So this is my second entry about what Jesus Christ means to me. I'll get right to the subject matter and go from there.
Second - Power
As I have been trying to learn more about Him, posting about Him on facebook and making Him the focus of my scripture studies, one thing has become more clear to me about Him, His power. Power over sin and over death.
Power can be a really good thing and a really bad thing, depending on how it's used. It can be the most effective means of destruction, addiction and evil but it can also be the most effective means of healing, sanctification, edification, and, as is God's design for us, perfection and exaltation.
There was a talk I heard once about the Atonement of Christ that explained God's power and how both He and His Son Jesus Christ got their power. In modern revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants we learn, in section 29, that God's honor is His power. The honor the elements of the universe give Him is His power. How did Christ get this honor? He earned it!
Let me explain this with the following anecdote. I have referred to a talk by Brad Wilcox about grace in previous posts, but in His talk, Brad addresses an accusation that many people put on Latter-Day Saints and addresses it with a very thought provoking response. The accusation is, perhaps paraphrased "you Mormon's think you can just earn your way to heaven." His response was awesome. He said "No, we are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven." We cannot hope in the least, in our weakened mortal condition, to merit anything for ourselves. We do not earn anything God gives us in this life, we may qualify for it by living like Jesus did and, because of His merits, receive and even deserve good things because of Him, but we do not earn any of it. We qualify through obedience to receive what He has already purchased with His blood, heart and soul, so we truly have much to be grateful to Him for.
On the other hand, Christ actually lived His life flawlessly. He was prepared before the world was made to fill His role as our Redeemer, to live in such a way that literally earned Him the power He had to retake His body after He died, and to put Himself in the Authoritative position as the Mediator between the us and the Justice of the Father. He earned the power, by the way He believed, thought, sacrificed, spoke, and acted (and still does) from moment to moment to be that person for us. The most glorious part of this, to me, is that His power is not just meant to be effective for Him. His entire purpose in living and suffering the way He did was so that He could have the power to save us from our mortal condition! Even God the Father said, "...this is my work and my glory - the bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." The whole reason Christ was prepared to earn His power is to give us access to that power, the infinite power of God!
Now, to the man point of this post. As I just pointed out, we have full access to Jesus' divine power. So what does that mean? First, since He is now in a position to act as an advocate for us, we can have His power to receive help directly from God in even the most minute struggles we face, from the little annoyances like loosing our keys, to receiving peace during bigger struggles, like when we or a loved one are suffering from a life threatening condition. He also can give us the power to forgive and find peace in how we feel towards others. We have the power to be happy even when things are rough, communicate with our Father in Heaven, be inspired, learn about new ideas and gain new skills, and most importantly, change to be like Him, live with our Father and have the capacity to enjoy the depth of happiness that He does.
Jesus Christ, to me, means the power to change, live, learn and understand, grow and improve, and the two most synonymous concepts in any language, to love and to be happy.
