects everything we do.
David A Bednar
Ye Are the Temple of God, Ensign, Sept. 2001, 14
Questions
Why are our physical bodies so important to Heavenly Father's plan of happiness?
Why is it important to learn about this?
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.
(The Family: A Proclamation to the World)
Questions
Why is a physical body necessary for our eternal progression?
Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal estate. President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has taught, 'Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character.' Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognise and act in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In the classroom of mortality, we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, 'according to the flesh.'
David A Bednar
Things as They Really Are, Ensign, June 2010, 16
Questions
Why is the physical body essential for our eternal progression?
In what ways are our bodies 'an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character?'
Read the following scriptures:
Abraham 3:25
2 Nephi 2:27-29
Questions
How is having a body a blessing to our mortal test?
How does choosing the 'will of the flesh' give the Devil power over us?
And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men must repent and be baptised in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden. Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.
(Moses 6:53-54)
Questions
What does this teach us about the our condition at the time of being born?
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever... "
(Mosiah 3:19)
Questions
What is the natural man?
Why is the natural man an enemy to God?
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
(Mosiah 3:19)
Questions
How can a person discern what the Holy Ghost is prompting them to do?
How has the Holy Ghost helped you to put off the natural man?
Thus all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state. But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God. And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.
(Mosiah 16:4-6)
Questions
What will help us overcome the Fall in our lives?
What provision in Heavenly Father's plan enables us to overcome our fallen nature?
Every appetite, desire, propensity, and impulse of the natural man may be overcome by and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are here on the earth to develop godlike qualities and to bridle all of the passions of the flesh.
David A Bednar
We Believe in Being Chaste, Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 43
Questions
How can the attributes of Christ bless our families?
How might developing one or more of these attributes enable the power of the Saviour's grace to help us become a better family member?
The precise nature of the test of mortality, then, can be summarised in the following question: Will I respond to the inclinations of the natural man, or will I yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and put off the natural man and become a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord. That is the test.
David A Bednar
We Believe in Being Chaste, 43.
Questions
Which Christlike attributes would you like to develop?
1. Our mortal experience is essential for eternal life
2. The natural man is an enemy to God
3. Applying the atonement of Christ
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The Eternal Family
