14 And now behold, I
ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of
God? Have ye received his image in your
countenances? Have ye experienced this
mighty change in your hearts?
15 Do ye exercise
faith in the redemption of him who created you?
Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body
raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand
before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the
mortal body?
16 I say unto you, can
you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you,
in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the
works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?
17 Or do ye imagine to
yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works
have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?
18 Or otherwise, can
ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled
with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance
of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the
commandments of God?
19 I say unto you, can
ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image
of God engraven upon your countenances?
Alma 5:14-19
Alma continues to speak to the people of Zarahemla.
Have ye been
spiritually born of God?
Have ye received
his image in your countenance?
Have ye
experience
this might change
a change in your hearts.
Referring to being born of God, Alma could have been
referring back to his conversion experience.
“And the Lord said unto me: Marvel
not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and
people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen
state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons
and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this,
they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. I say unto you, unless this be
the case, they must be cast off; and this I know, because I was like to be cast
off” (Mosiah 27:25-27).
This also hearkens back to the words of Kin Benjamin. “And
they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou
hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of
the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or
in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good
continually” (Mosiah 5:2).
“If our hearts are set too much upon the things of this
world, they may need to be wrenched, or broken, or undergo a mighty change.”[1]
Rather than speaking to those still
outside the church, Paul speaks, according to the Joseph Smith Translation, to
those who have already been baptized, those who have already accepted the
gospel and its obligations. It is they who stand in need of conversion, not to
Christianity, but within Christianity to genuine faith in Christ. They are
already Christians in name, but now they need to be sanctified; in other words,
they need to become fully Christian. The work of Paul is much the same as that
of Alma (see Alma 5:14–42), namely, calling those within the church to
recognize the full meaning of their membership.[2]
Do ye
exercise faith
in the redemption
of
him who created you?
Do you look
forward
with an eye of faith
and view this
mortal body
raised in immortality,
and this corruption raised
in incorruption,
to stand before God
to be judged
according to the
deeds
which have been done
in the mortal
body?
Alma then asks them to imagine you are standing before the
Lord when he calls on all righteous people to come to Him. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world” (Matthew 25:34). Or… do you
think you can lie to the Lord? Do you think you can claim you are righteous and
that will save you?
The reality is when the wicked stand before God, they will
have a perfect remembrance of their guilt.
The scriptures have made that clear.
“And
there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been
defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils
that ye have committed” (Ezekiel 20:43).
“Wherefore,
we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and
our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their
enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with
the robe of righteousness” (2 Nephi 9:14).
“O,
all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can
understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might
understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation
of those that have fallen into transgression” (Mosiah 2:40).
“And
if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and
abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord
into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more
return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls” (Mosiah 3:25).
“The
spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and
joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time;
and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and
have a bright recollection of all our guilt” (Alma 11:43).
Then Alma asks,
Can ye look
up
to God
at
that day
with a pure
heart
and
clean hands?
…can you look
up
having
the image
of
God engraven
upon
your countenances?
Think about the question for a moment. Imagine standing before the Lord having
obeyed His commandments and found yourself worthy to enter into His
kingdom. Can you even imagine the joy at
that moment? Can you imagine standing in
the presence of Christ, basking in His spirit?
That is what Alma promises us if we are righteous.
[1] “Swallowed
Up in the Will of the Father,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell, October 1995 General
Conference.
[2] Romans
1 – Verses 8–15, Maxwell Institute, accessed February 5, 2015.
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